Raspberry and Banana Mini Cakes

My 10yo wanted to bake a delicious and pretty afternoon tea treat.  After some tinkering and experimenting we came up with these light morsels which went down very well for afternoon tea.  Our first two attempts were edible but not light or particularly delicious so it was a lesson in patience and perseverance for my 10yo and great practice for her recipe development skills.  In the end we decided to add the raspberries part way through the baking process to avoid them sinking and causing soggy bottoms, the GBBO crew would not have been amused!

Raspberry and Banana Mini Cakes

125g butter

125m milk, we used semi-skimmed

2 medium free range eggs

220g caster sugar

1 large over-ripe banana, mashed

225g self raising flour

100g frozen raspberries

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan.  Line a 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases or use disposable mini loaf cases like we did.

Put the milk and butter into a small saucepan over a low heat and stir until the butter has only just melted.  Take off the heat and set aside to cool.

Beat the eggs using electric beaters or a stand mixer until they reach the ribbon stage.  Ribbon-stage is describes the texture of an egg-and-sugar mixture that has been beaten until pale and extremely thick.   When you lift the the beater or whisk, the batter falls slowly back onto the surface of the mixture forming a ribbon-like pattern that stays on the surface for a few seconds before sinking back into the batter.  Keep beating as you gradually add the sugar a little at a time.  Make sure each addition of sugar has dissolved before you add more.  This will take a while but persevere, you will end up with a lovely mousse like mixture.

Once all the sugar has been added you can fold through the mashed banana.  Add half the flour and half of the butter and milk mixture.  Fold in gently but thoroughly. Once completely combined add the remainder of the flour and the rest of the butter and milk mixture.  Fold through carefully until completely incorporated.

Divide the mixture evenly between the mini loaf cases or muffin cases.  Bake the cakes for 10 minutes, take them out of the oven and push a few raspberries in to the top of each one.  Bake for 15 minutes more.  If you have made muffins cool them in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out on to a wire rack to cool completely.  One the mini cakes or muffins are cool dust them  with a little icing sugar then serve.