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.

mini fudge cheesecakes

Last week I had a craving for cheesecake. It somehow felt too indulgent to make a big cheesecake so I made mini ones instead. I'm fully aware that I probably ate so many that I might as well have made a whole cheesecake, but please humour me.

There's absolutely nothing healthy about this recipe. Nothing. But sometimes you need to make something as unashamedly fattening and sweet as this because nothing else will hit the spot.

Creamy and fudgey with a buttery biscuit base (you know I had to go there!) What more could you want? I loved how cute and dainty these looked too.

I also used a fudge which was almost more like a tablet/candy, so it had that extra sugary, melt in the mouth quality. Perfect for an indulgent cheesecake.

Mini fudge cheesecakes

This is what I did:

150g crushed Hobnob biscuits

40-50g butter, melted

100g cream cheese

300ml double cream, lightly whipped

125g fudge, plus extra for grating on top. You can never have too much fudge!

First, cut thin strips of greaseproof paper/baking parchment and lay in the base of 9 muffin tin cups. This will help you to remove the cheesecakes from the tin later. To make the cheesecake bases, mix together the crushed biscuits and melted butter and press into the bottom of the cups. Put the tray in the fridge to chill while you make the filling.

Beat the cream cheese until soft. Grate the fudge and add roughly 100g of fudge to the cream cheese and scatter the rest over the bases. In a separate bowl, lightly whip the cream and carefully fold this into the cream cheese/fudge mixture. Once combined, spoon this mixture on top of all the cheesecake bases and grate a little more fudge on top if you're feeling decadent. Leave to chill in the fridge overnight, or at least 6 hours, before serving.