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.

berry bakewell cake

I'd like to start off by saying a huge thank you to everybody who left advice on my last post regarding my not so successful bundt. The general consensus is that I should invest in some cake release spray so that's what I'm going to try next. I shall not be defeated by that bundt tin!

Hello photogenic plugs and sockets.

Now onto a cake which was a total success, woohoo! My Mum is a huge fan of almondy, bakewell flavours so I decided to make this pimped up Victoria sponge for her birthday last week.

It's a very simple cake but the addition of ground almonds and berries make it that bit more special. Basically if you love victoria sponges and bakewell tarts then you'll love this cake.

The nephews are excellent fire extinguishers.

I used frozen berries in this cake but I imagine fresh would taste even better. I was a bit worried about adding too many in case they would all sink and make the sponges soggy but thankfully this wasn't the case. If anything I think I could get away with adding a few more next time.

We have red blinds in our kitchen so if you're wondering why all my photographs are rose tinted that's why. I haven't gone all instagram toaster filter on you.

Ahhh just looking at that photo makes me want to bake the cake again. Apparently the last slice tasted even better the following day.

Berry Bakewell Cake

I naturally bake in imperial measurements (I'm old school like that) but I've converted the weights into grams. I hope they're right!

8oz/ 225g caster sugar

8oz/ 225g margarine (I used Vitalite as I wanted to make the cake dairy free)

3 large duck eggs (hen eggs are fine, as long as the overall weight is roughly 8oz)

8oz/ 225g self-raising flour

1 oz/ 28g ground almonds

a few drops of almond essence (add to taste)

roughly 2-3 ounces/ about 75g mixture of berries (fresh or frozen) for scattering

a few tablespoons of strawberry jam

Icing sugar for dusting

Grease and line two 20cm round cake sandwich tins. Preheat the oven to Gas 4/180C. Beat together the sugar and margarine for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of the flour if the mixture starts to curdle/split. Add a few drops of almond essence (to taste) along with the rest of the flour and ground almonds and mix until everything is fully combined. Divide the mixture between the two cake tins. In a separate bowl, give the berries a light coating of flour to stop them sinking in the mixture (you can cut some of the heavier berries such a blackberries in half to reduce weight.) Lightly press the berries into the surface of both cakes. 

Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for roughly 25 minutes or until both sponges are golden, well risen and spring back to touch. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire cooling rack. Once cold, sandwich together with a generous amount of jam and serve with a dusting of icing sugar on top.

Cherry Bakewells

These are the other treats I baked with my friend on Friday. We were very pleased with them. They look so homely and old fashioned. Definitely the type of home bake to put on your cakestand and wheel through to your visitors on a tea trolley (damn it, I want a tea trolley!)

How unbelievably cute and dainty are they? I can't wait to make more of these. They're definitely going on my "must" bake list for an afternoon tea party.

They're relatively straight forward to make too, even though I wasn't entirely sure how much to fill each pastry case. Hopefully the next batch will be more regular.

Cherry Bakewells

Recipe from Traditional Teatime Recipes by Jane Pettigrew.

Makes 20 tart (we made 24)

To make the pastry:

450g (1lb) plain flour, sifted

pinch of salt

100g (4oz) butter, softened

100g (4oz) lard, softened (we didn't have any so we used more butter)

3-4 tbsp cold water

Mix together the flour and salt. Cut the fats into small pieces and rub into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Gradually add enough water, mixing with a fork, to give a stiff butt pliable dough. Knead lightly for a few minutes until smooth. Wrap in cling film or a plastic bag and chill for at least 15 minutes before using.

For the filling:

50g (2oz) strawberry jam (we used raspberry as we thought it was more traditional)

100g (4oz) butter, softened

100g (4oz) caster sugar

2 eggs

50g (2oz) ground almonds

50g (2oz) self raising flour, sifted

1 tsp almond essence (we skipped this as we didn't have any)

175g (6oz) icing sugar, sifted

1-2 tbsp water

20 cherries (fresh, stoned or glace)

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Grease 20 patty tins (we used bun/cupcake tins). On a floured board/surface, roll out the pastry and cut 24 circles using a 7.5cm (3in) cutter (whatever covers the base of the tin). Use to line the prepared tins and spread a little jam in the base of each. Beat together the fat and sugar, then beat in  the eggs, one at a time, adding half the ground almonds after each one. Add the flour and almond essence and stir well. Spoon the mixture into the pastry cases and bake for 20 minutes until well risen, firm and golden. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tins. Mix together the icing sugar and water and when the tarts are cold, spoon the icing on to the top. Decorate each with a cherry.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Now this is a bit of a "ta-da" moment for me as I have never made a fruit cake before! When I saw the recipe for a "Victorian Christmas Cake" in Mary Berry's Baking Bible, I knew I had to give it a go. Although Christmas isn't Christmas without a dark, fruit cake, I much prefer a lighter cake like this one. 

I enjoyed making a pattern on top of the cake.

I did not enjoy the amount of time it took to chop, clean, drain, dry the fruit and nuts. Cherries are very sticky.

If you're thinking "why does the cake look slightly pink?" it's because I glazed it with strawberry jam. Ideally I would have liked apricot jam but we didn't have any in the house. I'm sure strawberry will taste fine.

We also put up our tree at the weekend! Usually we buy a 5ft-6ft tree but Mum fell in love with a 7ft tree this year which only just fits in the living room. It is a beauty though.

I've been solely in charge of decorating the tree for the past few years now which is great. I like the mixture of decorations we have on our tree: some old, some new, wooden shop bought ones and handmade pieces from family.

I made the circular decoration at the top of this photo. It's an old curtain ring wrapped with crepe paper and christmassy twirly ribbons, a cheap but cute decoration. I have another Christmassy post coming up this week with more crafty decorations along with my fudge post. Mmmm fudge.