Banana bread is super sweet and delicious and an ideal way to use up overripe bananas so they don’t have to go to waste.

The humble cake can be easily customised with things like chocolate chips and chopped nuts, but if you want to add a more unique twist on the classic recipe, food experts recommend throwing in one more unusual ingredient. Orange juice may be something you’re more accustomed to having with your breakfast in the morning rather than during baking, but the beverage can elevate your banana bread to another level.

The citrus flavour from orange juice helps to balance out the intense sweetness of banana bread, making it a little less sickly and bland. But it’s not just flavour that orange juice brings to the party as it helps improve the overall texture of the cake as well.

Not only does the liquid ensure your bake stays lovely and moist, the acidity from the juice can actually help to tenderise the cake to achieve a much softer, tender texture and a better rise.

Banana bread is quite a heavy and dense cake, so if you’re using baking soda in your recipe to help it rise, the addition of orange juice helps to improve this.

The citric acid in orange juice reacts with the baking soda to produce carbon dioxide gas, which then creates a fizzing effect to produce air bubbles that then makes your cake wonderfully light and airy.

Food Republic says: “Going well beyond its morning beverage reputation, orange juice can become the secret ingredient to perfectly tasty and tender banana bread.

“The acidic nature of orange juice helps make your baked goods have a more tender texture and soft crumb. It can also help interact with basic baking soda to create plenty of carbon dioxide, which helps your quick bread rise.

“Meanwhile, the subtle hit of citrus can help complement the earthy sweetness of the banana itself without overpowering it completely. Across the board, a bit of orange juice can supercharge your plain banana bread recipe.”

Food experts recommend replacing half of the liquid in your recipe with orange juice. So for example, if the recipe says add 125ml of milk, use 62.5g of milk and 62.5g of orange juice.

If your recipe doesn’t include any liquid ingredients then just add around 60ml of orange juice and increase the amount of flour if the mixture becomes too wet. And if you want the orange flavour to really stand out, you can grate the zest of one or two oranges into the mixture.

Food Republic adds: “Just know it's a delicate balance in regard to moisture, so err on the side of caution when adding juice. One final thing to check is to make sure that your recipe calls for baking soda as this will help balance out the acidic qualities of the citrus. Beyond that, the orange juice won't change the recipe much.”