Louisiana Banana Cake

I'm going through a 'nostalgic phase' at the moment, having made coconut ice, coconut pyramids and an orange coconut cake in the last few weeks - all recipes from my Mum's notebook, and which I remember from my childhood.

I wanted to continue with the coconut theme, and I remembered a recipe I'd always meant to try. I have a few US cookery books and magazines brought back from when we lived there, and I've adapted this cake from a book called 'Cakes That Mom Baked' - it has 2 of my favourite ingredients in it - bananas and coconut. I've changed to metric measures and altered some of the ingredients.

When living in the US, we got used to the fact that a cake wasn't a cake unless it had 'frosting' on top.
This was usually a heavy butter cream, flavoured or coloured. This cake has a 'frosting' which is flavoured with banana and rum, and it's then sprinkled with shredded coconut [which I bought on Amazon UK]. I made it in a 900g loaf tin, but the original was made in a 24cm springform tin. It's quite a lot of ingredients, but I think the end result is well worth the effort.


Preheat oven 190C/gas5 and grease a 900g loaf tin [23x13cm] or a 24cm springform tin.

In a bowl mix together 300g of plain flour, 40g of cornflour, 2 tspns of baking powder, 1 tspn of bicarbonate of soda and 1/2 tspn of nutmeg.
Beat together 200g of soft butter and 200g of soft brown sugar till nice and fluffy, then add 3 beaten eggs and 2 tspns of vanilla essence; mix together well.
In a small bowl, mix together 100ml of buttermilk and 3 medium ripe bananas which have been mashed.
Add half of the flour mixture and half of the banana mixture to the batter and mix well.
Then add the rest of the flour and banana mixtures and stir to mix.
Add 45g of toasted pine nuts and 45g of shredded coconut. I found the coconut in a local Asian shop, but dessicated coconut would do. Mix it all together and spoon into tin.
Bake for about 45-50 mins till the cake is springy when touched.
Cool cake in the tin for 30 mins then put onto a wire rack.
For the frosting - beat 200g of soft butter with 450g of icing sugar till it's pale and fluffy, then fold in 2 small mashed ripe bananas, 125ml  rum, 1/2 tspn cinnamon,1 tbspn vanilla extract and 1 tbspn lemon juice.Beat it well to mix thoroughly then spread over the top of the cooled cake. Sprinkle with 150g of toasted shredded coconut to cover all the frosting.
To toast both the pine nuts and the coconut, I browned them in a dry pan on the hob, over a lowish heat; I know you can toast them in the oven, but you have to be very careful they don't burn, so I prefer to watch them.

I love the great mix of flavours - banana, vanilla, pine nuts, coconut etc. It's a lovely moist cake, and we loved the topping. I know it's a lot of calories, but for a treat, it's great!

Indian Banana Yoghurt Cake

I wanted to make something different and this recipe fitted the bill. It was given to one of our friends when they were staying in an hotel in Mumbai and is supposed to be a good ending to a spicy meal.
I've made yoghurt cake before, such as the one using a yoghurt pot as a measure, but this is completely different; for one thing it uses ghee, clarified butter. There's a big Indian community locally so I was able to find it in one of the Indian shops, but I think I've also seen it in the supermarket.You can make your own - heat double the amount of butter you need and pour it into a dish. Allow it to cool for 15mins then carefully pour off the clear golden liquid on top - this is the ghee. You don't need the milk solids underneath.
The cake has an icing made with sour cream and icing sugar. I made a few changes to the recipe as I don't like dessicated coconut, which was used to coat the sides of the cake tin after they'd been greased. The leftovers were added to the cake mixture -I didn't do this, but I did toast some shredded coconut, which I also found in the Indian shop, and used it to decorate the top of the cake.
Here's the recipe - I don't know the name of the hotel B got it from, but thank you to them!

125g ghee
160g caster sugar
40g brown sugar
2 large eggs
3 medium bananas, very ripe
200g thick plain yoghurt
250g sr flour
1 tspn cinnamon
1/2 tspn mixed spice
Icing:
200g sour cream or creme fraiche
100g icing sugar
50g toasted shredded coconut to decorate [opt]

preheat oven 190C/gas5
23cm springform cake tin - greased and base lined

Beat the ghee and sugars together till creamy then add the eggs one at a time, beating well.
Mash the bananas and add to the mixture with the yoghurt, flour and spices. Stir well to mix together.
Spoon into the tin and level the top.
Bake for 45-55 mins till firm and springy.
leave to cool in the tin for 15mins then turn out onto a wire rack.
For the icing - mix the sour cream and icing sugar together till it's thick and spreadable, then spread over the top of the cake and sprinkle on the shredded coconut.

This is a very dense and rich cake, so cut it into small slices. It keeps well in an airtight tin.
I loved the texture, but found it rather sweet; I think Indian desserts are often very sweet, so would use less sugar if I made it again. The banana makes the cake moist, as does the yoghurt. The shredded coconut was a good addition, and gave it another texture. A cake with a difference to try, but maybe only for a special occasion.
To make the cake exactly as the recipe said, you also need 80g of toasted dessicated coconut. When you've greased the cake tin you pour in the coconut and tip the tin around to coat the sides. Tip out the what's left and add it to the cake batter.

Israeli Date and Pecan Cake

This month's challenge from Alpha Bakes is a hard one - baking something beginning with letter I . Lots of recipes begin with 'iced ....... ' but I wanted to find something different.
I borrowed a book from the library called 'Cakes, Tortes and Gateaux'  - it has no author, and I found a recipe for an Israeli cake. I love cakes with nuts and I like dates, so had to give it a try. I changed a few things in the recipe, and had to convert it to grams. It worked out really well, and is full of good things.

2 eggs
180ml honey
150ml buttermilk
1 tspn vanilla essence
3 mashed bananas
300g sr flour
1 tspn baking powder
100g soft brown sugar
2 tbspn cocoa
1 tspn cinnamon
1 tspn allspice
pinch salt
125g butter
150g chopped dates
125g chopped pecans
2 tbspns honey for top of cake

Preheat oven 180C/gas4
grease a 23cm springform tin

Beat together the eggs, honey, buttermilk and vanilla essence, then add the bananas.
Keep 2 tbspn of the flour, then put the rest with the baking powder, sugar, cocoa, spices and salt in another bowl and add the egg mixture. Mix together gently with an electric beater or stand mixer, then add the butter and beat till smooth. Takes about 4 mins.
Mix the 2 tbspn flour with the dates and pecans and fold these into the mixture.
Spoon into the tin and bake for 1 hr and 20 mins.
Heat the 2 tbspn of honey and brush over the cake, then leave it to cool.

It's a lovely nutty cake, not too sweet, and it also keeps very well in an airtight tin. We had it as a dessert with some creme fraiche, but ice cream would be good too. It's full of flavour and is moist, but not too soft. You can really taste the dates and pecans. I expected it to be like a sticky toffee pudding, but it wasn't.

Alpha Bakes is a monthly baking challenge hosted alternately by Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker blog and Caroline of Caroline Makes blog. This month Caroline is hosting, the letter is I and you can find out more about the challenge here .

Spiced Banana Cake with Butterscotch icing

Yet another loaf cake to add to my repertoire - well the recipe used a 900g loaf tin, but I wanted a round cake so used a 20cm springform tin. Inspiration for the cake was a few very ripe bananas in the fruit bowl. I rarely use alcohol in cakes, but this time I did what the recipe said, and soaked the sultanas in the rum.
I wanted to try a different topping so I used a butterscotch one I'd wanted to try for ages - I know it has a lot of sugar in it, but for a special occasion..........!

100g sultanas
50ml rum
185g plain flour
2 tspn baking powder
½ tspn bicarb
pinch salt
2 tspn cinnamon - I used 3 tspns
125g soft unsalted butter
150g light soft brown sugar
2 large eggs
4 small very ripe bananas
1 tspn vanilla extract

For the icing:
75g golden caster sugar
15g butter
50g light muscovado sugar
1 tbspn golden syrup
75ml double cream

In a small pan pour the rum over the sultanas and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and leave to soak.

Preheat the oven 170C/150C fan/Gas 3.
Grease and line a 20cm springform tin or a 900g loaf tin

Put flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt and cinnamon in large bowl and mix well.
In a separate bowl beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer till light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs one by one, then stir in the mashed bananas, sultanas, rum and the vanilla extract.
Fold in the flour and pour into the tin.
Bake for 1-1¼ hours until golden. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

For the icing - simmer all the ingredients over a low heat for 6-8 mins. Stir to make a smooth sauce, then leave to cool and thicken, and pour over the cooled cake.

I liked the rum flavoured sultanas in the cake, but I did find the icing rather too sweet, even for my palate. The friends I made it for however, loved it. The cake had a good crumb, as Mr Hollywood would say, and was moist, with a good banana flavour which wasn't overwhelmed by the rum sultanas. Will make it as a loaf cake next time, without the rum and the sweet icing. Enjoyed the cinnamon in the background, which gave the cake that extra something.

ps I have a new photographer - OH has bought a new camera and will take the photos for me!

Apricot-banana-cranberry teabread

This addition to my teabread recipe collection comes from a book I bought in a charity shop called 'The complete book of baking'. It really is a very quick bread to make, and is very moist. Another recipe with oil instead of butter must be good!

175g plain flour
11/2 tspn baking powder
1/2tspn grated nutmeg
6-g rolled oats
250g light brown sugar
60g dried cranberries
60g dried apricots
2 eggs
120ml sunflower oil
1 tspn vanilla essence
2 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat oven 180C/gas 4
Grease a 900g loaf tin

Put flour, baking powder and nutmeg in a bowl and add the oats, sugar and dried fruit. Mix together till blended. make a well in the middle.
In another bowl beat the bananas, eggs, oil and vanilla essence together with an electric mixer.
Add this to the flour mixture and combine together.
Pour into the tin and bake for 45mins- an hour till well risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack.
Dust the top with icing sugar if you want.

I served this to friends with a compote of cranberries and apricots, which really accentuated the flavours in the teabread. Have the compote recipe if anyone wants it.

There's an awful lot of sugar in the recipe so I'm going to play around with using something else for sweetness, and also going to try just reducing the amount of sugar and see if the recipe still works. I love the combination of flavours.

Banana and raisin loaf

Yet another of our favourite loaf cakes. There were some very ripe bananas in the fruit bowl just asking to be used up. The recipe comes from 'Cakes, Breads and Gateaux', a book published in 1979 by 'Living' magazine - anyone remember it?
This one is made by the 'rubbing in' method, and is supposed to keep well, for up to a week, if wrapped in foil. The recipe says that it cuts into 12 slices - depends on your appetite!

175g sr flour
50g wholemeal flour
1/2 level tspn baking powder
1 tspn cinnamon
125g butter of margarine
75g demerara sugar
175g raisins
450g bananas, peeled and mashed
2 eggs, beaten
finely grated rind of a lemon

Preheat oven 180C/gas 4.
Grease and line a 900g loaf tin.

Sift the flours, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl. Rub in the fat till the mixture is like breadcrumbs.
Mix in the rest of the ingredients - the sugar, bananas, eggs and lemon rind. Beat it together lightly then spoon into the tin.
Bake for 45-55 mins till it's firm to touch.
Turn the loaf out onto a wire rack.
Theloaf is nice on its own, or served with butter.

The banana in theloaf keeps it nice and moist, and the raisins didn't all sink to the bottom. A good sign!

Iced ginger and banana slices

This was going to be my offering to the 1st birthday challenge, but in my hurry to bake something, I left out the chocolate!

Having arrived back from our French holiday last night, I went over to see my grandsons this morning. Tom, who's 10, and I have started baking together, and I'd promised we could make something. We hunted through his children's baking book and found these. He loves ginger and bananas so they seemed perfect.


Here's the recipe.

125g butter
150g golden syrup
100g light muscovado sugar
2 bananas
2 eggs
2 tbspns milk
250g sr flour
2 tspns ground ginger
1/2 tspn bicarb. of soda

Topping
200g icing sugar
5-6 tspns water
hundreds and thousands/sugar strands [or anything else you fancy] to sprinkle on top

Grease and line a 18x28cm roasting tin.
Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4

Put the butter, syrup and sugar in a saucepan and heat gently till melted. Take off the heat.
Peel and mash the bananas with a fork.
Beat the eggs and milk together.
Mix the flour, ginger and bicarb together in a bowl, then add to the butter mixture with the bananas and beat till smooth.
Add the egg and milk and mix again.
Pour into the tin.
Bake for 20-25 mins till it's golden and risen. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins then put onto a wire rack.

Make the icing - mix the water and sieved icing sugar to make a good, spreadable icing. Pour it over the cooled cake and smooth it flat. Sprinkle over the sugar strands and leave the icing to set.
When set, cut the cake into 16 slices.

It was great fun to make, especially the icing and sprinkles - mess everywhere, but a very happy grandson!
The other boys enjoyed eating them .

Crunchy topped banana cake

Baking blogs should come with a health warning  - 'Blogging is bad for your weight'!!

To use up 3 bananas that were over-ripe [they seem to ripen so quickly nowadays] I thought I'd make a cake, not a loaf this time. Then I fancied a crunchy top, so I adapted several recipes into this one.

3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs
175g light brown sugar [the original recipe I used as a base had 350g sugar, which I thought was far too much]
120ml oil [I used rapeseed]
1 tspn vanilla extract
50g chopped nuts - whatever you have; I used walnuts
225g plain flour
2 tspn bicarbonate of soda
1 tspn salt

Topping:
2 tbspns of sugar, flour and nuts, then rub in 1 tbspn butter.
Don't rub into fine crumbs, leave chunky.
This doesn't make a lot of topping, so next time I'll make double this amount.

Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4

Grease a 23 cm springform tin, and line the bottom with baking paper.

Beat together the bananas, eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla.
Then add the rest of the ingredients and mix together.
Spoon into the tin and sprinkle the topping on.
Bake for about 45 mins and leave to cool in the tin.

Chocolate banana cake

Had a few really ripe bananas to use up so decided to make a banana cake. Then I fancied something chocolate, so changed the recipe into a chocolate version. I'm very pleased with the result. It's a very moist cake.

150g butter or margarine
150g light brown sugar
300g plain flour
2 tspn baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
4 tbspns cocoa powder
50g dark chocolate broken up [or chocolate chips]
100 ml vegetable oil

Preheat oven 180C/gas4

Grease a 900g loaf tin.

Beat the eggs and sugar together.
Mash up the bananas and add to the mixture.
Beat in the eggs.
Mix the flour, baking powder, cocoa and chocolate together, then add these to the mixture.
Lastly add the vegetable oil, and give it all a good mix.

Spoon into the tin and bake for about 45 mins.
I found that because of the lumps of chocolate, the centre was quite soft. I checked to see if it was cooked in several other places.
Leave it to cool for 10 mins in the tin, and then turn onto a wire rack.

You can see the melted chocolate in the centre of the photo.

Honey and banana loaf

We love teabreads and loafcakes, so I made this one to use up a couple of very ripe bananas.

This recipe was given to me by my aunt many years ago, and it's delicious. I've changed it to metric.

225g sr flour
1/2 tspn grated nutmeg
100g margarine or butter[softened]
225g bananas [weighed without skins]
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
6 tbspn thick honey

topping
2tbspn honey [warmed]
crushed sugar lumps or nibbed sugar

Preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F

Grease a 900g [2lb] loaf tin and line base with greaseproof paper.

Put flour and nutmeg in a bowl and rub in the marg. or butter till it looks like breadcrumbs.
Mash the peeled bananas and stir into the flour with the sugar, eggs and honey.
Beat it well until it's evenly mixed.
Put into the loaf tin and bake for about 45 mins. Check that the top's not browning too much, or if it is, put foil on the top.
Allow the loaf to cool then put onto a wire rack. When it's completely cool, brush the honey [which has been warmed in a small pan] over the top and sprinkle on the sugar.

This is nice on it's own with a cuppa or spread with butter.

I brought some nibbed sugar back from France, so used this on the top. I also added some mixed spice to the flour mixture as I love spice!