Healthy Banana Cake

Well you guys know that I love a good banana based treat. Somehow they always end up sitting in the fruit bowl looking sad. However, nowadays I've been trying to veer towards a healthier lifestyle. So I've created a version of my favourite banana bread with less fat and sugar. 

I replaced regular flour with buckwheat. This is a great gluten-free alternative and apparently it's good for digestion - yay! I've also used coconut oil and peanut butter to replace some of the butter and maple syrup to replace the sugar.

Now this cake is not 100% guilt free - there's still a small amount of dark muscavado sugar, and also some Bertolli margarine. But it's definitely better than your standard banana bread.

I sort of made this up as I went along, but it turned out really well and was very happy with the end result. 

The main ingredients you'll need for this cake

Ingredients 

250g Buckwheat Flour

1 Tsp Baking Powder

2 Tbsp Muscavado Sugar

50g Margarine 

50g Coconut Oil (and a little extra to grease the tin)

2 Eggs

30g Peanut Butter

4 Overripe Bananas

4 Tbsp Maple Syrup

50g Almond Flakes (Or whatever nuts you have in the cupboard)

1. Place the buckwheat flour, baking powder and muscavado sugar into a bowl. Give it a quick stir to make sure there aren't any lumps. Then add the margarine and coconut oil. Again give it a mix (only roughly, it won't combine at this point. 

2. Add the peanut butter, mixing again and then the eggs. Give it all a good mix in either a kitchen aid or an electric whisk until it's fully combined.

3. In a separate bowl mash the bananas and the maple syrup together. Then add these to the batter by folding it in. Finally add the almonds (or any other nut alternatives) and dried fruit if you wish, I added some dates here to give that little extra sweetness.

4. Place in a greased tin and bake at 150c for around 45 mins, or until a shard knife comes out almost clean.

5. Wait for it to cool on a wire rack, and then enjoy with a cup of tea. Nomnom!