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Mary Berry Banana Traybake

Mary Berry Banana Traybake

Mary Berry's banana traybake is a moist, deeply flavoured banana sponge with a vanilla buttercream — all the banana bread flavour in a crowd-friendly traybake format.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Cooling Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 50 minutes
Servings: 24 Squares
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: British
Calories: 295
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • Banana Sponge:
  • 300 g unsalted butter softened
  • 300 g soft light brown sugar
  • 4 large eggs room temperature
  • 4 very ripe bananas about 400g peeled weight, mashed thoroughly
  • 300 g self-raising flour sifted
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
  • ½ tsp fine salt
  • 2 tbsp whole milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • Vanilla Buttercream:
  • 200 g unsalted butter softened
  • 400 g icing sugar sifted twice
  • 2 –3 tbsp whole milk
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • Pinch of fine salt
  • Decoration:
  • 3 tbsp banana chips roughly crushed
  • Ground cinnamon for dusting
  • 50 g dark chocolate melted (optional)

Method
 

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / Gas 4. Grease and line a 33x23cm tin with parchment overhang.
  2. Mash bananas thoroughly until mostly smooth.
  3. Beat butter and brown sugar 4–5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla. Add mashed banana — beat briefly. Mixture may look curdled — continue. Sift in flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Add milk — fold gently.
  4. Pour into tin — spread evenly. Bake 28–33 minutes until golden, springy, and skewer comes out clean. Cool completely in tin — 1 hour.
  5. Beat butter alone 4 minutes. Add icing sugar in 3 batches. Add vanilla, salt, and milk — beat 2 more minutes.
  6. Lift sponge from tin. Spread buttercream generously over entire surface. Scatter banana chips. Dust with cinnamon. Drizzle melted chocolate if using. Cut into 20–24 squares.

Notes

Use the blackest bananas — almost completely black gives the most intense, most complex banana flavour.
Soft light brown sugar gives better flavour than white — suits the banana's caramel richness.
The batter looks curdled when banana is added — this is normal. Continue and fold in the flour.
Cool completely before frosting — 1 hour minimum.
Roughly crush banana chips before scattering — whole chips are difficult to cut through cleanly.
Freeze unfrosted squares for up to 3 months.
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