Cream In Chocolate Topped Banana Cake

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate-Topped Banana Cake uses up ripe bananas in a cake rather than in a banana bread. As it is a cake Nigella uses a tradtitional sponge cake method rather than the mixing method used for banana breads.

In sponge cakes when the butter and sugar are mixed together it is called "creaming". So when the method says "Add the sugar and cream together" it means to add the sugar to the softened butter and then beat together. So there is no actual cream added. When creaming butter and sugar together you should beat them until the mixture is pale in colour and looks slightly fluffy. The purpose of creaming is to start to dissolve the sugar in the butter and also to trap some air in the mixture to help lighten the texture of the sponge and help it to rise in the oven.