Apricot Tea Bread

This delicious tea bread will be the perfect addition to your Princess Tea Party. Using cookie cutters cut dainty shapes out of freshly baked slices. And even though your Princess probably will not care, each slice is packed with nutritional power as the batter contains mashed ripe bananas and finely chopped dried apricots along with eggs and lots of other quality baking ingredients.
Ingredients:
Vegetable-oil cooking spray
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
11 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons)
1 1/3 cups sugar
4 large eggs at room temperature
2 cups mashed ripe bananas (4 to 5 bananas)
1 cup finely chopped dried apricots (tossed with one tablespoon flour to keep pieces from sticking together)
1/3 cup diced crystallized ginger
Step One: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray bottom and sides of two 9" x 5" loaf pans with non-stick vegetable oil cooking spray.
Step Two: In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.
Step Three: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until fluffy, about three minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in mashed bananas, scraping down sides of bowl once.
Step Four: With mixer on low speed, add dry ingredients in three batches, beating just until flour disappears. Do not overmix. Using a rubber spatula, fold in apricots and ginger.
Step Five: Divide batter between the two prepared pans. Bake until nicely browned and puffed at center of loaves, about 45 minutes; a toothpick should come out clean when inserted into center of each loaf. Transfer pans to wire racks; let bread cool in pans for 10 minutes.
Servings: Makes two loaves