Banana Cinnamon Swirl loaf

I love baking and can't think of many things that create that sense of clam and contentment in a household like a freshly baked homemade cake. The weather in Lancashire is currently blustery but still fairly mild for the time of year and we have only experienced one frost so far this season, I love cooking with warming spices and cinnamon in one of my absolute favourites and thought that the addition of a cinnamon sugar swirl would work well and oh my it does. Since coming up with this twist on a basic banana loaf I have made this loaf at least 4 times already, its that good.

Its falling off a log simple to make, an easy recipe and another one for using up manky bananas, as mentioned earlier I love cinnamon and buy it in industrial quantities, just make sure that it still fragrant before baking as you want that beautiful cinnamon amours to perfume your whole house whilst you are baking.

What you need

• 3 soft ripe bananas - peeled
• 1 egg - free range
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 1/2 cup of plain flour
• 3/4 cup of granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
• 1/3 cup of melted butter or if diary free - sunflower oil

For the swirl

• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup of granulated sugar

You also need a 2lb loaf tin, lined

What you do

• Preheat the oven to 180c
• Mix the swirl ingredients together in a ramekin, put to one side.
• Mash the bananas in a large bowl with a fork until you have a smooth puree, add the vanilla to the bowl.
• In the large bowl, I use my stand mixer add all the other ingredients (except the swirl mixture) and mix until you have a smooth mixture
• Pour half of the mixture into the prepared pan and sprinkle with just over half of the cinnamon swirl mixture
• Top with the rest of the banana cake mixture, smooth level with a palette knife and then sprinkle the top with the remaining cinnamon sugar mixture.
• Bake for 50-60 minutes until the cake tests baked with a skewer
• Cool initially in the tin for 15 minutes and then cool fully on a wire rack.