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Friday 22 June 2012

honeycomb & banana bundt cake



Honeycomb, Yellowman or Cinder Toffee. Even Hokey Pokey to some. The innards of a 'Crunchie' without its chocolate casing. You can easily make it yourself, it's just golden syrup, sugar and fun when you add the bicarb! You can also buy it in a big bag of irregular chunks, available in many sweetie-shops now. I have had a couple of banana bread recipes here in the last year but this is a 'four banana' cake that is especially useful at this time of year when the bananas over-ripen faster than it is possible for a person to eat them.  As with a lot of my 'everyday' cakes, if you are not making the honeycomb, it takes very little effort and leaves little washing up.

I make this cake in my bundt tin but before I had that a lined loaf tin worked perfectly. The banana sponge with hidden sticky bits of melted honeycomb is just lovely on its own or with a cup of coffee. A little extra honeycomb crumbled over for crunch with a drizzle of icing over is a nice finish. Best of all is a thick caramel frosting that will find its way down the sides of the bundt cake and make your fillings hurt.


Ingredients
225g (8oz) plain flour
1 tsp. salt
1 heaped tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
110g (4oz) caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
75g (3oz) butter, melted*
a few drops of vanilla essence
65g (2½ oz) honeycomb, smashed
4 medium-sized ripe bananas, mashed

Method
1. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl and stir in the sugar.
2. Mix in the egg, melted butter* and vanilla but do not beat.
3. Fold in the honeycomb and mashed bananas, using a fork. Again, do not beat.
4.Spoon into a buttered and floured bundt tin or lined (3½ inch x 8 inch) 900g/2lb loaf tin and bake in an oven preheated to 180c/350f/gas mark 4 for 50-60 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and springs back when prodded gently with your finger.
5. Leave in the tin for 10 mins, then turn onto a wire rack to cool.


* Dear Ger - Just for you I tried it with 75ml/3 fl oz sunflower oil and it works just as well in place of the butter. See you soon.

18 comments:

  1. I'm a sucker for bundt cakes and for honeycomb - this sounds (and looks) fantastic! I buy two bunches of bananas every week and always have a few over-ripe ones lying around, I know what I'll be doing with them now.

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    1. The eternal quest for using up bananas is something they don't tell you about when you sign up to be a mammy, Kristin!

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  3. a perfect combination of flavours and one I will be trying. Have made honeycomb before and it is quite a fun activity. Adding it into a beautiful Bundt cake is a brilliant idea!

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    1. It is fun to make - you never really expect it to foam up quite so high. And I love how a bunt tin makes ordinary cakes look so special.

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  4. Love the look of this & even more when I see the oil substitute will work too. Envisioning with a great coffee on a lazy morning. Thanks Rosemarie

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    1. I try to do lot of dairy substitutions for my (soon to be) sister-in-law - she has a butter phobia. I might stop after we have her formally signed up to the madness :)

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  5. Oh Amee...this is gorgeous! I wonder about inviting a new member of the family to dinner if they have a butter phobia? ....... The mind boggles

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    1. The butter-phob is the easiest to please, believe me. The vegan is far more challenging to cater for. The tomato and severely pet hair allergic sis in law is very hard to keep alive.

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  6. I totally agree with Mona, Amee it looks delicious and it's too late to eat anything

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    1. Hi Magda, missed you! Where've you been. Is it ever to late to eat a little something more?

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    2. Oh Amee, I'm almost back. I've been away to Poland and then, we moved to a new apartment, so I was packing, unpacking and cleaning. But I cooked something today, so I have something to blog about, just have to write about it ;)
      After your reading your post I ate a cookie, so my answer would it's never too late ;)

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  7. I love any cake made with bananas. Honeycomb is a really interesting idea; I'd never thought of actually baking it before. Great looking cake!

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  8. This looks delicious! Do you have a recipe for the frosting?

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    1. Indeed I do - It's the toffee sauce from my gingerbread thickened a little bit more.

      Toffee Sauce

      Ingredients:
      115g unsalted butter
      115g light muscovado sugar
      140ml double cream

      Method:
      Put all the ingredients in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and the sauce has thickened and darkened in colour.

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  9. Wow, wow, wow. This looks sooooo good!

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  10. This looks divine!! Must try.

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