I quickly post any recipe I find that worked marvellously first time I tried it. This particular one came from the recent Waitrose Magazine for September 2016. The combination of chocolate (milk or dark) with the banana and toffee glaze is so moreish. My only complaint is that it is hard to make the glaze settle on top since the suggested cake tin is a bundt cake pan. Next time I will bake this in a square or rectangular pan so that the delicious glaze will stay on top and nothing will go to waste.
For the Daim chocolate bars, the equivalent of these are Hershey's Skor or Heath bars or any chocolate covered hard toffee bars.
Chocolate Banana Toffee Cake
200 g unsalted butter - softened 75 g caster sugar (suprefine sugar) 100 g light muscovado sugar 4 large eggs 4 very ripe medium bananas - mashed (about heaping 1-1/2 cups) 3 Tbsp sour cream 2 tsp vanilla extract 50 g cocoa powder (plus extra for dusting) 225 g plain flour 50 g cornflour (cornstarch) 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) 75 g chopped Daim bars or dark/milk chocolate chips (plus some chopped for topping)
Glaze: 200 g light muscovado sugar 75 g unsalted butter 100 g double cream 25 g dark chocolate - chopped 1/2 tsp vanilla extract pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/375°F. Butter 10-inch bundt pan and then dust with cocoa powder. Tap out the excess cocoa powder.
In a bowl, mix thoroughly the plain flour, cocoa powder, cornflour, baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda.
In another bowl, add sour cream to mashed banana and vanilla.
Cream the softened butter and the caster and muscovado sugars in a big bowl for about 5 minutes or until light and creamy.
Keep beating while adding eggs one at a time.
Add the banana mixture. Beat until well combined.
Using a wooden spoon or spatula, fold in the flour mixture.
Fold the chopped Daim chocolate bars or chocolate chips (whichever you're using).
Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.
Take out of the oven, cool for 5-10 minutes and then invert into a rack and cool completely.
*For the glaze:
Gently heat butter, cream and sugar in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved.
Bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for 30 seconds.
Remove from heat and add dark chocolate, vanilla and pinch of salt. Stir until smooth.
Cool for 10 minutes or until a bit thickened while stirring from time to time.
How nice to use up my expiring sour cream and a glut of in-season lemons. This is the reason why I like recipes in website that's got reader reviews. You cannot go wrong with a highly rated one with hundreds of reviewers like this keeper of a recipe from my favourite Epicurious website. My daughter and I thought we were going to have a great big mound of a lemon-flavoured pound cake with most of it going to waste. Thankfully we were wrong. We love it to bits so much so that we actually finished it a couple of days later.
Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake
3 cups cake flour (or plain flour) 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) 1/2 tsp fine salt 1 cup unsalted butter - softened at room temperature 2 1/2 cups sugar 5 eggs - room temperature 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice 2 Tbsp grated lemon peel 1 cup sour cream
Preheat oven to 160°C/fan 140°C/325°F. Grease 10-inch tube or bundt pan. Dust pan with flour; tap out excess flour.
Sift flour, baking soda and salt into a bowl - combine well.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until fluffy.
Gradually add sugar and beat 5 minutes.
Add eggs 1 at a time, beating just until combined after each addition.
Beat in lemon juice and peel.
Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture.
Mix in the sour cream. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
Bake cake until skewer inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour 30 minutes.
Let cake cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Turn out cake onto a rack.
Carefully turn cake right side up on rack (if using tube pan) and cool completely. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Wrap in foil and let stand at room temperature.)
*For the glaze:
Combine the icing sugar and lemon juice. If it's too thick, add water a little at a time to get a pouring consistency.
Once cake is completely cool, drizzle with the lemon glaze.
I've always wanted to combine the two most favourite fruits our family like to include in baking - apples and bananas. The experimentations over the years were not very successful at all. Most of the recipes were from the internet and they range from the really soggy ones (too much bananas) to the dry ones (not enough moisture) and the too sweet ones.
This one fits the bill, although I have to adapt and reduce or increase some of the ingredients, but generally it's quite good and not overly sweet which I guess is why it's called a 'bread'. That's one of my dilemna, do I call it a bread or a cake? For me, it can be classified as a cake but then it's not very sweet so a bread then? Whatever it is, teatime or coffee time would be better with this addition.
260 g [2 cups] plain flour plus 1 Tbsp extra 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) 1/2 tsp fine salt 1 tsp ground cinnamon 95 g [6 Tbsp] unsalted butter - melted 150 g [3/4 cup] granulated sugar 2 large eggs 2 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 cup buttermilk 1 cup mashed overripe bananas (about 2-3 bananas) 1 large baking apple - diced small (about 1 1/4 cups) 2-3 Tbsp demerara sugar or granulated sugar for sprinkling
Preheat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F. Line a 9x5-inch loaf pan with baking parchment.
Combine flour, cinammon, salt, and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl.
Sprinkle 1 Tbsp flour on the diced apples and toss to coat. Set aside.
In another bowl, mix sugar with melted butter.
Add eggs one at a time and beat each time.
Add bananas and vanilla, stir to mix.
Fold dry mixture to the wet mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
Then fold in the apple.
Pour into the prepared loaf pan.
[Optional] Sprinkle top generously with demerara sugar.
Bake for 55 minutes or until a skewer pierced in the middle comes out clean.
I've been tweaking this recipe for god-knows how long. See, I only get to try it whenever there's an occasion to make a sweet baked product. And now finally I can officially include this in my storehouse of family recipes.
I named it Dark Carrot Cake, instead of just Carrot Cake as Angela Nilsen did in The Ultimate Recipe Book where I adapted this from, because I plan to bake other types of carrot cakes among the thousands out there online and on cookbooks. The darkness stems from the dark muscovado sugar it uses which lends it a nice treacly smell and taste. Although it is also the source of my mild irritation because dark muscovado tends to ball-up into lumps when mixed with liquid. You can bet I did a lot of smashing and pressing to get rid of the lumps. But if you use newly bought or fresh from the box one, it won't lump that much. If you're not interested in pressing away lumps, just replace the dark muscovado with light muscovado.
Despite this, the cake is lovely especially when made a day ahead and paired with the accompanying cream cheese icing. Enjoy!
Dark Carrot Cake
85 g nuts (walnuts, brazil nuts, etc.) 1 medium orange 115 g [scant 1 cup] raisins 225 g self-raising flour 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp ground cinnamon 175 g dark muscovado sugar 175 ml sunflower oil 3 eggs 280 g finely grated carrots (about 2-3 medium carrots)
*Icing: 100 g full-fat cream cheese - room temperature 50 g unsalted or slightly salted butter - softened 50 g [heaping 1/3 cup] icing sugar 1 tsp lemon juice
Preheat oven to 160°C/fan 140°C/325°F.
[Optional] Toast nuts in a baking sheet in the oven for about 5-10 minutes.
Finely chop nuts. Finely grate the zest from the orange set aside.
Squeeze 2 Tbsp of juice from the orange and pour it over the raisins in a bowl. Leave to soak for about 20 minutes while you make the cake.
Grease and line the base of a 8-inch/20 cm round or square baking pan with baking parchment.
Combine the flour, cinnamon, and bicarbonate of soda.
Put sugar in mixing bowl. Rub between fingers to break up lumps.
Add in oil and beat with electric mixer on low speed until well mixed and have broken down as much of the little lumps as you can.
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Gently stir in the flour mixture with a large metal spoon.
Fold in carrots, nuts, raisins (with the liquid), and orange zest.
Pour into the prepared baking pan and bake for 45-50 minutes for a round pan and 55-60 minutes for a square pan or until a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes.
Turn out on a wire rack, peel off the lining and let it cool completely.
Mix all icing in a bowl. Spread over cake. Best if cake is left for a day or two before icing and eating.
'Twas my birthday and the kids decided to bake something for me. How nice! They were thinking of doing the Chocolate Date Fudge Cake. But I told them that it's too complicated for beginners like them and just steered to something simpler. They came up with this keeper of a recipe from Sue Lawrence's Book of Baking.
Why is it called a 'surprise' cake? Well, it's got mayonnaise in it! At first I thought it was odd but come to think of it - mayonnaise consists of eggs and oil which is precisely what you put in a cake. I tell you, it was really easy to do and it turned out quite well. It's a shame my pictures don't give it justice. We had slices of it with custard and it was so delicious.
Chocolate Surprise Cake
250 g self-raising flour 50 g cocoa powder 1/4 tsp baking powder 200 g caster sugar 2 tsp vanilla extract 200 g good quality mayonnaise 1 medium egg 160 ml [2/3 cup] cold water
Preheat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F. Butter and flour a 9-inch/23cm round pan or 8-inch/20cm square pan.
Sift (optional) the flour, cocoa, and baking powder into a large bowl.
Stir in the sugar. Make a well in the centre.
Add in all the other ingredients.
Beat with electric mixer until smooth.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack and remove from pan.
Ice with fudge frosting or serve with custard/cream.
