Cinnamon Plantain Cake – West African Flavors
This Cinnamon Plantain Cake is an easy West African recipe that is full of flavour. No plantains? You can use bananas instead in this versatile recipe.
Hello peeps, my name is Bintu Hardy and I am proud to be a planner.
There is planning and there is planning. And I am definitely and over the top, everything else gets dropped till I finish this all important new plan, planner and I am oh so proud.
As in plan Christmas menus in August, plan and buy Christmas presents in the January sales (blame the African genes). I plan food photography shots (sometimes 2 whole hours on just one recipe), I have recipe planning post its stuck to the wall, where the ingredients post it is in one room and the method post it is in another. I spend aaaaaaaaaaaaages planning travel trip, so much so that I sometimes end up being disappointed in the reality.
I plan, birthday parties, shopping lists, play dates, shopping trips, kindle books shopping (don’t ask), train tickets, making Puff Puff, phone conversations, exercise (which never really happens). Yeap, you can call me Planner Hardy.
So sometimes when I go off plan, and it still works then that throws me for a loop. As in overripe plantain on the kitchen counter, some cinnamon next to them, make a cinnamon plantain cake, Sierra Leone style, 30 mins later take cake out of the oven, find a corner sit and eat half the cake. It was that easy, So why oh why do I not do that much more?
Do I need to be such a planner? Probably not. Will I stop being a planner?. Probably not. Will I plan to be less of a planner? Probably……….
Here is how to make a cinnamon plantain cake West African style. I hope you try it, like it and share your photos with me on Instagram tagging #recipesfromapantry.
Sierra Leone flavours / West African Flavours – is the spot on my blog where I share both traditional Sierra Leonean recipes and West African fusion recipes.
Don't forget to tag #recipesfromapantry on Instagram or Twitter if you try Cinnamon Plantain Cake - West African Flavors! It is really, really awesome for me when you make one of my recipes and I'd love to see it. You can also share it on my Facebook page. Please pin this recipe to Pinterest too! Thank you for reading Recipes from a Pantry.
Cinnamon Plantain Cake - West African Flavors
Ingredients
- 2 overripe plantains mashed
- 2 eggs
- 125 ml (0.5 cup) vegetable oil
- 100 ml (0.42 cup) milk
- 250 g (9oz) self-raising flour
- 225 g (8oz) caster sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 egg whites
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to fan-assisted 160C / 180C / 350F / gas 4 and grease and line two 20cm / 8 inch cake tins.
- Mix the mashed plantains with the 2 eggs, oil and milk until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon and baking powder. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined and lump free. Whisk the egg whites until just stiff and use a spatula to gently fold in the egg whites.
- Split the cake mixture evenly between the two cake tins. Bake in the oven for about 30 mins, or until a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven, let cool in the tins for 5 mins before cooling completely on a wire rack.
- You can eat one cake now and store one in the freezer till needed.
- Seve plain or with some ice cream, whipped cream and fruits.
Notes
Nutrition
This sounds so wonderful. I am a lover of any and everything plantain so this seems like a must try!
I’ve made this cake twice in one week… I just happened to have too many plantains… absolutely perfect recipe… except I added vanilla bean paste and fresh grated nutmeg… oh my goodness… plus it’s the easiest quickest cake I’ve ever made, hence one in the oven as I write … thankyou so much for sharing your recipes truly appreciated…
I have never tried plantain. After reading this blog post im going to gove it a try
This sounds devilishly good -never know what to make with plaintiffs -this is perfect
Ok Planner Hardy, can you please have me over for tea? This is fantastic! I promise I’ll have just a slice 😉
Hahaha, you are allowed to have half the cake 🙂
I’ve never tried baking with plantains before! Color me intrigued 🙂 and um can you give some lessons on planning I could use some!
Lets make a plan 🙂
I used to be a planner as well. Would plan everything but lately I am pretty disorganised I gotta say 🙁 I must have lost it somewhere along the way! How is that even possible? 🙂 Is this a typical west African dessert? I’ve never tried plantains but I am guessing they taste similar to bananas, do they? 🙂
Typical to my slice of West Africa 🙂
Such a beautiful cake! I’m yet to experiment baking or cooking plantains (I never tried), but it’s something that I really want to do.
🙂
I had banana cake, but never plantain cake. It makes sense though since they are from the same family of fruits and I can almost taste the aroma of plantains in this cake. I’m definitely putting this on my to-make list. Thank you for sharing.
Yaye, please come back and tell me how you get one.
I am a fan of planning too so you are not alone! Oh and the cake. It looks perfect!
🙂
I have never baked with plantains but this cake sounds incredible! You’ve inspired me. Thanks for the recipe!
My total pleasure 🙂
I’ve never cooked with plantains before, except by themselves. This is a perfect recipe for the holidays and gives me a chance to explore!
I hope you enjoy testing it out.
What a beautiful cake. Have not cooked with plantains before but see them at our store now! I am also a planner, and I say peeps….we are connected :).
Hi fellow planner 🙂
We discovered plantains when we were in the Caribbean, so I am always looking for new ways to cook with them.
Hope this inspires you 🙂