Cupcakes are the new Cupcakes!

Just when you think that you can't eat one more cupcake…

The trendcasters have often said that pie was supposed to be the new cupcake, but that didn't happen. Then the speculation was baked donuts or exotic mini tarts. There was an entire list of things that were also contenders for 'the next cupcake'. Regular donuts, macarons, cake balls, whoopie pies - but none of them reached the feverish following achieved by the cupcake.

At Goodness Cakes the new range of flavors inspired by retro summer ice-creams and pops are causing a stir. Pick up a box for your picnic, they travel a lot better than ice-cream. 'Super-split', 'Ninety-nine', 'Banana Split' and 'Mint Feast' have already rolled out of the ovens. What could be next? 'Tangle-twister', 'Brunch', 'Fat Frogs' even?

So this summer, in Galway at least, it seems that once again cupcakes are the new cupcakes.

Hummingbird Cake

Hummingbird Cake is such a lovely name for a cake. The roasting of the bananas gives it the most mellow of flavors, sugary, rich and delicious. Its origins are in the deep South of the USA, full of chopped pecans, crushed pineapple, and bananas frosted with a delicious cream cheese icing. This is a cake for a crowd or a celebration. A winter cake that reminds you of the summer months to come.

Cake Ingredients:
250g flour (3 cups) gluten free or regular
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
225g (1 cup) granulated sugar
225g (1 cup) light brown sugar
3 large eggs
200ml, 7floz (1 cup) vegetable oil
2 teaspoons  vanilla extract
160g (1 cup) pineapple, fresh or tinned, crushed
4 large or 6 medium-small bananas, roasted in their skins. (See below*)
100g (1 cup) chopped pecans

Frosting Ingredients:
175g (1½ sticks) butter, chilled
3 x 8 ounce packets of cream cheese, chilled
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
175 g icing sugar, sifted (1½ cups powdered sugar)
150g (1½ cups) finely chopped pecans

Makes 12 -16 servings

*First roast the bananas in a moderate oven preheated to 180°C, 350°F, gas mark 4. Place them on a lined baking sheet with there skins left on. Bake in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes until the skins are black (the bananas will leak out some juice, this is perfectly OK). Remove from the oven and let them cool until they can be handled. Peel the bananas and mash the flesh in a small mixing bowl. Set aside. Leave the oven heated to 180°C.

Butter and flour 3 x 9" round baking pans. Line the bottoms of each pan with parchment paper. Sift flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt together into a bowl and set aside.
In a second mixing bowl combine the granulated and brown sugar. Add the eggs and stir briskly by hand into a smooth mixture. Whisk the oil and vanilla into the sugar and egg mixture until smooth. Add the flour mixture all at once and fold to combine the mixture fully. Add the crushed pineapple, mashed banana and the pecans.  Stir just until combined, be careful not to over stir.

Divide the cake batter evenly between the three pans and place in the oven for 30 - 40 minutes until cake bounces back to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the pans for 5 minutes then turn out onto cooling racks, peel off the parchment paper and allow to fully cool before frosting.

To Make the Cream Cheese Frosting:
Cube the butter and place in the bowl of a standing mixer. Beat on low speed, gradually increasing speed to medium until the butter is still cool but has softened together (about 3 minutes).
Cut the cream cheese into 1 inch strips and add to the butter.  Mix at medium speed until fully combined, and smooth.
Add the vanilla, lemon zest and slowly add the sifted powdered sugar.  Beat until well blended, increasing speed to beat on medium-high for 3 minutes or until the frosting becomes light and fluffy.
Fold in pecans by hand.

Bring it all together:
Place the first layer of cake upside down (the bottom of the cake will be frosted) on the serving plate. Cover with a thin layer of frosting. Place the second layer of cake right side up (flat cake bottom onto the frosting) and frost the top of this layer. Place the last cake layer with cake right side up and use the remaining frosting to cover top of cake and the sides. Allow the cake to stand at room temperature for a while before serving and store any uneaten cake in the refrigerator.  This cake is a little bit nicer when made the day before you want to serve it.

christmas rocky road squares

These are plain old rocky road squares with the seasonal adjustment of red glace cherries. The ones pictured here are missing their nuts as they were destined for a school party. These can be made ahead and store in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 1 week. Decorate with icing sugar up to 2 hours before serving. Make the Rocky Road as above and freeze for up to a month. Thaw overnight in a cool place and decorate.

Ingredients
250g dark chocolate
150g milk chocolate
175g butter
4 tbsp golden syrup
200g Rich Tea biscuits
150g toasted hazelnuts
150g glace cherries (red)
125 g mini marshmallows
1 tbsp icing sugar
Edible things for decorating

Method
Chop both sorts of chocolate small and then put into a heavy-based pan to melt with the butter and syrup over a gentle heat. Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin to get big- and little-sized crumbs; you want some pieces to crunch and some sandy rubble. Put the nuts into another freezer bag and also bash them so you get different-sized nut rubble. Take the pan off the heat, and add the crushed biscuits and nuts, whole glacé cherries and mini-marshmallows. Turn carefully to coat everything with syrupy chocolate. Tip into a foil tray (I use one 236mm x 296mm), smoothing the top as best you can, although it will look bumpy. Refrigerate until firm enough to cut, which will take about 1 1/2–2 hours. Then take the set block of rocky road out of the foil tray ready to cut. Sieve the icing sugar to dust the top of the Rocky Road. With the long side in front of you, cut into it 6 slices down and 4 across, so that you have 24 almost-squares. Top with festive things, edible or plastic, taking care not to eat the plastic ones.

Adapted from Nigella Christmas

Pear and Cardamom Cake

With the Christmas season galloping towards us - it's good to have a few easy to make recipes up your sleeve that are still smart enough to serve as a dessert over the festive season.

This is a grown up cake with subtle flavors that linger. It just needs a scoop of good vanilla ice-cream or even better, a little quenelle of mascarpone cream. The pear in this recipe works beautifully. It moistens and subtly flavours the cake, complimenting the other flavours. The amaretti biscuits and ground almonds give a gentle note of almond while the coffee and cardamom give an initial burst of flavour before blending gently into the background.

This is an 'objet trouvé' sort of a recipe - from an advertisement promotion for DeLonghi, (hence the coffee I suppose) in Delicious Magazine.  Very pretty on the plate with it's cobweb of chocolate, and it is, indeed, delicious.

Pear and Cardamom Cake with Coffee and Amaretti

Ingredients:
175g softened butter
175g light muscavado sugar
3 medium eggs
50g ground almonds
1 tsp freshly ground cardamom
175g self raising flour
2 tbsp espresso coffee
3 ripe pears, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks
4 amaretti biscuits, roughly crushed
75g dark chocolate

Method:
Preheat the oven to 190C
grease and line a 20cm loose-bottomed tin
Cream together the butter and the sugar until pale and fluffy
Beat in the eggs one at a time
Fold in the ground almonds, cardamom, flour, coffee, and 2/3 of the chopped pears until well combined
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface
Scatter the remaining pears and 2/3 of the amaretti biscuits over the top and bake for 1 hour until risen and cooked. If you insert a skewer into the centre it should come out clean
Allow the cake to cool completely
Remove the cake from the tin and place onto a serving platter. Scatter over the remaining biscuits.
Melt the chocolate and drizzle over the top of the cake

banana cream pie

The big, generous, family pie is something the Americans do best. Deep dish fruit pies stuffed full of apples or cherries. Smooth pumpkin or crunchy pecan pie, rich and decadent peanut butter or Mississippi mud pie. This one is my current favorite and possibly the easiest of the lot - the banana cream pie.

It is not an sophisticated dessert by any means, ripe bananas hiding in a smooth thick custard, but it is very good - I most often make mine on a sweet shortcrust pastry, but a packet of plain shortbread or another plain biscuit or cookie makes it even easier as you won't even have to turn the oven on. This is a favorite with children and people with ill-fitting dentures.

American banana cream pie

For the base
250g plain flour
125g butter, chilled, chopped
75 g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon chilled water

For the filling
500ml milk
250ml cream
1 tin (approx 250ml) condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp cornflour
4 egg yolks
3 large bananas, roughly chopped

For the topping
2 large bananas, thinly sliced
approximately 500ml whipped cream
a little grated chocolate if liked

Make the base:  For the sweet pastry base combine flour, butter and sugar in a food processor. Process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add yolk and chilled water. Process until dough just comes together. Turn pastry onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until just smooth. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200°C. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to about a 3mm-thick disc. Line a round 23cm tart tin, with removable base or pie dish  with pastry and trim any excess. Place in the fridge for a further 15 minutes to rest.

Cover the pastry base with baking paper and fill with ceramic baking beans, rice or dried beans. Place on a baking tray and bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove the paper and pastry weights, rice or beans, and bake for a further 10 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven.

(For a biscuit base place a medium packet of biscuits in a food processor. Process until they are completely broken up and there are no big lumps visible. Place in the bottom of a deep pie dish between  10" - 12". mix in 2 tablespoons of melted butter, press down with the back of a spoon to line the base and refridgerate for 30 mins.)

Make the filling: Bring the milk, cream, condensed milk and vanilla to a boil. Meanwhile, whisk together the cornflour and egg yolks. When the milk mixture is hot, spoon some of it onto the egg yolk mixture and whisk well. Pour the egg yolks back in the pot and allow to heat slowly while stirring constantly until the mixture becomes very thick - just a couple of minuets should do it.

Mix in the chopped bananas and pour onto the biscuits or pastry shell. Push down any bananas near the top as they will discolour if they are too close to the surface. Place a piece of cling wrap directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming and put it in the fridge for 2-3 hours until set.

To serve: Remove the cling wrap, dollop the whipped cream on top, arrange the sliced bananas on the pie. grate some chocolate over (if desired) and serve maybe with a little drizzle of maple syrup.

classic lemon meringue...

A classic lemon meringue, if it ain't broke...

My favourite baking tins in the kitchen are my individual, loose-bottomed tart tins. I love how handy they are. They were bought for making goats cheese tarts and quiches, so that I could cook a couple and pop the rest into the freezer. Also, I love making desserts in them, having an individual tart all to myself really brings out the kid in me. Either that or you could pretend that it is a normal sized tart and that you are a giant.

I have piped the meringue topping on these and blow torched the top, just as one of my favourite bakeries do. While they do look pretty, the piping left the meringue less airy and fluffy than I like, and frankly I wouldn't bother doing it again unless the queen was coming to tea. I usually just pile it up on top of the lemon filling and put it into the oven until it has turned a nice toasted golden color.

The base
350g sweet dessert pastry (make your own or buy a good quality all-butter one).

The meringue
2 egg whites
100g caster sugar

The filling
2 level tbsp cornflour
100g caster sugar
2 large lemons, zested
175ml lemon juice
85g butter, chilled and diced
3 egg yolks plus 1 whole egg, beaten

Heat the oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Roll out the pastry - not too thick and not too thin. Put 6 tart tins on a large baking sheet and line with the pastry, leaving the sides overhanging a little. Fill each tin with scrunched-up baking paper and beans and bake blind for 15 minutes. Take out the beans and paper and cook for another 5-10 minutes until there are no uncooked pastry patches. Trim the edges flush with the tart rings.

To make the lemon filling, mix the cornflour, sugar and lemon zest in a pan. Sieve in the lemon juice gradually, then stir in 150ml water. Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and smooth. Once the mixture bubbles, remove from the heat and beat in the butter until melted. Stir the eggs into the pan and return to a lowish heat. Keep stirring for a few minutes, until the mixture thickens and just bubbles. Take off the heat and leave to cool a little, then divide between the pastry cases.
Put the egg whites in a clean bowl, whisk to soft peaks then start adding the sugar a tbsp at a time, whisking each one in. Keep going until all the sugar is used up and the meringue is stiff and shiny.
Pile spoonfuls of the meringue on top of the filling (instead of piping it - it's nicer, unless of course, the Queen is coming to tea!). Put the tarts back in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the meringue is peaked with gold. Cool completely before serving.

natural blonde...

In the world of human stereotypes it is the blonde who is the more obviously attractive and the brunette who has the duller, 'girl next door' image. But, in the cake world it's the other way around… the Blondie with it's paler coloring is the less attractive on the plate and has to work a little harder to get some attention. The rich chewy chocolate charms of the Brownie is the one that most would reach for.

These Chocolate Fudge Blondies have a chewy, hidden depth. They are so easy to throw together and bake in no time. As with any moist brownie, they keep well in an airtight container. So, put your preconceptions aside and have a blondie moment...because you're worth it!

Ingredients

200g butter softened

175g brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

250 plain flower

1 tsp baking powder

200g white chocolate, melted

75g fudge small chunks

75g dark chocolate small chunks

Method

Grease and line a 20cm x 30cm tin with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180c (350F). Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until pale and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and vanilla beating well after each addition. Add the flour, baking powder and melted chocolate and beat until combined. Spoon half the blondie mixture into the prepared tin . Mix together the fudge and chocolate chips and sprinkle over the mixture. Spoon the remaining mixture on top and spread out to cover the chips completely. Bake for 25 to 30 mins until cooked when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool in the tin, slice in to 12 large pieces or, as I do, 24 smaller ones. If you do cut them into 24, remember to eat twice as many.

hazelnut & buttermilk banana loaf...

I have written of banana bread here before. This butter-less banana bread is the nutty type and easier again if such a thing is possible... and with minimum washing up, my favorite kind of loaf! It's what to make when you are being badgered into baking something but don't want to spend the rest of the evening cleaning up after it. If you have children over the age of three they can also do a lot of the work themselves, which is fair, as it is they who have done the badgering.

As with all banana bread, the very best bananas to use are the kind that are so old and blackened that they look like they have been in a house fire. The buttermilk keeps this very moist and can be replaced with natural or hazelnut yogurt in a pinch. The hazelnuts are best toasted before being added to the mix. It is not essential but it does release their inner nuttiness.

Ingredients
2 eggs
80 ml buttermilk
120 ml vegetable oil
225 g mashed bananas (about two large ones)
300 g golden caster sugar
220 g all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
55 g chopped hazelnuts (toasted)

Directions

Preheat oven to 165 degrees C. Grease one 9x5 inch loaf pan. In a large bowl mash the bananas. Add the buttermilk, vanilla and oil, beat in the eggs. Stir in the sugar. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt onto the mix and mix well. Finally stir in the hazelnuts and pour into prepared loaf pan. Bake for one hour and twenty minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool and serve with a spoon of cream, unsweetened as this is quite a sweet loaf. A drizzle of icing or syrup, a few banana chips and hazelnuts for extra crunch.

we heart cinnamon rolls...

...with a maple syrup glaze

It's that special time of year when chocolate and greetings card companies encourage you to demonstrate the extent of your love in exchange for cash on February 14th. Yes, I admit it, I hate this 'holiday'. I'm not very mushy and I don't care for hot pink. I don't like roses much either, being more of a wild-flower kind of gal. While some couples like to gaze into each other's eyes over their romantic meal, we are as likely to fall asleep into our fancy dinner.

So this year I am making a stand, I will not give into the pink and red sprinkles or take the heart-shaped cookie cutters out of the baking drawer. I will resist the urge to colour anything pink or carve cupid bows into root vegetables. Angel food and red velvet cupcakes are strictly off the menu. Instead I am making good old reliable, everyday, unromantic cinnamon rolls. So there!

I make these the night before and leave them for their second rise in the fridge overnight. Nothing compares to the lovely smell of these gorgeous yeast buns baking in the oven… big, rich, and full to bursting with cinnamon. These are heart shaped and each one will serve two people, perfect for Valentine's day... whoops!

...with an icing sugar glaze

Dough:
600 - 650g plain flour
1 package sachet (7 grams) dry yeast
240ml milk
75g butter
65g granulated white sugar
3 large eggs

Filling:
160g light brown sugar
35g plain flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
110g butter, cold and cubed

Glaze: (Optional, but great)
60g icing sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment (you can use an electric hand mixer), combine half of the flour with the yeast.

In a small saucepan, heat the milk, butter, sugar, and salt till just warm and the butter is almost melted. Gradually pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture, with the mixer on a low setting.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then beat this mixture on high speed for a couple of minutes. Replace the paddle with the dough hook (or knead by hand), and knead in as much of the remaining flour to make a soft dough that is smooth and elastic (up to 5 minutes), but not sticky. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled (about 1 1/2 - 2 hours). Then gently punch the dough to release the air and let rest for a few minutes.

Make the filling. In a food processor whizz together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and the cold butter into crumbs.

Roll the dough into a 12 inch square. Sprinkle the filling evenly over the rolled out dough and top. Roll the dough evenly from each side to meet in the centre pinching the end into a heart shape. Slice the roll into six equal-sized pieces. Arrange rolls in a large, greased, round glass pie dish. Any sugar mix that escaped during cutting can be sprinked over the top, it makes a lovely crunchy crust. Cover rolls loosely with plastic wrap, leaving room for rolls to rise, at room temperature, until almost doubled (about one hour). They are now ready to bake, or, at this point you can refrigerate the Cinnamon Rolls overnight or up to 24 hours. Next morning, remove the rolls from the refrigerator, take off the plastic wrap, and let stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Bake in a 180C oven for 30 minutes or till light brown, and a toothpick inserted into one of the buns, comes out clean. Remove rolls from oven. Cool for 5 minutes and then invert onto a baking rack and re-invert onto a serving plate or platter. You can drizzle with maple syrup and a bit of powdered sugar shaken over the top looks nice. An icing glaze is more traditional on these and most people seem to prefer it.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 6 large rolls and 12 servings.

Baked in a round tin they will keep a heart shape.

This recipe has been adapted from the joy of baking

This recipe has been submitted to English Mums Baked with Love Bake-off http://englishmum.com/english-mums-baked-with-love-bakeoff.html

nigella's quadruple chocolate cake

This is a chocolate cake recipe that I found on Nigella Lawson's very pretty site. While I have most of her books, I hardly ever seem to cook from them anymore, though I don't really know why that is. I suppose I'm just using other books as my reference points at the moment. Tessa Kiros, Hugh Fearnly and more robust recipes that do not need as much exact temperature control for good results. I'm slowly coming to grips with my range cooker where the cooking is more intuitive than an exact science, but 'twas a chocolate cake I was after, so I gave this recipe a whirl.

As far as chocolate cakes are concerned this one is a bit misleading. The four kinds of chocolate don't really make for a very chocolatey cake. There is just 50g of cocoa powder in the sponge, the chocolate chips don't add a lot more at just 175g. One more tablespoon of cocoa in the syrup and some grated dark chocolate over the top brings us up to the four kinds of chocolate that give the cake it's name. What you actually get is a very dense everyday kind of chocolate cake, and because it is so nice and squidgy will keep nicely for a week if not longer.

I have included Nigella's instructions as they appear in their entirety here. When I made it, I served the syrup separately as the sponge was already so sticky that poring the syrup over the cake just seemed wrong. It would also have made it difficult to store it anywhere except the tin I had baked it in. The recipe also requires you to line the tin with foil without tearing it. This was quite frankly, impossible, so with a pile of torn tin foil on the floor I turned to baking parchment which did not tear and worked perfectly.

I also must offer a translation for Nigella's introduction to the cake as some of you may not be able to understand her accent.

Nigella says...
This cake is not named for the bypass you might feel you'd need after eating it, but in honour of the four choc-factors that comprise its glory: cocoa to make the cake; chocolate chips or morsels to fold into it; a chocolate syrup to drench it once out of the oven; flakily sliced dark chocolate to top it before slicing.

I love this for tea, even for weekend breakfast, or late at night when its melting squidginess tends to fall darkly on to my white sheets - and I don't care. It's always wonderful as a pudding: put it on the table, ready to slice, alongside a bowl of strawberries and another of creme fraiche.

Nigella means…
I called this cake quadruple chocolate cake because it's got four bits of chocolate in. I eat it anytime I want, even in bed because I have a cleaner. I like pudding.

For the Cake:
200g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
50g cocoa
275g caster sugar
175g soft unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
80ml sour cream
125ml boiling water
175g dark chocolate chips (unless you'd prefer milk chocolate ones)

For the Syrup:
1 teaspoon cocoa
125ml water
100g caster sugar
25g dark chocolate (from a thick bar if possible)

Method 
Makes 10 generous slices

Take whatever you need out of the fridge so that all ingredients can come to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 3/170°C, putting in a baking sheet as you do so, and line a 900g loaf tin (mine measures 21x11cm and 7.5cm deep and the cooking times are based on that) with greased foil - making sure there are no tears - and leave an overhang all round. Or use a silicone tin.

Put the flour, bicarb, cocoa, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream into the processor and blitz until it's a smooth, satiny brown batter. Scrape down with a rubber spatula and process again while pouring the boiling water down the funnel. Switch it off then remove the lid and the well-scraped double-bladed knife and, still using your rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips or morsels.

Scrape and pour this beautiful batter into the prepared loaf tin and slide into the oven, cooking for about 1 hour. When it's ready, the loaf will be risen and split down the middle and a cake-tester, or a fine skewer, should come out clean. But this is a moist cake, so don't be alarmed at a bit of stickiness in evidence; rather, greet it like a friend.

Not long before the cake is due out of the oven (when it's had about 45-50 minutes) put the syrup ingredients of cocoa, water and sugar into a small saucepan and boil for 5 minutes. You may find it needs a little longer - what you want is a reduced liquid, that's to say a syrup, though I often take it a little further, so that the sugar caramelizes and the syrup has a really dark, smokey chocolate intensity.

Take the cake out of the oven and sit it on a cooling rack and, still in its tin, pierce here and there with a cake tester. Then pour the syrup as evenly as possible over the surface of the cake. It will run to the sides of the tin, but some will have been absorbed in the middle.

Let the cake become completely cold and then slip out of its tin, removing the foil as you do so. Sit on an oblong or other plate. Now take your bar of chocolate and cut with a heavy sharp knife, so that it splinters and flakes and falls in slices of varying thick- and thinness. I've specified a weight, but judge it by eye - when you think you've got enough to scatter over the top of the loafcake, stop slicing. Sprinkle these chocolate splinters over the top of the sticky surface of the cake.

banoffee cake...

There is a very strict lunch policy in our local school, which I'm a big fan of. No sweets or crisps or fizzy drinks of any kind. Since all the children have the same kind of healthy lunches, it really cuts down on the nagging time in the supermarket, where the only  major difference of opinion nowadays is the dreaded cereal isle. Things are quite sensible as well in the pre-school that little Lily goes to, although I do sometimes slip a slice of homemade banana loaf cake into her lunchbox as it is her very favorite. She loves her school and was very fond of her teacher. So much so that she liked to share her slice of cake with her. But recently her beloved Zoozan (aka Susan) left to start a job closer to home, Lily asked for a banana cake for her leaving party, which I duly supplied.

I used this recipe from Lily Higgins book 'Make Bake Love' instead of my usual recipe for more visual impact. The cake itself is lovely, but the frosting is the real star of this show. I will definitely be making it again to ice some buns or cupcakes I think. Ideal for using up bananas that you've kept for a bit too long. I used a milder corn oil instead of olive oil as the olive oils I had were quite strongly flavoured.

This cake turned out just like the picture in the book.

Banoffee Cake

Serves 10–12

This butterless banana cake is perfectly moist and beautifully balanced with the toffee icing. If you don’t want lashings of toffee gorgeousness atop your cake, then just butter the sides of the tin and coat with demerara sugar for a sweet crunch on the cake’s edges.

For the cake:
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
170g demerara sugar
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla essence
225ml olive oil

For the toffee icing:
220g demerara sugar
60g butter
60ml milk
240g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
banana chips, to decorate

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter a 28cm springform tin and dust with flour or demerara sugar (see note above).

2. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and sugar in an electric mixer on high until thickened and light in colour. Fold in the mashed banana and vanilla. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while still mixing.

4. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed, taking care not to over mix. Pour the batter into the prepared tin.

5. Bake for 25–30 minutes, until golden. Cool fully on a rack before icing.

6. To make the icing, place the sugar, butter and milk into a pan over a high heat. Stir everything well and bring to the boil. Keep stirring and boil for 1 minute.

7. Remove from the heat and beat in half of the icing sugar. Allow to cool slightly, then add the vanilla and the rest of the sugar. Beat well until it thickens.

8. Spread the icing over the cake straightaway, as the icing will harden slightly. Top with banana chips.

coconut macaroons...

My last post was for the rich and creamy ice-cream slice that, some of the more observant of you may have noticed, called for six egg yolks. I have been known on occasion to let one stray egg white go down the sink uncooked. Very occasionally I may have let two go. But six egg whites… I could not in all conscience see them wasted. What did you do with the egg  whites then, Amee? I hear you all cry in unison. Well, let me tell you what…

Two egg whites were whisked up with sugar into a roulade, baked in a swissroll tin and rolled with toffee cream and slices of caramel apple. Ta-daaah...Toffee Apple Roulade -quick, simple and dee-licious!

The other four were used in my own favorite sweet treat, Coconut Macaroons.  This is more or less the home-made version of a 'Bounty Bar', (called 'Mounds' in America, as I am reliably informed by my friend Mona - my go-to-gal for all Americana wisdom).

With a crispy exterior and a soft, chewy interior, these can be eaten warm from the oven, or dipped in milk or dark chocolate at room temperature. You will need to chill the mixture before putting it in the oven, but you can leave them overnight in the fridge before cooking and they will not suffer in the slightest.

The Coconut Macaroons store very well. They will stay wonderfully moist and chewy even after a few days in the cookie jar.

Coconut Macaroons:

4 large egg whites, at room temperature

200 g granulated white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

50g plain flour, sifted

10g corn flour

250g desiccated coconut

100g chocolate of choice, melted.

Place a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the egg whites, sugar, and salt. When this mixture is warm to the touch and nice and creamy, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract, flours and coconut. Cover and refrigerate for about two hours until firm, or overnight.

Preheat oven to 165 degrees C and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

Place small mounds (very heaped teaspoons) of the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them several inches apart.  Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes and then place on a wire rack to cool. When cold, dip the flat bottoms in the melted chocolate - replace on the parchment-lined baking sheets until set then drizzle the tops of the macaroons with the remaining chocolate.

Makes about 2 dozen macaroons