Banana loaf with chocolate fudgy icing

Banana and chocolate bake number two! I hadn't tried Mary Berry's banana loaf from her Baking Bible so I gave it a go. It's another chuck-everything-in-the-bowl-and-mix recipe which always gets a massive thumbs up from me. 

I have a really strong urge to add cinnamon to everything at the moment but I resisted with this recipe. I'm actually glad I did because it left the banana flavour to shine. However I did cave in to my urge to cover the cake in chocolate. I went for my Granny's cooked chocolate icing as I wanted a slightly fudgy flavour. My icing could have been a bit thicker, but it still tasted good. I fully recommend banana and fudgy chocolate as a flavour combination. My only complaint is that my cake didn't rise very much but perhaps that was just down to my mixing.

I was struggling to find something to photograph my loaf on as I am fed up with always using a boring choppingboard (honestly, check "loaf cake" in the archives) when Mum reminded me about my big oval plates. The Johnson Brothers Cloud plate was perfect so I decided to be matchy-matchy and use the coordinating cup, saucer and cake plate. 

I also halved the loaf recipe to make a tray of buns/fairy cakes and iced them with a fudgy frosting from my Primrose Bakery book. Unfortunately I forgot to take photographs of these but they were cute and tasty and involved more star and butterfly cake sprinkles.

Banana loaf

Recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

100g (4oz) softened butter
175g (6oz) caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
225g (8oz) self-raising flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons milk

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. Grease a 900g/2lbs loaf tin and line with baking parchment. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl for about 2 minutes and spoon the mixture into the loaf tin. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 1 hour until well risen, golden and firm to touch (a skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean). Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Granny's chocolate topping
Heat two tablespoons of milk, 1.5oz (about 40g) of margarine and 1 tablespoon of cocoa, nearly to boiling and then add 4oz (about 100g) icing sugar and beat together until shiny and thick. Use a whisk if you can't get the lumps of icing sugar to disappear. Add to the top of the cold cake and then decorate in a childish fashion with butterfly sprinkles.

Banana and chocolate cupcakes

I went on a banana baking rampage last week as there were a few browning bananas in the fruit bowl. Either nobody felt like eating bananas or they were leaving them in hope that I would eventually bake with them, which I did!

I decided on these banana and chocolate cupcakes from the first Hummingbird Bakery cookbook (first blogged here). I've also decided that I don't care if it's November; my photographs are going to be bright and summery.

Pretty star sprinkles! I may have got over excited about the new display of cake sprinkles in the baking aisle of a supermarket last week. Naturally I had to stock up.

I've used this recipe a few times but find it can be frustrating. The cupcakes either turn out deliciously moist and light or stodgy and wrinkly. The recipe worked fine this time (hurray!) but I wish I knew how to make it more consistent. Does the ripeness of the bananas affect it? I've considered reducing the amount of baking powder as the recipe calls for one tablespoonful, which seems like a lot, and I often find that the cupcakes deflate slightly either towards the end of baking or within 5 minutes of taking them out the oven, despite being fully cooked. The cupcakes don't taste like there's too much baking powder, but I wonder whether this may be the problem. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

I've got another banana bake to write up over the next couple of days so I hope you all like bananas!
 

5 good things

Last week was a very bad week so I thought it would be good to join in with the "5 good things" posts I've seen on Helen and Victoria's blogs.

1. My new polka dot bedding. I love the pattern, I love that it's reversible, I love the shade of dusky pink, but mostly I love that it's brushed cotton. It's really soft and cosy and looks so inviting with my bedspread.

2. I've started my Christmas crochet projects. There's something therapeutic about crocheting. It has been a nice activity for my brain to zone out to when I'm struggling to sleep. Want to know who watches Big Bang Theory re-runs on E4 at 1am? That's me and my crochet hook.

3. I was alone in the house for a couple of hours on Saturday so I played the piano for the first time in ages. Even though I am incredibly out of practice I really enjoyed it. It's a great brain cleanser. I concentrate so hard on what I'm playing that it blots out everything else, leaving me strangely refreshed yet exhausted.

4. The ultimate comfort: a cup of tea and a pair of cosy slippers. One can never wear too many Fair Isle patterns.

5. Last week I discovered the online fabric shop, Frumble. There are so many exciting patterns! Even though I'm trying to only spend money on Christmas gifts, I think I may need to purchase some fabric.

What are your 5 good things at the moment?

Hot lemon pudding

There was a time when I didn't like lemon. It's hard to believe considering it's now one of my favourite cake flavours. This is the pudding which changed my mind and I've never looked back.

One of my flatmates in my first year of university made this pudding as part of our "Communal Meals Saturday" and although I had grown up thinking I wasn't that fussed with lemon I thought I'd give it a go.

I loved this pudding. A soft spongey crust with a warm, zesty lemon curd oozing underneath. What's not to like? (A flatmate's drunk friend "visiting" later on that night and dipping her fingers through our pudding. We weren't best pleased.) It's comforting yet fresh and light so you can have seconds without feeling stodgy later on. Always a good thing.

If you're a fellow lemon lover then I would recommend adding this to your baking repertoire. Rachel Allen's recipe can be found here. I'll definitely be making it again now that I have been reunited with the recipe. It also gives me an excuse to use my polka dot heart shaped dish.

Syrupy ginger bundt

Although it's fun to flick through the glossy pages of new cookbooks, sometimes it's good to return to an old family favourite. My aunty recently gave me my Granny's handwritten gingerbread recipe. She used to make it in a large roasting tin but I thought I'd try it in my 10 inch cake ring/bundt tin.

Winter light got the better of me with these photographs. Just as I took my camera out a big rain shower came past and made the room dark. I took a few photographs and got on with eating the cake. Cake is to be eaten and enjoyed after all.

This cake is so sticky and syrupy. It's gorgeous. Not surprising since it contains 3/4lb golden syrup! Shhh, don't tell your dentist. You can always pretend the warm spices make it healthy.

I think this cake would taste incredible with custard, although a cup of tea is just as comforting and involves less effort. After the faffy tarte tatin I was all about laziness this week!

Sticky syrupy gingerbread

Recipe from my Granny. I converted her measurements to metric to be helpful.

450g (1 lb) flour

1 level tbsp ground ginger (or adapt to suit. I used 2tsp ginger and 1tsp cinnamon and I'm a cinnamon freak)

1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 level tsp bakind powder

1 level tsp salt

225g (8oz) brown sugar ( I used light brown muscovado)

175g (6oz) margarine (I used Stork)

350g (3/4lb) golden syrup

300ml (10 fl oz or 1/2pt) milk

1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 160C/Fan 140C/Gas 3. Sieve all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Warm the sugar, margarine and syrup together, not letting it get too hot. Warm the milk separately. Add all the liquids to the dry ingredients along with a beaten egg and mix thoroughly. Bake in the centre of the oven for 1hr 15-30 minutes, or until firm to touch. Leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack. (I took it out when it was still slightly warm and a layer stuck to the base of the tin. I didn't mind though, I just scraped it off and ate it!)

Tarte tatin

Tarte tatin and I almost didn't become friends.

I initially tried making the caramel for the base the way Mary Berry did on the Bake Off Masterclass on tv a couple of weeks ago, by boiling sugar and water. It burnt. Never try to make caramel as you're trying to make and serve your dinner. In frustration I dumped the hot pot in the sink.

Shards of caramel went EVERYWHERE.

I reverted back to the recipe in Mary Berry's Baking Bible but got confused making the caramel (again) as the demerara sugar wouldn't melt, but chucked it in the tin anyway. After chopping apples for what seemed like hours, I arranged them on top of the caramel (although I did my centre pattern the wrong way up, doh!)  and added the pastry before flinging it in the oven.

The pastry looked light golden after 20 minutes, as the recipe stated, so I turned it out.

Undercooked.

By this point I no longer cared and turned the tart back into the tin (potentially dangerous move) and baked it for another 20 minutes. Surprisingly, it turned out absolutely fine.

The reduced juices from the tart made a ridiculously tasty syrup to pour over the top. That alone would have tasted amazing with ice-cream.

The tart was sweet and sticky with a lovely tang of lemon running through it balancing the sweetness. I was relieved it tasted good although I was almost in too much of a huff to enjoy it. Does that happen to anyone else?

I actually think the flavours tasted better the following day (possibly because I was less angry?) The tart also sliced much cleaner cold.

Tarte Tatin
Recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

For the pastry:
100g (4oz) self-raising flour
50g (2oz) diced butter
1 level tablespoon icing sugar
1 large egg yolk
scant tablespoon cold water

Measure the flour, butter and icing sugar into a bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and enough water to bring the mixture together to a firm but not sticky dough. Knead lightly, wrap in clingfilm and chill for about 30 minutes.

For the topping:
900g (2lb) dessert apples. (I used Pink Lady)
finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
75g (3oz) butter
75g (3oz) demerara sugar

Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C?Gas 6. Peel (I didn't bother!), core and slice the apples and sprinkle with the lemon juice and rind (it stops the apples from browning). Measure the butter and sugar into a small pan and heat gently until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Pour into the base of a 23cm/9 in sandwich tin. Arrange a singer layer of the best apple slices in a circular pattern over the mixture. Cover with the remaining apple slices. Roll out the chilled dough onto a lightly floured surface and use to cover the apples (make it slightly bigger than your tin and tuck the edges down the sides). Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes (mine actually took 40 minutes) until the pastry is crisp and golden brown.

Tip the juices from the tin into a small pan. Turn the tart out onto a plate, with the pastry on the bottom. Boil the juices to reduce to a syrupy caramel and pour over the apples.If there is very little juice (depending on your apples) add 2 tbsp demerara sugar, dissolved in the pan with the juices and cook until syrupy. Serve warm with cream, creme fraiche, yoghurt, ice-cream, or custard.