Overripe bananas and wrinkled carrots aren’t the most appetising ingredients to enjoy raw, but they taste as good as fresh when cooked. Baking them into cake mixture is a great option for those who enjoy a fruity bake and are low on ingredients, as the natural sugars often negate the need for adding lots of sugar. While homemade banana bread and frosted carrot cake are the go-to recipes for most people, Good Food has a “fruitier” recipe that’s speedier than most.

Ready in one hour from start to finish, the recipe is described as “a moist sponge made from banana, apple, carrots and mango, topped with a fruity cream cheese frosting”. The method is simple: just add the grated and chopped fruit to a basic cake batter — there’s no need for fancy equipment or techniques.

Good Food members who have made the cake suggest forgoing the topping as the cake is “lovely on its own”, noting that it is a “gorgeous cake”.

A second person chimed: “Loved this cake, so moist and delicious. I used a good lemon curd in the icing. I cannot wait to make it again.”

If you don’t have ripe mango in your fruit bowl, you could use some shop-bought diced mango in juice (drained).

According to one “novice” recipe tester, 75g of passion fruit pulp comes from around three passion fruits. They suggested, “Rather than beat your cream cheese/icing sugar/passion fruit mixture – it will go all runny if you beat it.”

Fruity traybake recipe

Ingredients

• 175ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing
• 175g dark muscovado sugar
• Three large eggs
• One small ripe banana, mashed
• 140g grated eating apple
• 100g grated carrot
• One small mango, peeled and cut into small dice
• One lemon (zested_
• 250g self-raising flour
• One tsp bicarbonate of soda
• One tsp mixed spice
• For the icing
• 225g icing sugar, sieved

For the icing

• 75g passion fruit or lemon curd
• 75g cream cheese

Method

A hot oven is essential for an even bake, so first set the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease a 22cm square baking tin with oil.

Line the base and sides with baking parchment — it should stick to the oiled base.

Add the oil and sugar to a large mixing bowl, and whisk them together until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the mashed banana.

Prepare the fruit: grate the apples and carrots, finely dice the mango, and zest the lemon. Add them to the bowl of wet ingredients, then combine them with the flour, bicarbonate of soda, and mixed spice in a separate bowl.

Fold the dry mixture into the fruit mixture to combine into one cake batter.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 40 minutes, until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before carefully turning out onto a wire rack.

For the icing:

Beat together the sieved icing sugar, passion fruit pulp, lemon curd, and cream cheese. Spread the frosting over the top of the cooled traybake and cut it into approximately 20 square pieces to serve.