Gluten Free Banana Loaf with Lemon Icing

Banana Loaf with Lemon Icing

1 cup corn flour
1 cup plain white gluten free flour
1 cup (approx. 5 good tblsps) softened margarine
1 ¼ cup Demerara sugar
2 medium, ripe bananas
3 lge eggs
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla sugar

For the Icing:

4 tblsps icing sugar
Lemon juice to mix (about 1 tblsp)

Cream margarine and sugar together and stir in mashed bananas. I use a good sized mixing bowl, so just mash them against the one side before mixing it all well. Add a little of the flour and stir in the eggs, before adding the rest of the flour together with the baking powder and the vanilla sugar.
Pour into a large, greased 2 lb loaf tin (I like to grease and flour even non-stick tins) and bake at 180C for 1-1 ¼ hour, or until the cake is just firm, and a knife or skewer comes out clean.

Cool for a little while before turning out and mix and add the icing while the cake is still warm.

Tip: For a crunchier icing, use ordinary granulated sugar – or caster sugar - instead of icing sugar and apply to cake while still hot.
This cake is quite fragile, but since making it I have sourced gluten free self raising flour, which have xanthum gum added. This gives the mix back some of the elasticity lost with the removal of gluten. If using self raising flour, just add 1 tsp baking powder instead of the stated 4.

Did you know that… Sir John Mandeville (14th C.) referred to bananas as Apples of Paradise and Long Apples in his manuscript Travels?