You will never need another banana cake recipe once you have tried this. It’s so easy rustle up and is the perfect way to get rid of the bananas browning in your fruit bowl. The finished result is a sticky sweet banana bread that’s still spongy and light, perfect served hot with ice cream or custard, or enjoy cold with a cup of tea.

• 130g butter, softened
• 100g golden caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
• 2 medium eggs
• 3 medium ripe bananas, well mashed or pureed using a hand blender
• 45 ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla bean extract
• 100g dark chocolate, broken into small chunks
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 250g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch of salt
• 3 tbsp maple syrup

Preheat your oven to 180C and butter a small deep baking tray. Using a wooden spoon, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Now crack in the eggs, add the mashed/pureed banana, milk and vanilla extract and beat until until smooth.

Into the wet mix pour the chocolate chunks, cinnamon, self-raising flour, baking powder and salt and gently mix until all the ingredients are incorporated, being careful not to overmix. Pour your cake batter into the greased baking tray and bake in the centre of the oven for around 45-50 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clear and the edges are golden brown.

When cooked, remove the cake from the oven and pierce a few holes on the top with a skewer. Drizzle the maple syrup over the cake, using a pastry brush so the syrup is evenly distributed through the holes. Sprinkle the top the remaining caster sugar then cut into even squares.