Banana and fudge loaf

As you may know, we've been inundated with courgettes and one of the recipes we were given to try and use them up was Courgette and Lemon Cake.  Had a go at baking this last week, it was nice, very moist and certainly very lemony, but it wasn't really a big hit with us.  However, Katie came up trumps the day after by baking banana and fudge loaf - try it, it's the best!

The recipe calls for vanilla fudge cut into cubes.  I'm guessing you could use the little finger of fudges but as we didn't have any of these in the house she used the equivalent weight in Mars bars and it tasted spot on!



150g (5oz) salted butter, softened + extra for greasing (we used baking margarine)
300g (10oz) plain flour + extra for dusting
175g (6oz) light muscovado sugar
2 large free-range eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
150ml (5fl oz) semi-skimmed milk
3 medium, ripe bananas, mashed
75g (3oz) vanilla fudge cut into small cubes (or Mars bars!)

Preheat oven to gas 4, 180 degrees C (or 160 degrees C fan oven).  Lightly grease and flour a 2 litre (2 pint) loaf tin - shake out excess flour.  We also lined the bottom with greased greaseproof paper - just in case.

Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy.  Gradually add the eggs, beating all the time.  Sift in the flour and bicarbonate of soda, then gradually add the milk until smooth.  Fold the mashed banana into the mixture with the chopped fudge.  Spoon the mixture into the loaf tin and smooth the top.

Bake for 30 mins then take the loaf out of the oven and cover with foil (to stop the top from getting too brown).  Return to the oven for a further 30 mins or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the loaf comes out clean.  Remove the loaf from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5-10 mins before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

If you wish, you may decorate the top with whipped cream, slices of banana and extra fudge pieces to make it ultra special, but we were too impatient and wanted to try it straight away!