Banana Loaf

Old favourite, great for using up over-ripe ‘nanas. You will need a loaf tin.

300g plain flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp of salt

110g butter

200g caster sugar

2 eggs

85 ml buttermilk (or mix normal milk with 1.5tsp of vinegar or lemon juice)

1tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180*C/350*F/Gas mark 4. Grease a loaf tin. Sift together the flour, bicarb and salt. Cream the butter and sugar til pale and fluffy. Add eggs, milk and vanilla, and mix well. Fold in the flour and the banana, a bit at a time, alternating. Pour into loaf tin. Bake for about 1 hr til brown. Cool in tin for a few minutes before removing.

Delicious sliced with butter or can be iced (cream cheese frosting works well).

Culture, Comment and Cake

My name is thunderthief. I might steal your thunder, but I won't rain on the parade.
Hi, and welcome to my blog. I know I'm supposed to have a hook within the first 2.5 words that will have you riveted and willing therefore to expend valuable finger energy scrolling down, so I've definitely missed that target, but here it is: this blog will mix culture, comment and cake. My take on the news, as a journalism student and an interested reader; my life as a young single parent; my take on the culture and counter-culture I encounter; and a few crafty suggestions and recipes, because in a world where shopping is regularly listed as women's favourite activity and one in which I'm pretty much always broke, I think a return to creativity - the make-do-and-mend of previous generations - is called for.

My name is thunderthief - I steal thunder, obviously, but in the nicest possible way - you'll hardly miss it, and you'll love the way I present it. It's recycling, like those super cool little cars made out of tin cans and wire that the kids in South Africa make, or Freitag bags. They're made out of truck tarps and seatbelts. They are beautiful, in a German sort of way. They cost a bit more than the aforementioned tin can cars, though.