Fat-free Vegan Lemon Cake with Banana Butter Topping

I’ve seen banana cake with lemon frosting but how about swapping them around? And so, I made lemon cake with banana butter topping. It was delicious!

The recipe is fat-free (apart from natural fat from the bananas), so I could enjoy with a little bit less guilt!

You can prepare the banana topping in advance and keep it in the fridge. I usually do this when I have overripe bananas. It usually stays for up to a week in an air tight container.

I’ve never frozen banana butter before but I’m sure it should be fine in the freezer too.

Banana butter kept in the fridge might become too firm to spread; to loosen just add 1 tablespoon water and pop in the microwave for 30 seconds or so.

I’ve used demerara sugar for the cake which is why it turned out brown. You can use white sugar if you wish for a lighter colour cake but the apple puree will still add some browness.

Ingredients (8 servings):

Banana Butter:
6 large bananas
3 tablespoons soft brown sugar (or demerara)
Water

Cake:
1 large lemon (juice and rind)
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 cup demerara sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 apple
1 tablespoon vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
1 tablespoon vanilla
Water

• Make banana butter; peel and cut bananas into slices. Mash lightly.
• Place in a non-stick pan with sugar. Cook on medium heat until banana is light brown.
• Occasionally stir and mash bananas while cooking. Add water from time to time if mixture is too dry. (This will depend on the type of bananas, some have more moisture). The end result should be a spreadable consistency.
• Set aside to use later.

• Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius.

• Put flour, sugar and baking soda into a mixing bowl. Mix them together.
• Peel and cut the apple into small pieces. Place in a measuring cut and puree using a hand blender. (A jug blender is also fine but I find a hand one more practical for this).
• Grate all the lemon rind into the measuring cup.
• Then, cut lemon in half and squeeze the juice from both halves into the measuring cup.
• Add water (if required) to the rind, lemon juice and apple puree mixture until you have filled one cup or just slightly (about 2 tablespoons) more.
• Pour the puree mixture into your bowl of dry ingredients.
• Add vanilla.
• Add vinegar.
• Mix well. Mixture will foam a little.
• Pour into a lightly greased 11-inch / 28 cm pie pan.
• Smear the top with the banana butter. I used a fork to even out the banana butter and ‘drew’ some circular stripe.
• Bake for 25 minutes, or until cake is dry at the centre.

Edit: Just letting you know that I've added a little poll on the side to find out what type of measurements people prefer in general.