Banana & passionfruit cake

New friends may be exciting and novel, but old friends are comforting and familiar; bananas are one of my oldest and most visited friends.

In the beginning I enjoyed their mushy cloying sweetness before my first tooth had pierced my gum and established itself like a peg on a clothesline.
When I was as tall as the kitchen table I ate them with my tiny hands, naked and plain.
During the years I read 'The Baby-Sitters Club' I ate them sliced, smeared in peanut butter, and skewered with wooden toothpicks.
With my shiny driver's licence in hand I ate them frozen, blended with yoghurt, soy milk and sweet vanilla protein powder, devoured by the glass to impart energy needed to listen and learn.
As a busy wife I eat them baked into reassuring mouthfuls of warm cake or muffins, perfect with a cup of soothing tea and a food magazine cradled in my lap.

Bananas have remained constant from childhood to marriage, portrayed in whatever form I feel I need. They make their way into my metal caged cart each week, carried home in reusable bags to settle into the fruit bowl. Just like dear old friends, I never tire of them.


Today is Good Friday, a day marking the death of Jesus Christ, and not long after, his resurrection. In Australia Good Friday is a public holiday, as is Easter Sunday and Monday, and whilst I do not attend church, like I did as a child, I try to use this time for reflection and prayer. I also spend it doing things that bring me joy, such as baking and spending time with too-little seen family and longtime friends.

Happy Easter to all.

Apologies for the photos - it seems the sun decided to have an early night and I missed it's rays during the shoot.

ease: 4/5.
prep time: 15mins.
cooking time: 3 hours to bake and cool cake and refrigerate icing.
total: 3 hours and 15 minutes.

taste: 4/5. My cake turned out nothing like the gorgeous one on flagrante delicia but it still tasted delicious. Super moist with a lovely sweet and tangy icing. I left the pips in the icing as I wanted some crucnh, as you get with passionfruits.

would I make it again: No - I liked the banana hazelnut cake a touch more, and 'm not sure whether this would work out even with a second try.

recipe: http://www.flagrantedelicia.com/en/cakes-muffins-and-madeleines/banana-and-passion-fruit-cake/