We had a three day holiday for Memorial Day, and this is how we spent the weekend:
Saturday- shopping, cleaning the house, preparing dinner with my husband Vijay’s help. Our Nandyala family friend and his college friends came all the way from Milwaukee. They made a pit stop at our house before reaching their final destination – SV temple, Pittsburgh.
For dinner, we prepared puri, rice, chana masala, chicken kurma, Boiled eggs sautéed in red chilli-garlic powder, peanut chutney, sambhar, papads, raita with yogurt, and for dessert banana-walnut cake and fruit (cantaloupe). It was so hectic; I couldn’t find time to take pictures of preparation and finished items.
Sunday- helped our friends who came here from India just one month back, move to Detroit. Packing, cleaning etc. Baked again another banana-walnut cake for them. Managed to take some pictures of cake.
Monday- We have planned to go to Pittsburgh for diva darshanam at the SV temple. But it was raining so hard, and I didn’t want to travel on the PA Turnpike, which is notorious for accidents. So instead we hit some local shops nearby, and dined out.
First long weekend of summer was over just like that.
As much as possible, I try to avoid using eggs in my baking for cakes etc. Because I don’t like the strong chemical smell of egg yolks. It wasn’t like that back in India, but after coming here, the yolk smell and taste has started to make me very ill. I don’t know what they feed the hens here in US, the fertilizer smell of egg yolks is unbearable, and the taste, oy…awful to say the least.
I found out that very ripe bananas are good substitute for eggs, so I use them often in my cake and bread making.
1 cup Bisquick pancake flour. All-purpose flour works fine too. (The only reason I made the cake with Bisquick is because I wanted to finish off the big packet of Bisquick pancake flour that I purchased at Costco last year.)
1/2 cup – walnuts, chopped
1 banana, skin peeled, and ripe fruit mashed smoothly
1/4 cup – sugar
4 tablespoons – oil or ghee
1 tsp each, – baking powder and vanilla extract
Milk if needed
You must be familiar with the baking drill. Wet first, dry next, and then combine the two together.
IN a big bowl, mix the wet ingredients – banana, oil and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine well.
Then add the flour, sugar, walnuts and baking powder. Combine thoroughly. If the batter looks tight, then add about quarter cup of water or milk.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Prepare the cake pan, by applying ghee or oil on the bottom and to the sides. Pour the cake batter. Spread evenly. Bake at 350° F for about 30 to 45 minutes. When a toothpick inserted into the baked cake, it should come out clean. Cool and then cut pieces. Enjoy.
I have to stop and remember that for you, cooking Indian food is just…cooking food. For us, it’s an occasion, and a bit of effort (I’m not saying it’s hard to make, but it often requires more pots and pans then we’re used to needing!).
We’ve been attempting to re-create the chana masala and aloo matar(sp) from our favorite restaurant at home, but it never comes out right!
I have a feeling yours ends up tasting a lot better than ours…
Lovely cake, by the way…I might try that for my son.
Comment by Stephanie — May 31, 2005 @ 11:22 am
Stephanie, preparing food, that many items always is a production, lots of pans and pots, military styled time management, even for us. I can understand how challenging it seems to prepare ‘foren’ kind of food.
I will definitely post a recipe of chanamasala along with photos of preparation.
Comment by Indira — May 31, 2005 @ 12:22 pm
This blog is a surprise for me,a pleasant surprise! I’m Italian, from Turin, and I like Indian cooking (here, we’ve a lot of Indian restaurants). I love your cake,because it recalls to my memory the my youth’s cakes…
Ciao…by Vittorio
Comment by tirebouchon — June 1, 2005 @ 8:38 am
Thank you, Indira! We both appreciate it.
Comment by Stephanie — June 1, 2005 @ 12:10 pm
Indira, the cake looks delicious and fluffy despite the absence of eggs.
Comment by Mika — June 1, 2005 @ 12:42 pm
Yep, ripe banana did the trick.
Comment by Indira — June 1, 2005 @ 3:08 pm
We don’t get brown sugar so easily in India. Have to go hunting at many stores. What can be the substitute?
Comment by manmeet — July 29, 2005 @ 10:36 pm
Hi Indira,
You have got a great website going on here….just love the recipes..so easy to make and so yummy, reminds you of mom’s cooking.
As we are from Andhra…we just love spicy food.Waswonderin if you could tell me how to make pasta. And also suggest a real spicy pasta sauce to go with it.
Thanks again!
Comment by Swathi — September 8, 2005 @ 4:38 pm
Swathi, fellow Andhra ammayi..thanks and welcome.
I often make pasta with spicy sauce. Just add half tsp of chilli powder to the regular pasta sauce. I will definitely post the recipe soon.
Comment by Indira — September 8, 2005 @ 9:33 pm
Thank a ton Indira,
Looking forward to your pasta recipe.
Comment by Swathi — September 9, 2005 @ 10:28 pm
Indira, its me Jaya again. I tried the eggless banana walnut cake this weekend and can I tell you it was just awesome. I did forget to put soda in the batter but still it came out very good.
Thanks a lot!!
Comment by Jaya — October 10, 2005 @ 11:01 am
Jaya.. glad this recipe turned out awesome for you. I often make this cake or bread(what they call it here) on Friday evening. Perfect snack for the weekend.
Comment by Indira — October 10, 2005 @ 1:10 pm
Indira,
Made this for a Christmas party at a friends place and it came out good. Only thing is though u had mentioned sugar in the ingredients its not there in the method.(You may want to add it for readers like me – the forgetful kind 🙂 ) So my first cake was sugarless banana walnut but then we ate it with maple syrup or honey and it was good. Second one with all ingredients came out good. Just a question I have is r u sure this is eggless because most of the pancake mix has egg in it. Atleast the brands I use have. What abt the Bisquick pancake flour ? Is it eggless ? Anyway the recipe was great. Thanks for that.
Indira says…
Hi K.G… thanks for pointing it out. I am going to add it. The above recipe works perfectly fine with all purpose flour. The only reason I used Bisquick pancake flour was to finish off the big packet that I purchased at Costco last year and It has some dry egg powder. I am going to correct the title also. Thank you!
Comment by Kerala girl — December 25, 2005 @ 10:36 am
Hi Indira, I can’t thank you enough for posting these wonderful recipes. I tried the cake and it came out decent too. Keep posting..
Thanks, Madhavi.
Indira replies…
Hello Madhavi… thanks for the feedback, I’m glad that this recipe turned out great for you.
Comment by Madhavi — January 19, 2006 @ 7:18 am
Hi Indira,
Wonderful recipe without eggs..I made this cake yesterday without measuring any ingredients! I saw this recipe online and just had to try it. However, I didn’t have walnuts and also brown sugar so made it with jaggery(half cup melted),cardamom (instead of vanilla), butter and 2 ripe bananas. I used all-purpose flour – added about 2 cups roughly just to make the cake batter not too watery. Baked at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 mts. I couldn’t believe how soft it came out….better than my usual egg-added versions. The taste reminded so much of Uniappams(a doughnut-type sweet from the southern state of Kerala in India). I will surely be trying the exact recipe you have posted with walnuts…:)
Thanks,
Priya.
Indira replies..
Your recipe is awesome, Priya V. Jaggery, cardamom and bananas – like a festival sweet baked in the oven. The only thing missing is some nuts like cashews or walnuts. I really like it because I’m a major jaggery fan and I’m going to make the cake like you mentioned with jaggery. Thanks for sharing your version with me.
Comment by Priya V — February 7, 2006 @ 11:00 am
I use a similar recipe (modified from Company’s coming cookbook)to make banananut cake just to finish off all the rapidly blackening bananas whenever I visit my hubby’s ancestral home.
Comment by kpks — March 8, 2006 @ 12:21 pm
Hi Indira,
I just baked this cake a few minutes back. It is fabulous. I was rather sceptical but curious when I read this recipe of yours. I wondered whether it would rise, and yes, it did. It’s yum and not too sweet; that’s how I like my cakes. Moreover, the preparation took less than twenty minutes. Thank you so much for posting the recipe.
Comment by Vaishali — March 15, 2006 @ 3:55 pm
Hi, I need a recipe for UPMA. A good one.
Thanks, Laura
Comment by Laura — June 22, 2006 @ 9:59 am
Hi Indira,
I visit your site almost daily to see the updates. Got to your site only about 3 months ago. I just love and admire the way you have organised the recipes, and taken such wonderful pictures.
I have baked this cake of yours twice and my husband loves it a lot. Am planning to try more of your recipes.
Thanks
Vidhya
Comment by Vidhya Rajesh — August 14, 2006 @ 9:54 am
this cake is absolutely amazing.. i just finished baking it & shared a couple of slices with my neighbour friend… we both loved it…cannot wait for hubby to try it 🙂 I was almost sure the cake would turn out hard (i baked an eggless cake for the 1st time) but am amazed at how soft & fluffy it actually is… i replaced the sugar with honey, the vanilla with cardamom powder & the walnuts with mixed nuts.. & oh yes… i used all purpose flour… thnx for a truly wonderful recipe… gotta try your carrot cake recipe next…
Comment by Meera — October 11, 2006 @ 9:31 pm
wow Indira, great eggless cake recipe. sure to try this. thanks for the wonderful recipe. I am a great fan of walnuts and my fav. fruit is banana. thnaks a bunch.
Comment by mythreyee — November 29, 2006 @ 10:42 am
Hello Indira,
I tried this recipe yesterday after browsing many blogs for a banana-walnut cake recipe.
I measured all the ingredients exactly but the batter was too thick. So I added a little milk ( appr. 1/2 cup) to loosen it up. The cake tastes very good but it is dense and light and fluffy. Can you please suggest what the problem can be?
Comment by Anu — March 2, 2007 @ 9:51 am
Sorry in my comment above the cake was “NOT” light and Fluffy.
Thanks
Anu
Comment by Anu — March 2, 2007 @ 9:52 am
The cake didn’t turn out to be the way it was described even though I followed the exact recipe 🙁
Comment by Susan — May 5, 2007 @ 8:30 am
Hi Indira,
Trying this cake today… infact its in the oven right now. waiting for it to come out… hope I’ll impress mother in law with this as she doesn’t eat eggs!
Comment by nimisha — May 18, 2007 @ 1:29 pm
[…] And that’s not all I’ve been doing lately! I was being productive yesterday and decided to make bread rolls. They tasted OK, way too dense, but that was due to me because I’m a real amateur when it comes to cooking. Something I’m working on 🙂 I also made banana and walnut cake (that I first saw on twelve22), it tasted pretty good but mine looked sort of funny so I didn’t take a photo. […]
Pingback by Zen « kinoko — June 11, 2007 @ 12:08 am
hi, this is muds. i m a nutritionist, i read this i will try it out. hope so it will turn out good.
Comment by muds — June 23, 2007 @ 12:29 am
Indira, Awesome recipe. Thanks! I am a big banana nut fan and tried out your recipe today. I substituted the pancake mix with whole wheat chappathi flour and used cardamom instead of vanilla. Just took it out of the oven and it smells heavenly. Haven’t had the heart to cut it yet. It rose well too. I hope it is fluffy. Will post an update but wanted to thank you asap hence this post.
Indira replies:
That’s great to hear Prabha. Thanks for taking time to let me know.
Have a great, fruitful weekend.
Comment by Prabha — August 4, 2007 @ 8:17 am
Update: Yes! It did taste good too. Its already half gone 🙂
Comment by Prabha — August 5, 2007 @ 1:06 pm
hi indira,
i just finished baking the cake,yummmy!!!! i followed the instructions but added a t spoon of baking soda.another ingredient that i wanted to add but forgot was ,salt.also i substituted the walnuts with almonds.
thank you so much for this recipe.i will be making it often.oh !! i better rush or else there will be no leftovers :-)))
Thanks again
Comment by Shilpa — August 8, 2007 @ 8:07 pm
Indira,
I don’t bake but decided to try this because of the simplicity of the recipe. It came out wonderful. Thank you! 🙂
Comment by Ammoos — August 10, 2007 @ 10:03 am
I didn’t have any eggs, but 3 ripe banans and a bag of fresh roasted walnuts, so your recipe was a blessing. Also, I just learned my choloesterol is high, so an eggless cake is a plus for my goal to reduce cholesterol. I doubled the recipe and baked in a bundt pan for 40 mts. I used marscapone cheese with a bit of vanilla and soymilk and a touch of sugar as an icing–WOW! A nice multicultura blend of an Indian cake recipe with and Italian cream cheese icing–doesn’t get any better than that! Thanks.
Comment by Janice — September 16, 2007 @ 1:46 pm
Hi indira,
i did make cake today as per the ingredients you suggested. it came out excellent!!!! but i used butter instead of oil, brown sugar instead of white sugar, all purpose flour instead of Bisquick pancake flour, also i added baking soda.
thank u soooo much!
shweta
Comment by shweta — October 1, 2007 @ 6:00 pm
Thank you for this recipe, Indira. I often have a couple of overripe bananas spare by the end of the week, this has reminded me of a tasty way to use them. And I can treat my vegan brother, too!
Comment by Alison — October 29, 2007 @ 8:56 am
Hi..Indira…
Actually i keep on searching for eggless cake.. as we are vegetarian..
I tried this cake and came out really very nice.. But i made a slighht changes..
I will surely put this cake in my blog too.. 🙂
Thank u..
Comment by Archana — December 11, 2007 @ 4:54 pm
Hi Indira,
Wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2008 !!
I have been experimenting your recipes and they come out so good that I always turn to your site whenever I want to try something new with any vegetable or ingredient. For now, I have been looking for Eggless sponge cake on your site because all that I tried came out as a disaster.. that now I gave up on it except if I could get it on your site .. only then could I be able to experiment again. Sometimes, it comes out crusty (I put it at 350 F preheated oven)and instead of bulging up .. the cake lowers down in the middle..sometimes hard ..Can you post any eggless sponge/chocolate cake that I can try? Thanks in advance and eagerly waiting for your reply!!
Comment by Gita — January 1, 2008 @ 1:02 am
Hi Indira,
Thanks a ton for posting this recipe… I remember.. It was two years back when I had tried to make Cake for the very first time… & I must admit that it was a big blunder from my side… But today… I tried your recipe for Banana Walnut Cake.. & it came excellent… I have got so many compliments from my dear hubby… The credit goes to you 🙂 .
I have even taken the photograph of the cake & want to post it here… but do not know how to do that…. Please let me know the procedure, if possible. It is because of your great presentation skills, superb photography and simple steps… that no one can resist to try your recipes… Thanks once again.. Great job.. & All The Best…
Hi Prabalini, glad to read that you tried and liked this recipe. Thanks for taking time to let me know. I’d love to post your cake photo. Please forward me via email. Thanks.
-Indira
Comment by Prabalini — February 7, 2008 @ 7:26 am
Hi Indira,
Thanks for your prompt reply. I have sent you an e-mail. Please Check. Thanks once again for the delicious recipes.
Comment by Prabalini — February 9, 2008 @ 5:34 am
Just tried the reciepe now, comes out absoltuley delicious i have tried this reciepe similar with eggs and this one tastes much nicer!!
Thanks for the recipe
Comment by emma — March 24, 2008 @ 6:15 am
This is the first time I am commenting on a recipe even though I have tried many others. Every time I am pleased with the outcome of each dish and this cake is one of them.
I was looking for a simple yet tasty recipe for my neighbor as a ‘thank you’ gift for a favor she completed. This cake was perfect.
Thank you for posting it in addition to your many other mouth watering recipes. I will be commenting more often now!
Glad that you had success with this recipe, Manda. Thank you for the good words and I look forward to reading your input on my recipes.
Regards,
Indira
Comment by Manda — April 20, 2008 @ 1:21 pm
it was awesome. I also added soymilk and cardamon, and put 10 banana’s instead of 1!!!
Comment by Emma — April 20, 2008 @ 10:07 pm
Thanks a lot for this wonderful recipe ! I have been hesitant to bake so far.. and have been using my oven as a storage place for kadhais;-))
Tried this cake out hesitantly.. aand it came out great. Hope to bake some more.. Thanks again
Comment by Kavitha — May 5, 2008 @ 10:34 am
i love cooking but not a good cook when it comes to baking.but this week i tried bannna and walnut cake that was awesome.i used sunflower oil instead of butter and instead of suger i used condensed milk.even for five days the was soft and delicious.thanks very much Indira.
Comment by shivali — May 17, 2008 @ 1:36 am
Hi
Make this cake y’day and it came out very well. Thanks for the lovely recipe!
Comment by Shilpi — May 31, 2008 @ 10:05 pm
I’ve been looking for a good, fluffy, egg-less banana cake for a while now and this did the trick– given that I don’t eat sweets and half of the cake is gone already, well, it must be love >D
I was afraid the oil would make it to wet, so I substituted it for margarine to keep it vegan.
The batter is thick, but nothing a splash of soj milk won’t help, and the resulting crust is simply delicious.
Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
Comment by Shin — June 15, 2008 @ 5:51 am
Tried this out today. the cake came out so yummy. had run out of baking powder, so creatively added a pinch of Eno. worked very well.
Cheers
Comment by boeuff — August 17, 2008 @ 11:31 am
Hi Indira,
tried the cake,everything went well,came out looking really nice,except one thing. it tasted bitter:-{
where do you think i could have gone wrong?
eagerly waiting for your reply!
Comment by geetanjali — March 8, 2009 @ 11:45 pm
Geetanjali — I’m no expert, but let me offer a couple possibilities on why your cake tasted bitter
1) Too much baking powder
2) You used Baking soda instead of baking powder
Comment by Niranjan — April 6, 2009 @ 10:42 pm
HI,
I too cant stop myself posting a thanks note for you.. :-)) i have been trying cakes from one year and none was thsi much excellent. I got so many compliments from my hubby .. we are vegetarians and in US and were dying to have a nice eggless cake from long time.
once again my hearty thanks to you. AND PLEASE POST SOME NEW CAKES RECEIPES.
ANJALI KUMAR
Comment by Anjali kumar — July 23, 2009 @ 7:23 pm
Hi Indra,
I just baked this cake with little variation. I added Orange extract instead of Vanilla & plain white sugar instead of brown sugar. Its an awesome recipe.
Comment by Anna — February 6, 2010 @ 6:17 pm
Hi,
Was searching for a recipe using bananas as i had ripe ones sitting at home. Loved this recipe and went ahead and tried it. Turned out awesome.
made a couple of changes. Did not have walnuts so used almonds. Also i used white sugar. I definitely did add milk as i felt the batter was too thick.
Waiting for my hubby to try it out in the evening and give his comments 🙂
Love your blog 🙂
Comment by Nivedita — March 30, 2010 @ 1:45 pm
Hi Indira,
I tried this cake out today and it didn’t turn out like yours 🙁 . I used all the ingredients mentioned – used all purpose flour, brown sugar and some milk too. Even after adding baking powder , the cake didnt rise or become fluffy- the top layer turned hard and the center was mushy and a little raw. Do I have to thin out the batter a lot for this cake?
I would really like to get the cake right- specially because i love ur recipes 🙂
thanks!
Sorry to hear that Debyani.
The batter could be thick, thin it out little bit in pourable consistency and bake the cake in middle rack of the oven, not too close to heat source.
Always bring the ingredients to room temperature and prepare the cake batter for best results.
Hope you find these tips helpful.
Good luck, and do leave a comment if it turns out a decent cake.:)
-Indira
Comment by Debyani — December 12, 2010 @ 9:10 pm
I tried this. It came out excellent. Thanks for the recepie. I tried it with wheat flour and added cocoa powder. The center was mushy. probably because of wheat flour. never mind. it was tasty. Thanks a lot.
Comment by Vasumathy — March 22, 2011 @ 8:33 am
Hello Indira Garu
I am from India, Telugu. Mee vantalu mee muchatlu bhale untayi. I bought Bajaj OTG here today hoping to try something in baking.
EE recipe lo vanilla extract omit cheyocha?Ikkada dorukuthudo ledo doubt ga undi
Comment by Girija — November 12, 2011 @ 9:56 am
[…] Today morning the sight of four all too ripe bananas made me want to make a cake. I did that while my potato fry and rice were getting done on the side. The cake came out well. I took the recipe from here. It came out smelling and looking awesome. […]
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