Caramel Frosted Banana Cake

I love banana cake. I love caramel. Put them both together (and a few fabulous ingredients) and you have a delicious, very more-ish cake to share with friends.






INGREDIENTS:

125g Butter
175g Light Brown Sugar
2 eggs
250g Ripe Mashed Banana
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 TBSP warm milk
150g Plain Flour
100g Self Raising Flour

FROSTING:

175g Dark Brown Sugar
100g Butter
1/4 tsp of sea salt
60ml Milk
1tsp Vanilla Extract
160g Icing Sugar

METHOD
Heat oven to 180C or 160C (fan oven). Grease and line the base and sides of a 20cm round cake tin.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric beater until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the mashed banana (use really ripe bananas). Combine the milk and bicarb soda in a cup, then add to the mixture. Sift the flour and then stir until everything is combined.

Spread the mix evenly over the base of the tin. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 50 mins, checking with a cake skewer. When done, remove, allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes then turn out and cool on a cake rack.

To make the Caramel Frosting, combine the sugar, butter and salt in a saucepan, melting over a low heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add the milk and vanilla and increase the heat, bringing the sauce to the boil for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat, sift the icing sugar into the pan and whisk to make the frosting icing. Spoon or use an icing palette knife to ice the cake (top and sides).

Too many tomatoes?

No, there's no such thing as TOO many tomatoes. The trick is to be clever with what you do with them. Yes there's Greek Salad, tomato salad, bruschetta and a basic tomato sauce to use with pasta. But what about a hot and spicy salsa to top some corn fritters? Now there's a summer treat if you ever had one. Tomato relish? You keep the love for longer. And that tomato sauce - make a big batch and freeze it. Faced with a glut of tomatoes and being a touch greedy, I didn't really want to give any away I headed to my trusty tome, Nigel Slater: Tender Volume 1.

Home grown garlic

It's one of my favourite books for finding new and innovative ways to prepare vegetables from the kitchen garden. He treats each vegetable to it's own chapter, with an introduction detailing his love and experience of the veg, then talks about how it grows it, perfect flavour pairings and then he shares some of his recipes. With said glut of tomatoes I wanted to do more than make a salad, so to the book I went. He offers up a very simple dish of Baked Tomatoes with Chilli and Coconut. Well the tomatoes aren't baked in the oven, they are cooked on the hob but it does pack a punch with chilli and it contains coconut for a fabulous creaminess. Tomato Curry would be a much more appropriate name for it - as that's basically what it is - a delicious bowl of lycopene (which is really good for you) chilli and coconut.  It is packed with a heady mix of garlic, ginger, chilli, coriander, turmeric, cumin and cardamon seeds, lots of tomatoes and creamed coconut and that's it. For the full recipes you will need to click here: Baked Tomatoes with chilli and conconut and scroll down a bit. It is seriously good. Served topped with chopped coriander, some rice and perhaps a warmed roti - there's dinner.

Tomato Curry: baked tomatoes with chilli and coconut

Caramelised Fresh Pineapple Upside Down Cake

On a cloudy, wet summer's day, I was feeling forlorn and fed-up. I spied a fresh pineapple in the corner of my kitchen, a day or two past it's best-by date. I conjured up a plan, a sunshine plan. I decided to create and bake a cake. Here's the recipe I developed that should bring a ray of sunshine to any kitchen on a grey day.

Ingredients

Caramel

1/2 medium fresh pineapple, peeled, cored and sliced into rings (about 1cm thick)

90 g butter

125 g light brown sugar

Cake

170 g butter

150 g caster sugar

Pinch salt

160 g SR flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)

125ml milk
2 eggs

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180 C/160C fan

Grease a 20cm cake tin or tarte tartin tin with butter (bottom and sides). Cut pineapple rings into quarters. Melt 90g butter and the light brown sugar in a heavy based saucepan. Simmer over a medium heat stirring constantly for about 4 minutes to make the caramel. Pour evenly over the base of the cake tin. Place the pineapple quarters in a circular pattern on the base of the tin, covering the base. Set aside.

Next cream the butter and caster sugar with an electric beater until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until fully combined. Add the vanilla bean paste.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add portions of the flour and the milk in small additions slowly to the mix, beating slowly until combined. The mixture may curdle slightly, if so add a little more flour.

Once combined, pour the mixture over the caramelised pineapple. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. It’s done when a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tin for about 5-10 minutes. Place an upturned plate on top of the tin, invert carefully onto the plate. Replace any pineapple that has become stuck on the tin. Cool on the plate on a cake cooler.

Serve warm or at room temperature. 

The day I filmed Baking Mad on Channel 4

You may have heard via Twitter or Facebook that I was a contestant on Baking Mad with Eric Lanlard on Channel 4. The link to watch the show is at the bottom of this post. I hope you enjoy it. Here's the story behind the scenes.

Talking to camera before the bake

The bakers

The day I filmed Baking Mad was the culmination of much excitement, anticipation and lots of practice baking. To be honest I was a bit sick of rhubarb pie by the time I came to create my winning masterpiece. I applied to be on the show, hearing that they were looking for more men to bake. After a written application, I had a phone interview and then had to bake a cake and have a one-to-one interview with the production team. I got the call that very afternoon. So when I was given my category - sweet pies. I promptly conducted a straw poll of what pie to bake (amongst family and friends).  In my heart I was thinking it should be rhubarb or apple. I settled on rhubarb and am glad I did. It's quintessentially English and baked properly, balances sweet and tart in a pie - which I thought would appeal to Eric.

Filling the pie with rhubarb

Eric's watchful eye

So after a week's worth of practicing, I came down with flu. And before you say it - this wasn't man-flu - I had the shivers, fever, blocked nose, cough and was off my food. The morning of the show I felt rubbish, so dosed up on cold and flu remedies, I gathered my ingredients and tins and made my way to Cake Boy in Battersea. The film crew were great fun, the other contestants were really nice - nervous too. After a quick coffee - we got under way. There was lots of talking to camera and a few set up shots. The we got baking. We had just two hours, which is quite tough as you don't normally cook to a strict time limit when baking at home. Not everything went according to plan, the ovens didn't heat properly and the pastry didn't like the warmth from the additional lighting of the camera crew. I made a couple of fluff ups - my first roll out of pastry fell apart - thankfully, that was captured on camera. In a flash it was almost over. 10 minutes was called and my pie wasn't browning. I turned the oven up to 240 degrees - MAX. It browned-up and it came out with seconds to spare.

Creating the lattice crust

Rhubarb pie with almond pastry and lattice crust

There was no more to do than wait for Eric to judge. Presenting the pie to Eric was odd as he gave no feedback to you in person - he did speak to camera in private, which you see and he was complementary of my pie. Then he came out and delivered his verdict. I thought I had done well, but then I heard it. The winner is - Mark. Woo hoo. Pie triumph.

Waiting for the verdict

The winner takes it all

I stayed on to do the Masterclass with Eric himself, a Southern Chocolate Pie. I have had so many requests to bake this from friends. It's was a fabulous day and a great experience. I love it and hope you do too.

Tasting the mix

Southern Chocolate Pie

Watch Mark on Baking Mad with Eric Lanlard - 29th March 2012

In Australia and New Zealand?  Watch by clicking here !

 Or in the UK Click here to watch Baking Mad via You Tube