The Healthy Hobbit: Recipe Inspiration: Bilbo's Back of the Pantry Tea Cake

" 'What on earth did I ask him to tea for!' [Bilbo] said to himself, as he went to the pantry. He had only just had breakfast, but he thought a cake or two and a drink of something would do... He rushed and put on the kettle, and put out another cup and saucer and an extra cake or two, and ran to the door. "I am so sorry to keep you waiting!" he was going to say, when he saw that it was not Gandalf at all. It was a dwarf... [Bilbo] liked visitors, but he liked to know them before they arrived, and he preferred to ask them himself. He had a horrible thought that the cakes might run short, and then he (as the host: he knew his duty and stuck to it however painful) he might have to go without."

- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently went to Portland, and while I was there a friend and I went to a tea festival. It was lovely, but one side-effect of that festival was that I returned home with an intense craving for starting my morning with tea and some sort of scone or tea cake.

However, I am trying to be healthy, and (as one demonstration at the tea festival reminded me) such treats are usually full of sugar, flour, and butter. Plus, I had just been gone for several days and my options for ingredients was... let's say "limited."

Oh good, an old banana I forgot to eat before I left... that'll help.

However, after some brainstorming and checking my pantries, I realized that I had just the right ingredients to make, well, something tasty.

I decided to call this "Bilbo's Back of the Pantry Tea Cake," as inspired by the scene when Gandalf and the dwarf party show up fairly unexpectedly at Bilbo's house. Always the gracious host, Bilbo tries to provide food and tea for them all, but worries quickly that he's going to run out of food. This is perhaps the kind of cake that would come out of that situation... or someone wanting to make a healthy yet indulgent tea-side after being gone on vacation, anyway!

What you need for this recipe is:

1 browned/over-ripe banana
1 large egg
3 tbsp of your favorite nut butter(s) (I used a mixture of Almond Butter and PB2)
1 tsp vanilla extract
A dash of cinnamon
A dash of nutmeg
1 tbsp of a chopped nut, like pecans or walnuts
Optional: a dash of salt if your nut butter is unsalted

The cake at each step

Mix the wet ingredients first then add the spices and tablespoon of chopped nuts. After those are mixed well (it's okay if you still have some small banana chunks in the batter), pour into a greased pan and bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes.

That's it! Make sure your knife comes out clean when you cut your tea cake pieces; if it doesn't, just bake for a bit longer. Also, let it cool for awhile before serving. Then make a cup (or a pot) of your favorite tea and enjoy!

This is "tea for two," so I had half the pan as one serving and ate the other half for my breakfast tea the next day. The way I made it (given the nut butters I used), each serving (four slices in my pan) was only 170 calories.

*This recipe is also vegetarian, wheat-free, Paleo, and Whole30 compliant (the banana makes it non-keto compliant if you're following it strictly)

The taste of the cake is moist and spongy, but also rich and earthy. It was so yummy that I nearly ate all four pieces before my tea finished cooling.