Oats and bananas

I have a habit of bringing home random items of food as souvenirs from exotic places or from interesting shops I come across on my day to day travels. Usually I have in mind some great new recipe to try them out but often they are pushed to the back of the shelf in our rather well stocked larder. A packet of whole sun dried bananas from Vietnam is one such ingredient. They don't look much but dried bananas (not the 'chips' you often see in trail mixes) are dark and chewy with an almost toffee sweetness and are a great source of concentrated energy. I've been thinking a lot about ideas for a cake to use as a kind of home made 'power bar' for M on his cycling trips rather than the somewhat dubious offerings that are commonly sold from bike shops. Combining bananas and oats provides slow release energy perfect for cycling. This cake is not very sweet and I used coconut sugar which is made from the sap of flower buds from the coconut palm. This is an unrefined sugar substitute and has a much lower GI than regular sugar. If you can't find this then light brown muscovado sugar is a good alternative (and feel free to up the content if wanting a sweeter cake). The vanilla is optional too but also acts as a natural sweetener.

Oat and banana loaf

100g coconut sugar (or light muscovado)
60ml sunflower oil
180ml buttermilk
1 free range egg
2 tsps natural vanilla extract
3 medium bananas, mashed
250g self raising wholemeal spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
150g rolled oats
100g sun dried bananas

For the topping
50g rolled oats
1 tbsp demerara sugar
1 tbsp sunflower oil

Heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a one pound loaf tin with baking parchment. Whisk together the sugar, sunflower oil, buttermilk, egg, vanilla extract and mashed bananas until well combined and frothy. Sift in the flour and baking powder, then add the oats and dried bananas and fold in until just combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tin. Mix together the oats, demerara sugar and oil for the topping and pour on top of the cake batter, pressing down lightly. Bake for 1 hour and ten minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes away clean. Cool on a rack, removing the cake from the tin as soon as it's cool enough to handle.

I'm sure this cake will keep fine in a tin for 3-4 days though I can't verify it as my resident cyclist loved it and it didn't last beyond day 2.....