Day 114 of #365 Creative #Ideas to do with your kids: Have you ever made Banana bread? And have you ever made a banana bread house? A great easy alternative to a gingerbread house. Over-ripe bananas make the loaf naturally sweet, so choose ones that are riper than you might eat. To make this house, you need to double the recipe quantities and bake two separate loaves. Or if you don’t have time, buy the banana bread to make the house.
2–3 over-ripe bananas
1⁄3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
11/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
You need: loaf pan, marshmallows, liquorice allsorts squares, candied (sugar-coated) peanuts, desiccated coconut, honey, to use as ‘glue’, cocktail stick hearts for decoration Banana loaf
1. In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until they are smooth.
2. Stir in the melted butter.
3. Add the sugar, beaten egg and vanilla essence. Stir to combine.
4. Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and fold in.
5. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan.
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. (Allow another 10 minutes if the centre is still uncooked.) Remove the loaf from the oven and leave to cool in the pan.
To assemble the house
1. Trim the top of one loaf so it is level. Place the untrimmed loaf on top of the trimmed one, using honey to ‘glue’ them together. Place the loaves on a covered board or flat plate.
2. Separate some liquorice allsorts squares. Using honey, stick six white squares in place for the door and four pink squares for the window.
3. Spread the ‘roof’ with honey and sprinkle with some desiccated coconut.
4. Outline a path with candied peanuts and fill it with desiccated coconut. Decorate the scene with your choice
of sweets and toothpick hearts.
You could also decorate the house with cream cheese icing and your choice of colourful sweets and biscuits.
From my book Fun Foods for Kids (Struik Publishers 2016), email me on sam@kidsdecor.co.za if you would like to buy a book.