What overripe bananas were made for! Banoffee Cake

 

It is almost worth letting your bananas go black, just to make this cake. Personally, bananas have to be perfectly yellow if I am going to eat them. If there are black spots on them then they are too ripe and sweet to eat. Luckily, ripe bananas make great cakes and this is a lovely recipe which makes a cake that stays moist for several days if you keep it properly.

I have been looking forward to blogging for the European Day for Multilingual Blogging and trying out my French for a real purpose. There is a French version of this blog post here if you are interested. Since I studied French (and German) many years ago, the times to use my French have been seldom and it is only since I have started visiting France regularly again that I have realised just how much I really love France. To write in French once again is a pleasure, even if I do get some of the words wrong! It is odd, but for a long time I preferred the German language (and I was better at it), but now, I prefer French.

Anyway, from one interest to another. There are not enough cakes on this blog so here is another one. It is from ‘The Birthday Cake Book’ by Fiona Cairns and is a banana sponge topped with delicious toffee frosting. I tried to decorate the top with dried banana slices but I couldn’t find any, so I picked out some chewy toffees to decorate. Not recommended if you have loose fillings.

Banoffee Cake adapted from ‘The Birthday Cake Book’ by Fiona Cairns

 Ingredients:

120g unsalted butter, softened, plus more for the tins.

250g self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

160g brown (light muscovado) sugar

3 extremely ripe, large bananas

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons whole milk

For the toffee buttercream: (Note: I halved the quantities to produce enough buttercream to sandwich then top the cake).

240g unsalted butter, softened

60g brown (light muscovado) sugar

2 tablespoons golden syrup

1 tablespoon double cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

200g icing sugar, sifted

Banana chips, or toffee sweets for decoration.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c/350F.

 

Butter two 20cm round cake tins. Ensure they are tins with deep sides, (3 or 4cm, maybe). If necessary, create a collar of a double thickness of baking parchment to come up above the sides.

 

Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

 

Cream together the butter and the sugar in a mixer until soft and fluffy. Meanwhile, mash the bananas with a fork.

 

 

Add the eggs, vanilla and milk to the butter mixture with a spoonful of flour to prevent the mixture from splitting.

 

Fold in the remaining the flour mixture, then the bananas, and then pour the batter into the tins.

Bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer placed into the middle of the cake emerges clean. .

 

 

 

Remove the cake from the oven and run a knife around the sides. Take the cakes out of the tins and allow to cool.

 

 

 

To make the buttercream, melt 80g of the butter, the brown sugar and the syrup over a low heat until it is a deep caramel colour. Take the mixture off the heat and add the cream and the vanilla extract. Keep stirring the mixture. Allow to cool.

 

In a mixer, beat the remaining butter until soft then and fluffy add the icing sugar and beat the mixture for at least five minutes, or until light and creamy.

 

Add the cooled toffee mixture and beat in well.

 

Use the buttercream to sandwich the cakes together. Then top the cake generously with the remaining buttercream.

Decorate with banana chips, or with toffees.