Since we aren’t able to hop across the border to make our regular trips to Johor Bahru now due to the pandemic, many Singaporeans have been missing their usual food, shopping and massage haunts there.
And one of the haunts that foodies like to visit is Hiap Joo Bakery & Biscuit Factory for their banana cakes. Lines can usually be spotted here over the weekend as customers wait for a freshly-baked batch of banana cake — it’s usually warm when you first get it in your hands.
Hence, when the borders were closed earlier this year, thanks to Covid-19, some have found themselves unable to do without this tasty treat, even setting up group buys to get their hands on this banana cake.
While that’s an option, it currently includes a waiting time, so we took to the internet instead and found recipes, like this one, that claimed similarities to the speckled banana cakes that Hiap Joo is known for.
Here are some tips that we got from an interview the bakery did with ChannelNewsAsia:
- Don’t mash your banana too finely as the bread needs to be slightly chunky and the pulp makes the cake lighter and fluffier
- Use berangan bananas that have a slightly dry and starchy texture.
And here’s our take on the banana cake, barring using a wood-fired oven for the actual baking like the original.
Text: Seow Kai Lun/AsiaOne
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 100g caster sugar
- 210g mashed banana
- 150g cake flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 100ml vegetable oil
Steps
Add eggs into bowls and beat with whisk till foamy.
Add sugar and mix well
Mash banana in a separate bowl. Don’t mash too finely or coarsely.
Add mashed banana to egg and sugar mixture, and mix well.
Sift in cake flour, baking soda and baking powder in two batches, and mix well.
Add oil to mixture and stir well with spatula.
Pour into cake tin and bake in pre-heated oven at 160 degrees Celcius for 40 mins or till you get a golden brown top. You can cook it longer if you prefer a caramel brown colour.