I made banana bread using the Queen and Meghan Markle's recipes, and the duchess' version with chocolate and ginger was far superior

McGrady, who was as a chef at Buckingham Palace for 11 years, told me that banana bread was a go-to for many of the royals when he worked there.

"At the palace, we'd have banana bread in the refrigerator all the time," he said. "So if suddenly Princess Anne turned up and wanted afternoon tea just as we were locking up the kitchen and going for a break, it was okay because we had banana bread."

I began by gathering the ingredients included in McGrady's recipe: Butter, salt, raisins, chopped walnuts, cherries, vanilla bean paste, eggs, and ripe bananas.

You can find the full recipe and instructions here.

The recipe requires 4 ounces raisins, 1 ounce chopped walnuts, and 2 ounces cherries.

I actually ended up going back to double-check the recipe to see if I had the correct quantities (I did). In my opinion, the amount of raisins and cherries was a little overwhelming.

I made a well and cracked the eggs into the center, before mashing up three bananas and adding those in with the vanilla paste.

Seeing all the ingredients together made the amount of cherries and raisins seem slightly less overwhelming than they had been before.

The banana bread was finally ready after leaving it to bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour.

Overall, I was happy with how easy the recipe was to bring to life. McGrady's instructions were clear and concise.

I was surprised at what a nice addition the walnuts and raisins made to the cake, but I think the recipe would have been better without the cherries.

They had such a strong flavor that it took away from the banana, and became slightly overpowering.

Don't get me wrong, it was delicious — but I don't think it should be advertised as a banana bread when it tasted more like a fruit cake.

Markle has never released her full recipe, however, I found an interpretation of it on the website New Idea.

The recipe, featuring the duchess' signature secret ingredients — chocolate and ginger — also includes: Flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, melted butter, sour cream, vanilla extract, and bananas.

You can find the full recipe that I used here.

The instructions were pretty straightforward, so it only took a couple of minutes to complete the first step after weighing out the ingredients. I was surprised by how light and fluffy the texture ended up being, which was likely thanks to the sour cream.

The recipe then instructs you to add one cup of mashed bananas. I used two bananas, so that's one less than the Queen's recipe required.

The recipe requires just half a cup of chocolate chips and half a teaspoon of ginger. Unlike with the raisins and cherries in the Queen's recipe, this was just a small quantity and so it didn't look like it would overpower the other ingredients in the recipe.

After adding the chocolate and ginger, it took just 45 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 175 degrees Celsius (347 degrees Fahrenheit).

The color and texture was completely different to the Queen's banana bread — and I couldn't wait to try it and compare the two.

Both recipes were easy to follow. Markle's recipe had slightly fewer steps than the Queen's, but that's expected seeing as it didn't have as many ingredients.

I was concerned that the chocolate and ginger would overpower the banana flavor, as the cherries had done in the previous recipe. However, I was pleasantly surprised as Markle's signature ingredients complimented the banana perfectly.

• Read more:
• The Queen's former chef shared 2 of the palace's banana bread recipes, and the caramel version is only for the kids
• I made banana bread with Meghan Markle's secret ingredients, and it was delicious
• How to make 11 of the royal family's favorite meals at home
• How to make Meghan Markle's favorite chicken recipe at home