Making the most of your mouldy food cupboard

Next stop: Bake Off

8 years ago | UPDATED 8 years ago

Wasted food is the worst. Especially when you think you could’ve saved that £2 you spend on organic washed baby spinach, and bought you and your flatmate a shot at WhyNot.

2nd year Philosophy and Theology student, Dominique.

Using old and inedible food and making it into something yummy and edible is the best type of baking.

There’s a certain fruit that is on the top of the wasted food hit list.

BANANAS.

You buy a bunch of 5 and you only eat 2 and within a few days you’ve got 3 black things dying a horrible death in your fruit bowl.

So, why not make Banana bread?

It’s super easy, super cheap and gives you the peace of mind that you didn’t waste any of your weekly shop.

You need 140g of soft butter, 140g of caster sugar, 2 eggs, 140g self raising flour, 1 tsp of baking powder and 2-3 bananas. So first you’ve got to set your oven to 180*C, if you want you banana bread to be firmer then you could bump it up to 200*C. If you want it nice and moist you can get that by baking at 180.Once that’s all sorted the rest is really really easy. It can even been done whilst doing other errands.
Like calling your mum. Obvs.

Just chuck all the ingredients into a big bowl and mix it together with an electric whisk.

You can use a spoon but it’s going to take a lot of arm work and concentration because the mixture without the bananas is more of a…. paste.

However, it could be a way to earn your slice at the end. Once its done the ‘paste’ mixture should look like this.

After that’s all done you need to mash the bananas.

You can use a fork – if you’re a princess, or your hands – if you’re a professional.

This bit gets a bit gross because you’re basically fondling a sort of rotten moldy banana pulp.

But it’s worth it because the blacker and grosser the bananas, the sweeter and moister the banana bread.

Alternatively if you’re using an electric whisk you can just chuck them in – as shown above. But it means you don’t get to do the immature childish bit that takes you back to being 6 years old.

Once all bananas are well combined… always have a cheeky taste of the mixture – or two.

This is to just check everything is going well and who doesn’t like to try raw cake mixture?!

Then grab a piece of kitchen roll, or baking paper or tin foil and a knob of butter and grease the loaf tin. You can probably bake it in most tins, but if you want the classic shape you can get yourself a loaf tin from Tiger for £3.

Make sure the tin is properly greased. Some people will prefer to use baking paper, but that can be a bit fiddly.

After that put your mixture into your tin and pop it into the oven.

Then lick the beaters and the bowl while you wait for the banana bread to bake.

It will probably take 45 – 50 minutes. However, baking time is relevant to what consistency you like your banana bread.

If you want it gooey and a bit sticky, it needs anywhere from 30-35 minutes and if you want it moist but firm with a crisp outside, then 45-50 minutes is the baking time for you.

You can test your cake at any point by using a kebab stick or anything sharp and metallic. Stick it into the cake and if the stick comes out of the cake clean, then it’s baked all the way through.

And ready to munch on.

Munch away.

But only if you’re an absolute nutter.

Here you just mix a bit of cream cheese, a bit of water and some icing sugar until you’ve got a runny icing and pour over the load while still a bit hot.

You could also add nuts inside or on top, or a touch of cinnamon, when you find yourself with old bananas every week you’ve got to get a bit creative.

Give it a go. Go bananas.