Jamana bread

Homemade jam + rotting bananas = jammy banana bread. Or as I've decided to call it, jamana bread.

It's nothing ground breaking, just a basic banana bread recipe with a few dollops of strawberry jam swirled through the batter before baking, but tasty nonetheless. 

I used Mary Berry's banana bread recipe from her Baking Bible (previously blogged here) as it's a firm favourite for versatility. I've made countless variations over the years but I think this is the first time I've added jam. I just wish I had left it to bake another couple of minutes in the oven as it's marginally under baked. It was difficult to judge whether the stickiness on the skewer was unbaked cake batter or a pocket of jam!

Banana and rhubarb streuselcake

Yes, I know, it's another rhubarb cake, but damn this is a good one!

It's another recipe from the "Rhubarbaria" I received last Christmas from the Man. I had never come across the pairing of rhubarb and banana so naturally it piqued my interest. I love banana cake, streusel topping and rhubarb so it had to be a winner.

As was the case with the last recipe I baked from this book elements of the recipe were on the vague side, which you can either be infuriated by or view as a fun challenge. I'm in the latter camp.

The recipe mentioned a 9" tin but didn't specify round or square - I guessed round and feel I made the correct choice. The ingredients were also listed as a mixture of ounces and cups. As many recipes from the book are from old UK newspaper clippings or WRI type groups I wasn't sure whether it was referring to standard American cup measures or more an old fashioned "use a drinking cup" type expression similar to my granny's handwritten recipes. In the latter case, capacity of cups vary wildly so you have to use a bit of common sense.

In the end I decided to use my American cup measures but weighed those quantities out in ounces to help gauge the quantities of the ingredients against others. My biggest alteration to the recipe was not adding all of the milk, instead stopping when I felt I had achieved a good consistency with the cake batter.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I put the cake in the oven but what a glorious cake came out. It rose beautifully and smelled amazing. Look at the depth of those slices!

The recipe recommends eating the cake warm like a pudding but it is equally lovely cold. It has a beautiful, soft texture with pockets of squidgy rhubarb and banana contrasted with a spiced and sweet crunchy nut topping. There's also a subtle hint of lemon which is lovely. 

It might all sound a bit random but it absolutely works. I'm ridiculously pleased with this cake and can't wait to make it again. 

Banana and rhubarb streusel cake 

Recipe mildly adapted from Rhubarbaria by Mary Prior

For the cake:

5oz softened butter/baking margarine (I used Stork)

7oz soft light brown sugar 

2 large eggs

10oz plain flour

Pinch of salt

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

1 cup milk (I used most but not all of it, I think about 1/4 pint - a bit of baking experience required here to gauge it)

1tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 cup of rhubarb, chopped into small chunks (I used 2 smallish stalks and forgot to weigh them in ounces here)

1 banana, chopped into small chunks/slices

For the streusel topping:

2oz walnuts, chopped

2oz granulated sugar 

1 tsp melted butter

1tsp ground cinnamon 

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C fan/ gas mark 4. Grease and line a 9" round cake tin with greaseproof paper. 

In a large bowl cream together the sugar and margarine until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition. 

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Add this mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the milk, one third at a time, mixing well between each addition.

Add the chopped rhubarb, banana, vanilla and lemon juice and stir until well combined. Pour the mixture into the cake tin.

Before putting the cake in the oven, combine the streusel toppings in a separate bowl then scatter it on top of the cake mixture.

Bake the cake on the middle shelf of the oven for 50-60 minutes until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. I put a layer of greaseproof paper on top of the cake after 50 minutes to stop the top from burning but allow the inside of the cake to continue cooking for another 5-10 minutes.

Leave to cool in the tin for at least 30 minutes before removing from the tin and transferring to a wire cooling rack.

hummingbird cake with orange cream cheese icing

I remember "semi-naked" cakes being all the rage online about 10 years ago and the term felt too "hipster" for my liking. I'm a contrary sod so needless to say I did not jump on the bandwagon. Until last month, purely because I didn't make enough icing and couldn't be arsed to make more. I wonder if this is how the style started?

I've posted this hummingbird cake before (originally here) numerous times as it's a firm favourite for family birthdays but for a change I tried an orange and honey cream cheese icing. It was absolutely delicious; the orange complemented the spiced banana and pineapple flavours really nicely. I definitely want to use it again so have written it down below for reference.

Orange and honey cream cheese icing:

2oz softened butter

4oz icing sugar

6oz full fat cream cheese

Grated zest of an orange

1tsp runny honey 

Beat together the butter and icing sugar for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the cream cheese, orange zest and honey and mix until fully combined.

Enough for a standard sandwich cake but recommend doubling the quantities for filling and fully covering a triple layer cake.

Banana and blueberry pancakes

A few months ago I came across a recipe for sugar free banana and blueberry pancakes on Nickki's blog SomethingSweetSomethingSavoury. I love both bananas and pancakes so needless to say I had to try them.

It was a bit of a Goldilocks situation perfecting these pancakes. The first time I made them my griddle was too hot, so the pancakes ended up nearly burnt on the outside and undercooked in the middle. Easily rescued with a quick blast in the microwave though. The second time I overcompensated with heat and and they took ages to cook and didn't colour particularly well. Then finally on my third attempt I got them just right. Practise makes perfect.

I absolutely love blueberries in bakes as they turn such a vibrant colour of purple and create lovely, juicy pockets. They've stained my griddle though which I'm less delighted about but I'll forgive them. After all, this is the most action my poor griddle has ever seen! As much as I love pancakes I hardly ever make them.

In my three attempts I also experimented with different ripeness of bananas and I'd say the riper the better like banana cakes. If you only have one sad banana in your fruit bowl, which isn't enough for a cake, then this is a great way to use it. The batter makes 4 small pancakes/drop scones which I've found makes a decent breakfast for one person.

Although the pancakes tasted absolutely fine as they were I couldn't resist adding a drizzle of honey. I have a sweet tooth and since there's no added sugar in the batter I felt I could add some on top guilt-free. There's something so satisfying about a honey or syrup-soaked pancake.

I'm tempted to try swapping out the blueberries for other berries or possibly even chocolate chips next time I make these pancakes. There are so many possibilities!

The only change I made to the original recipe was to use one 1 large egg as I hardly ever buy medium sized eggs. Here's a link to the recipe if you also fancy giving it a try. Nickki has loads of great recipes on her blog so she's worth following if you haven't come across her before.

Banana, date, honey and walnut cake

Hands up if you love banana cake! If you do then you've come to the right place. I love putting borderline mouldy bananas to use.

I came across this banana, date, honey and walnut cake recipe at Jean's blog, Baking In Franglais towards the end of last year and immediately bookmarked it. The combination of banana and dates really appealed to me and I also loved the idea of pouring warm honey on top of the cake fresh from the oven, like a drizzle cake.

Although I think I slightly underbaked my cake I can safely say this is one of my favourite banana cakes I've baked in a long time. My mum, who loves dates but proclaims to dislike honey, also thought the cake was utterly delicious. It was particularly tasty warm from the oven as the dates were so soft that they melted in the mouth. I also liked that most of the cake's sweetness came from the honey rather than sugar. You could almost say it's a healthy cake. Maybe. I'm going with it.

This recipe also gave me an opportunity to use the digital scales I received for Christmas. Being able to measure out precisely 80g of sugar was rather exciting.

I'm also very pleased with my new (to me) cake plate. It appears I'm fussy about rectangular cake plates as I have been scouring second hand and charity shops for years and this is the first one I've liked enough to buy. It's plain but has enough detail to be interesting. I love the gentle, frilly edge and I'm always a sucker for yellow roses on china.  Finally I have something pretty to put my loaf cakes on instead of a chopping board!

almond and banana bread

Sometimes I feel like the only thing I bake is banana bread. Perhaps I should start eating bananas before they get to that ugly stage so I can bake other things.

It was the usual situation of having stuff to use up: 3 small rotting bananas, a 100g lump of marzipan left over from my carrot and coconut battenberg cake and 2 nearly empty packets of ground and flaked almonds. My banana bread was destined to be heavily almond flavoured.

For whatever reason this cake seemed to take ages to bake. It looked cooked on top just after an hour but felt decidedly gloopy when I stuck a skewer in the middle. I think it ended up being in the oven for about 1hr 30 minutes. I'm wondering whether the grated marzipan affected the bake.

It all turned out pretty good in the end though. A lovely, crunchy crust with a soft crumb. Almond and banana are both strong flavours but I think they play together happily in this loaf. My only change would be to roll out the marzipan to bake in the middle instead of grating it. I think a squidgy layer of marzipan would have made a lovely texture contrast.

Almond and banana bread
Banana bread recipe adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

100g (4oz) margarine or softened butter
175g (6oz) caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp almond essence
2 bananas (I used 3 small)
200g (7oz) self raising flour
25g  (1oz) ground almonds
1 level tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk
100g block of marzipan, grated
a handful of flaked almonds to scatter on top

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4 and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment. Put all the ingredients except the flaked almonds in a large bowls and mix together for about 2 minutes until smooth and well combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and scatter the flaked almonds on top. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for roughly 1 hour 30 minutes until well risen, firm to touch and skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. I would check on the cake after an hour in case it cooks quicker than it did in my oven. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

chocolate chip banana and chocolate marble bundt

Another one of my "what will I do with those rotting bananas?" bakes. This time I had 4 bananas so I decided to bring out the big bundt pan.

I was originally just going to bake Dollybake's chocolate chip banana bundt which I almost baked successfully last year but I was struck with the idea of a chocolate and banana marble cake so I adapted the recipe to suit.

The resulting cake is dense. I'm not entirely sure if that's a bad thing as banana cakes generally have a heavier crumb anyway. This bundt is packed with banana and chocolate flavour and the chocolate chips and thick sugar crust provide a good texture contrast. Perhaps 4 large bananas is a bit overkill and 3 would have done fine, or I shouldn't have added so much milk when I incorporated the cocoa powder.

It's not a huge deal though as my Mum and I managed to eat about half of the cake by ourselves within 24 hours. Greedy? No..... *cough*

This will be my last post for a couple of weeks as I'm going away this weekend for my birthday. Woohoo! See you on the other side :)

Chocolate chip banana and chocolate marble bundt

Recipe adapted from Dollybakes

bundt:

500g self raising flour

300g golden caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

large pinch of salt

200g unsalted butter, melted (and cooled!)

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

4 large brown bananas, mashed

3 tbsp milk mixed with 3 tbsp cocoa powder

100g milk chocolate chips

100g white chocolate chips 

fudgy chocolate icing/drizzle:
(my Granny's recipe)

1.5oz (about 40g) butter or margarine

1 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp milk 
4oz (about 100g) icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease your 2.4L/10"/10 cup bundt tin with cake release spray and a light coating of flour. Tap out any excess flour over the sink.

Sift the flour and sugar into a large bowl. Mix in the melted butter and eggs, followed by the mashed bananas. Divide the mixture in half and add the cocoa powder/milk paste to one half and mix thoroughly. Add milk chocolate chips to the plain batter and white chocolate chips to the chocolate batter and gently fold in. 

Spoon heaps of alternating batter into the bundt tin and swirl a knife through it all to create a marbled effect. Bake in the centre of the oven for 1hr 15 minutes until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

For the fudgy chocolate drizzle, heat up the cocoa powder, milk and butter in a saucepan on the hob. Take it off the heat when the mixture almost comes to a boil and add the icing sugar. Mix until smooth, glossy and slightly thickened and drizzle over the cooled cake.

banana and coffee loaf

I have three confessions to make:

1. I hate coffee.

2. This is the first time I've baked using a flavour I dislike.

3. I underbaked the cake. Waaaaaah!!! :(

This cake had so much potential, I'm gutted it didn't work out. It rose well, felt firm to touch and the skewer inserted into the centre came out clean so I thought the cake was full cooked, but clearly it wasn't. It's so sad witnessing a cake deflate.

I am definitely at fault though, not the recipe, as I had enough batter left over from the loaf to bake a jumbo muffin and it turned out beautifully. It was well risen, had a lovely soft crumb and even I, the coffee hater, thought it tasted pretty good. Did I think to photograph the muffin? Erm... no.

The sweetness from the banana and honey balanced the bitterness which I dislike in coffee. I didn't think the banana loaf was spoiled by the addition of coffee, whereas I do think a mocha is a ruined hot chocolate!

My Mum, who I made the cake for, loved the flavour. She's been subtly suggesting banana and coffee as a cake flavour combination for ages so was delighted that I finally made it, even though it was a bit of a flop. She especially loved the fudgy coffee icing. It's like the fudgy chocolate icing my Granny used to make, but the cocoa powder is replaced with coffee granules.

Mum and I discovered that the soggy cake could (sort of) be rescued by cooking slices of it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. The icing turns into a sticky sauce which seeps into the cake, making it more like a pudding. A sticky coffee pudding!

I'll definitely try this recipe again, but will pay more attention to the baking times. I was (finally!) watching the last film in the Twilight franchise whilst baking this cake, so I'm blaming my poor results on the dismal acting. On the upside, Michael Sheen is fantastic so it's worth watching for him alone. I almost wet myself laughing at his reaction to the half human half vampire child. Comedy gold: https://youtu.be/i7kT0qiv78s

Coffee and banana loaf

Recipe slightly adapted from Laura's mini bundt recipe at I'd Much Rather Bake Than... 

cake:

9 tbsp (135ml) sunflower oil
100g runny honey
75g light brown muscovado sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp (90ml) milk mixed with 3 heaped tsp coffee granules
3 large eggs
3 bananas, mashed
330g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

coffee icing (this makes quite a lot so you could reduce quantities):
75g butter
3 heaped dessert spoonfuls of milk mixed with 3 heaped tsp coffee granules
350g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4 and grease and line a 900g/2lb loaf tin. Put the oil, honey, sugar, vanilla, milky coffee, eggs and banana in a large bowl. Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix for about a minute until everything is well combined. Pour the mixture in the tin until about 2/3 full. The mixture will be quite runny and there will be enough left over batter for a big muffin or a few cupcakes (just remember they will only take about 20-30 minutes to bake as they're smaller.)

Bake the loaf in the centre of the oven for at least an hour (don't take it out at 50-55 minutes like me!!) until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the oven comes out clean. Don't watch Twilight whilst baking. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the icing, melt the butter with the coffee milk in the microwave (or in a pan on the hob.) Add the icing sugar and mix together until smooth, cool and thickened. Pour over the cake and leave to set.

tropical banana bread

This has been declared my best banana loaf to date by my parents. High praise indeed, especially since I was merely trying to find a way to use up the rest of my pineapple not-quite-a-curd from the previous week. 

I've been favouring Mary Berry's plain banana loaf recipe for most of my banana bread variations this year. It's like the victoria sponge recipe of banana breads - ridiculously versatile. It also only leaves one bowl to wash at the end which gets a massive thumbs up from me. Hurray for laziness.

This cake has such a lovely soft, juicy crumb with a hint of added texture from the desiccated coconut as it's in the cake batter as well as the icing.

The icing is oh so luscious and smooth. Pineapple curd tastes so much better in cream cheese icing than ordinary butter icing. I loved the subtle, fruity flavour against the tangy cream cheese. It paired beautifully with the soft, spiced banana bread. Banana, coconut and pineapple most certainly create a summery dream team flavour combination.

It's a pity the weather isn't feeling more tropical or summery though. It's the end of June, why is it still cold?!

Tropical banana bread

Recipe adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible. I had 3 bananas to use up so I increased the ingredient amounts by half. It produced a huge loaf and a couple of muffins!

150g softened butter/margarine

260g soft light brown sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1tsp ground cinnamon

3 bananas

325g self raising flour

25g desiccated coconut (plus extra to decorate)

1 level tsp baking powder

2 tbsp pineapple curd

1 tbsp milk

pineapple curd cream cheese icing

I wish I wrote down what I did at the time. I think it was this:

50g softened butter

75g cream cheese icing

125-150g icing sugar

1 tbsp pineapple curd

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4 and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment. Put all the ingredients in a large bowls and mix together for about 2 minutes until smooth and well combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. Pour any excess mixture into muffin cases and bake them for half the time.

Bake the loaf in the middle of the oven for roughly 1 hour until well risen, firm to touch and skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the icing, mix everything together until smooth. This makes quite a slack mixture (the curd was pretty runny) so feel free to add more icing sugar if you want it firmer. Spread the icing on top of the cooled cake and decorate with some toasted desiccated coconut.

banana cupcakes with malted chocolate icing

I have made so many banana bakes over the last few weeks it's getting ridiculous. Bananas appear to brown at the speed of light around here. I wasn't going to bother blogging these as I used the same recipe as this loaf cake I posted not long ago, but I felt the need to rave about the malted chocolate butter icing. It's that good!

The icing is so silky soft it's almost mousse like in texture. It just melts in your mouth, wrapping around a soft, sweet banana crumb. Banana and chocolate is an excellent combination but banana and malted chocolate is even better. I honestly cannot rave about it enough.

I came across the icing on Laura's blog, I'd Much Rather Bake Than..., last week and immediately bookmarked her post. As you can see the icing pipes beautiful soft swirls. I imagine it would be very satisfying to cover a full cake too. Next time I'll need to pair it up with chocolate cake for full on swirling and indulgence.

On a separate note, do you like my new cake plate? It's a Royal Winton Grimwades piece, my "ultimate" china brand, and I couldn't contain my excitement when I found it in a second hand shop a few weeks ago after visiting the dentist. I told the cashier I was rewarding myself for not needing any fillings.

Has anybody else had good luck in second hand shops recently? I've found some brilliant pieces in the last couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to organising a blog post about them soon.

banoffee loaf cake

Mary Berry's plain banana loaf has become my favourite banana loaf recipe to play around with, whether it's chucking in extra ingredients or slathering on a different icing. This time I decided to add a soft set fudge/toffee icing to create a banoffee flavour and mmmmmm, it's good.

My cake certainly won't win any beauty contests (take note, the icing really does set as soon as you pour it onto the cake, don't try to spread it) but it most definitely tastes delicious. Loaf cakes are meant to look a bit more rustic anyway...

I really don't know what else to say, other than I'm tempted to make more of the fudge icing just to eat by itself. That's probably not the best idea though when I have a dentist appointment in 2 weeks. Don't want to rot my teeth completely before then. I'm fairly sure I need at least one filling as it is!

Banoffee loaf cake

Loaf recipe from Mary Berry. Icing recipe from Primrose Bakery.

loaf:

100g (4oz) softened butter/margarine

175g (6oz) golden caster sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 bananas

225g (8oz) self-raising flour

1 level tsp baking powder

2 tbsp milk

icing:
45g unsalted butter
4 and 1/2 tbsp semi-skimmed milk
165g light, soft brown sugar
180g icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp good quality vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4 and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment. Put all the ingredients except the chocolate chips in a large bowls and mix together for about 2 minutes until smooth and well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips before pouring the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for roughly 1 hour until well risen, firm to touch and skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the icing, combine the butter, milk and brown sugar in a heavy based saucepan on the hob over a high heat. Stirring continuously, bring the mixture to a boil. Allow it to boil for 1 minute, then remove from the heat and stir in half of the icing sugar. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then add the rest of the icing sugar and vanilla extract and stir until it thickens to the desired consistency. Pour over the cake and leave to set. If it sets too quickly in the pan you can always soften it up by putting it back on the hob over a low heat.

chocolate chip banana bread and homemade Nutella

A few nights ago I dreamt that Mary Berry asked me to find a Scrabble board. I didn't question her, after all she is a baking legend and has as much authority as the Queen. I dutifully drove to my house, found the box and drove back to give it to her. She was delighted and gave me a massive hug.

I have no idea what any of that signifies, but I took it as a sign to bake something from Mary Berry's Baking Bible. Looking at the sad bananas on the kitchen counter I knew it had to be banana bread, which is basically a big, comforting hug for your tummy.

This is my favourite type of recipe: throw everything in a bowl, mix for 2 minutes, pour it into a tin, done. My only addition was a bag of milk chocolate chips as I'm a sucker for banana and chocolate combinations. There's no other flavourings in the batter to interfere, just banana and milk chocolate joy.

Ok, now I'm going to address what you actually came here for..... I made my own chocolate and hazelnut spread. From scratch! Boom. Like A Boss. Totes Amazeballs. *Insert other hip lingo I feel too uncool/ashamed to use*

Admittedly it's grittier than Nutella, probably because my tiny blender isn't good enough to blitz the hazelnuts any finer. I would say it's closer in texture to peanut butter spread.

This is when I have to admit that I actually hate peanut butter with a passion. Sorry. I think it's a combination of the gritty, stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth texture with the salty, oil-iness. Bleugh. However I like the flavour of this spread, it's hazelnut and chocolate after all, so I'm willing to overlook the peanut butter-type texture. The grittiness is less of an issue when the spread is warmed up (it sets once it's cool) which is how I enjoyed it with my banana bread.

If you love peanut butter I doubt any of this will be an issue though.

Other than the boring task of rubbing off the roasted hazelnut skins it's an easy spread to make so go ahead and make some for yourself! Slather it on some toast, warm banana bread or just shove it straight in your mouth. All good options.

Chocolate chip banana bread
Recipe (barely) adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible. Previously baked here.

100g (4oz) softened butter/margarine
175g (6oz) golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
3 small bananas, mashed
225g (8oz) self raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk
100g milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4 and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment. Put all the ingredients except the chocolate chips in a large bowls and mix together for about 2 minutes until smooth and well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips before pouring the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for roughly 1 hour until well risen, firm to touch and skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the homemade Nutella I followed this recipe from Not Quite Nigella using Green and Black's milk chocolate. I also halved the quantities to suit what I had. My only suggestion would be to take care when adding the salt. I didn't think I added much but I could definitely taste it, possibly too much! 

browned butter berry banana bread

Well that was fun alliteration. Let's say it again. Browned butter berry banana bread!

There's 50g of white chocolate chips in there too but mentioning that in the title would have spoiled my fun.

This is actually the second time within a week I've baked this loaf and my last bake before these was also banana based. The warmer weather has sent me on a banana baking loop! Within a day or two of buying bananas they seem to turn brown. Not that I'm complaining, I like banana loaf.

For a slight change I decided to brown the butter for this loaf as I love the flavour of browned butter in blondies and figured it would work well in a banana loaf. Sadly I didn't detect much of a difference in flavour, probably because there was enough extra flavour with the berries, cinnamon and vanilla, but occasionally you'd get a little hint of the sweet, biscuity flavour from the browned butter.

I love how banana bread is so simple and easily adaptable. You can substitute and/or chuck in extras to your heart's content. Victoria sponges are fantastic for similar reasons. I nearly didn't bother posting this cake as I have posted a couple of variations of the same recipe already, but the vibrant berries bursting from the cake's surface were too enticing not to photograph. It's also good to remind people not to chuck out dodgy looking bananas. Look at what you can produce with them!

Browned butter berry banana bread

Recipe adapted from Hummingbird Bakery's banana loaf

250g brown sugar (I used half soft light brown sugar, half light muscovado brown sugar)

2 large eggs

2 large brown bananas, weighing roughly 250g

300g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

140g unsalted butter, melted and browned

50g (ish) white chocolate chips (optional! They were lurking in my baking cupboard)

150g mixed berries (I used frozen)

Preheat the oven to 170C/160 Fan/Gas 3 and line a 25 x 12cm loaf tin. Melt the butter in a saucepan and gently cook for about 5 minutes until the white solids turn golden and the butter starts to smell biscuity and sweet. Set aside to cool before adding to the cake mixture.

Whisk together the sugar and eggs for a minute or two until well incorporated and lighter in colour. Add the mashed bananas and vanilla bean paste and mix again. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon then add to the sugar mixture. Mix thoroughly. Pour in the (cooled) melted butter and mix until everything is fully combined. Lightly coat the berries in a small amount flour and stir half of them into the mixture along with the white chocolate drops. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin, level the surface and scatter the remaining berries on top. 

Bake in the centre of the oven for roughly 1hr 15 minutes, checking on the cake after an hour. As the surface was quite brown I lay a piece of baking parchment on top to stop it burning for the last 15 minutes of baking. The loaf is cooked when firm to touch and a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a wire cooling rack.

banana, coconut and pineapple bundt

Ah, Monsieur Swirly Bundt-Tin. We meet again....

Except this time I'm armed with cake release spray. In your face previous failed bundt attempts!

Admittedly this bundt is still a bit on the rustic side, but it did come out all in one piece which made me do a little happy dance.

After making banana and coconut muffins a few weeks ago I've had the flavour combination stuck in my mind. I knew I wanted to revisit it and add pineapple to the party. After some online searches I stumbled across this bundt recipe which appealed to me as the dessicated coconut is soaked in milk before adding to the mixture. Other than swapping the milk for coconut milk and adding pineapple chunks I more or less stuck to the recipe.

The recipe made a lot of batter, so much batter that I nearly filled a 2lb loaf tin in addition to the bundt tin. I was worried about the mixture overflowing so I stopped filling an inch or so from the top. The cake didn't rise as much as I expected though, if anything it seemed to sink slightly after coming out the oven, so I probably could have added more mixture to make the finished bundt more impressive in size.

I'm guessing the extra moisture from the pineapple chunks may have contributed to the lack of rise and somewhat soggy/dense/undercooked-looking texture. That or perhaps more bicarbonate of soda/baking powder is needed to give more rise for this size of banana cake. And maybe there's just too much milk in general. I don't know, I'm not good with the science-y aspect of baking so any thoughts are welcome.

Back to the texture, it reminded me of this cake I baked a couple of summers ago which was also packed with liquid/fruit and sank despite being fully cooked. Although this bundt used coconut milk instead of yoghurt, it has a similarly creamy flavour and texture. The cake might look a bit sorry for itself but the flavours are all good.  It would certainly work well as a pudding served with custard. Yes, I still think about comforting, hot custard in July.

Banana, coconut and pineapple bundt

An adapted recipe. It needs more tweaking but this is what I used:

1 1/2 cups of dessicated coconut

300ml coconut milk (for soaking)

185g butter, softened

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

3 large eggs

150g fresh pineapple chunks, cut small

3 ripe/brown bananas, mashed

160ml milk (as I still had 100ml left from the can of coconut milk I used that with 60ml semi-skimmed milk)

1/2 tsp (at least) of vanilla extract

3 cups of self-raising flour

Preheat the oven to 180C/170C Fan/Gas 4. Soak the dessicated coconut in 300ml of coconut milk in a bowl for about an hour. Coat the bundt tin in cake release spray and a dusting of flour. Tap out any excess flour into the sink.

Beat together the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes until pale and fluffy (in a large bowl, as this is a big mixture.) Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Mash the 3 bananas and add to the coconut milk mixture along with the pineapple chunks. Mix together then add to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix everything together. Add the flour and milk alternately, mixing well between each addition. Once everything is combined spoon it into the bundt tin. Fill until you're about an inch from the top so you don't run the risk of overflowing. Use the remaining mixture to fill some cupcake/muffin cases or a loaf tin. Bake for about an hour until deep golden, firm to touch and the edges are coming away from the tin.

banana and coconut muffins

I was tempted to call this post "experimental banana baking and cupboard clearing night" but that seemed rather long winded.

Earlier this week I discovered an interesting array of almost out of date ingredients in the baking cupboard and some black bananas on the worktop so an evening of baking was in order. I ended up producing an almond and dried cranberry banana loaf (more or less the same as this recipe) and these banana and coconut muffins.

It got me thinking that I rarely use coconut in my bakes. It's not that I don't like coconut, it's just not a flavour I tend to go (coco)nuts over.

HAHA, see what I did there? *everybody groans*

Although my cobbled together recipe isn't perfect (neither are my half-assed foggy evening photographs) I really enjoyed the banana and coconut flavour combination. It's subtly sweet and feels a little bit tropical. Like most muffins these were best fresh from the oven although I also enjoyed one reheated the following day for breakfast with the remaining coconut yoghurt. However I found they lacked something when cold so I added a simple glaze (icing sugar mixed with a splash of fruit juice) which perked them up a bit.

I imagine they'd also be lovely eaten with a fruity curd. If I were to make these again I'd feel tempted to add something else into the batter; perhaps some chopped pecans or small pineapple chunks for extra texture or juicy-ness.

My muffins didn't rise as much as I had hoped either. Muffin making confuses me as I'm sure I read somewhere that the less you mix everything the better as you're not going for the airiness of a sponge cake. That said, surely it needs a bit more rise? If you don't mix enough you'll just be left with a stodgy lump.

Perhaps they needed a higher temperature in the oven too. I'm still trying to get used to my new oven temperatures. I've always used gas ovens so changing to electric has been a bit confusing. The cave woman in me is saying "but there's no flame.... where is the heat coming from?!"

I know you're laughing. I'm an idiot.

Banana and coconut muffins

125g self raising flour

90g golden caster sugar

40g (roughly) dessicated coconut

a good pinch of cinnamon

a few drops of vanilla extract

50g butter, melted

1 large egg

1 banana, mashed

60ml coconut yoghurt

for a simple icing glaze:

a couple of tablespoonfuls of icing sugar

a splash of fresh fruit juice. I used a tropical flavoured one.

Preheat the oven to 180C/170 fan/Gas 4 and line a muffin tin with about 8 muffin cases. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together all the wet ingredients in a jug then pour into the dry ingredients. Mix everything together until combined. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases, filling each one about 2/3 full, then place on the middle shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes or until risen, golden and firm to touch. Leave to cool in the tray for a few minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a wire rack. 

Enjoy warm from the oven or cool with yoghurt, a fruity curd or a simple fruit flavoured icing glaze.