she paints the kitchen red

adapted from Baking From my Home to Yours – Dorie Greenspan

3 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
225 g unsalted butter, softened (omit salt if using salted butter)
2 cups caster/fine/sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract/essence
2 eggs
about 4-5 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sour cream or plain yoghurt

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius. Generously butter a 9-10 inch bundt pan. Alternatively, you could use a 9 inch square/round tin.

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together. Working with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter till creamy. Add the sugar and beat at medium speed till pale and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla, then add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each egg goes in.

3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the bananas. Finally, mix in half the dry ingredients, all the sour cream/yoghurt and then the rest of the flour mixture. Scrape the batter into the pan, rap the pan on the counter to de-bubble the batter and smooth the top.

4. Bake for about 1 hour, or till a knife/skewer inserted deep into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Check the cake after 30 minutes – if it is browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a foil sheet. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmoulding onto the rack to cool to room temperature.

140 g butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
200 g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 can blackberries (you could use other fruit)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius. Grease bundt tin. (You could probably use a 9″ square/round tin.)

Cream together butter and sugar until light, 2 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Don’t worry if the batter doesn’t look smooth. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains. Fold in blackberries.

Pour into greased tin and bake for about 45 minutes or top is golden brown. Stand for about 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.