Spiced Banana and Coconut Loaf

These days it's hard to find something that our whole family wants to watch together. The Great British Bake Off does the trick at the moment - Mel and Sue's tongue in cheek comments, Mr Hollywood's icy stare and Mary's utter gorgeousness - and of course, each week there's the 'who do you think will be going home' debate to be had. It's always accompanied by a Thursday night takeaway (we watch it the day after it's broadcast here and it's also the start of our weekend in Dubai) plus some kind of 'it's the weekend' cake ... because it's wrong to watch GBBO without a cake to hand. Come to think of it, maybe it's the food that comes with it that makes GBBO so palatable to our teenage sons - whatever it takes to buy their attendance, I guess.

The cinema is an even bigger can of worms when it comes to keeping everyone happy.

• A rom-com only gets a yes from Hella and me.
• Action films get a thumbs up from #1 and #2 teenage sons. I can be persuaded.
• Sci-fi works for the men of the house but not the ladies.
• Thrillers are often my cup of tea. Nobody else.
• And animated movies get the vote from everyone - apart from me.

Admittedly, the pull of a bucket of popcorn (the salt & caramel mix if you please) or a Haagen Dazs chocolate milkshake (or both) + tickets courtesy of the Bank of Mum helps. But even that is sometimes insufficient to ensure full attendance.

But this weekend we nailed it with 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople' - have you seen it? SO many aspects of it made my heart sing -

• a (fairly) low budget film - I'm always a sucker for something without Hollywood money and polish
• set in the stunning New Zealand countryside
• fantastic observational, laugh-out-loud comedy moments mixed with good, clean action and a heartwarming storyline.

And we all LOVED it. A result of the highest order.

If I was trying to create the perfect end to the day, we'd have come home from the cinema to a gorgeous home-baked cake to share (yes - teenage boys can still eat cake after demolishing a bucket of popcorn + a chocolate ice cream milkshake). This Spiced Banana and Coconut Loaf would have been just right. But that only happens in the movies - so instead we tucked into a rather nice Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner - and that's always a sure-fire route to family harmony and rhapsody over dinner.

Anyway, back to that cake.

This Spiced Banana and Coconut Loaf is yet another way to use up those pesky overripe bananas...

We've had a few on the blog - Chocolate and Banana Bread, Nutella and Banana Muffins and Super Healthy Ice Cream. And then there were the smoothies - Raspberry Protein Shakes, Blueberry Pie Smoothies, Healthy Chocolate and Peanut Butter Shakes, Mango and Lime Smoothies and Summer Strawberry Smoothies.

So what is different about this banana loaf recipe?

• There are Asian flavours here - Chinese five-spice and cinnamon
• The addition of coconut is a great balance to that banana
• It's tweaked from a recipe in Asia Light by Ghillie James and it's a BIT different, but a LOT nice.
• The wholemeal flour makes it more substantial plus it contains no refined sugar.
• It keeps well too - we can thank the bananas for that - so if you want to make it ahead of time for your next post-cinema treat, you'll be in great shape.

In fact, we've got our next cinema trip planned already (oh, the power of the pre-film trailer) - The Great Gilly Hopkins ... and I feel certain that this one will be for girls only. Maybe we could leave the boys at home to bake a cake....

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