Buckwheat banana cake (gf) and a gluten free mouse
We are still being outwitted by a tiny little mouse who has become addicted to my buckwheat crackers. As she seems unfazed by the supposedly dissuasive mint essential oil with which I flood the cupboards, I did a bit of research and came across a sonic mouse deterrent. Rushing out to buy one, I discovered reading the small print while waiting to pay, that the device ‘could perturb domestic animals’. Totally panicked by this news, I explained (at some length) to the man at the checkout that my domestic animals didn’t need any more crazy in their lives, particularly my little English Setter with her fragile constitution, delicate nerves and rather unusual ways. Wondering whether the strange look he gave me was pity or amusement, I arrived home to the realisation that my extended monologue about my dogs’ mental health had been a case of the pot calling the kettle black: I was sporting a back-to-front top. And it wasn’t a subtle, hardly discernible back-to-front either; it was definitely an in-your-face ‘escaped from an asylum’ back-to-front. I made this cake to take my mind off the fact that I’m losing it, and intentionally omitted, OK totally forgot, some of the ingredients. It was however a very fortuitous error, because the result was a perfectly deliciously light, fluffy succulent cake. The bad news is though that the mouse has become a permanent fixture.
Ingredients
2 medium eggs
100g cane sugar
1 large ripe banana, cut and mashed with little lemon juice
100ml unsweetened apple purée
100ml plain yoghurt
2 tablespoons walnut oil
60g ground hazelnuts
170g buckwheat flour
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
100g raisins, pre-soaked in rum
Preheat the oven to 180ºC and prepare a medium-sized loaf tin. Whisk the eggs and sugar until light and smooth and slightly fluffy and then add the banana, oil, apple purée and yoghurt and whisk a bit longer. Mix the ground hazelnuts, buckwheat flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger together and then combine well with the wet mixture. Stir in the soaked raisins and pour the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the tin and leave to cool. Delicious served alone or with butter and jam. May be used a mouse bait too.
2 Comments
ourfrenchoasis
Yum yum, do you think I could omit the sugar altogether. However, far more importantly, aren’t we all losing it a little!!! We tried sonic mice deterrents, they didn’t work! Cats, the only thing that seems to work for us!
The Healthy Epicurean
You could try, although I couldn’t vouch for the texture… Let me know how it turns out if you do make it without sugar. And yes, I hope I’m not the only one to be losing it 😉 Thanks for the heads up on the sonic deterrents. Lucky you having cats that actually work. Our comes to eat and then disappears for days on end! xx