Banana, Orange and Chocolate Cake

This cake has been in my recipe book for more years than I care to remember and I cannot remember when I actually made it last, possibly decades!

A straightforward, quick recipe and a great way to use up bananas that look more black than yellow. I've tweaked this recipe with a little added milk chocolate to compliment the orange.

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas
8 oz/250g self raising flour
1 oz/25g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
5 oz/140g soft brown sugar
3 oz/75g soft margarine
2 eggs
1 orange and zest and 1/2 for juice
2 tbsp marmalade
4 oz/100g dark chocolate

Method

• Grease a 2lb loaf tin and line with a strip of greaseproof paper
• Peel and mash bananas
• Beat in flour, almonds, baking powder, sugar, margarine and eggs until well blended
• Add the orange zest and juice and the chocolate and mix well
• Pour into loaf tin and bake at 160 degrees C Fan/Gas Mark 4 for 55 minutes. 
• Remove and brush with marmalade and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes.
• Check that the cake is cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre which should come out clean if fully cooked.
• Allow to cool in the tin

The zesty orange and tangy marmalade work really well with the milk chocolate...one slice is not sufficient!

The Easiest Chocolate and Banana Loaf Cake

Ingredients:

4oz/125g Hard margarine (at room temperature)
4oz/125g Brown sugar
2 Eggs
8oz/250g Self raising flour
A pinch of salt
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tspn mixed spice
2 Medium chopped bananas
6oz/175g Milk chocolate chopped into large chunks

Method:

• Butter a 2 lb loaf tin and line with a strip of grease proof.
• Place all the ingredients except for the chocolate into a mixer and beat until smooth.

• Stir in the chocolate chunks and pour mixture into prepared tin.

• Bake at 350 F/160 C Fan/Gas Mark 4 for 1 hour.
• Then reduce the heat to 325 F/150 Fan/Gas Mark 3 for a further 10 minutes.
• Allow to cool before serving.

Dark Chocolate, Banana and Stem Ginger Cake

The Leather Bottle, Pleshey. A quaint pub (with real leather bottles in the window) in the centre of this extremely attractive Essex village which boasts a castle, well part of a castle, two pubs and a church. This was our choice for a quick pint and some well earned calories after speeding round the country lanes on our bicycles. A tiny snug bar with open fire was very welcoming after spending an hour in the garden waiting for the sun to shine.  A good selction of bitters including beers from the Black Sheep Brewery, the Black Sheep bitter was very good, almost comparable to Adnams.  However, the kitchen seemed to be on a go slow as we had to wait over an hour for a toasted cheese sandwich! The owner was very apologetic. Toasted sandwiches and chips hit the spot when they finally arrived! Well worth a visit but they need to resolve the problem in the kitchen!

Ok, let's bake a cake!

This is my version of a Good Food recipe I discovered a few days ago. I was tempted to use a 100% dark chocolate from Willies Cacoa that I purchased recently but chickened out and going for a 64% dark chocolate instead.

Ingredients

100g plain chocolate - I used a 64% dark chocolate
150g unsalted butter, softened
175g gold caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
175g self-raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
25g cocoa
3 large bananas, peeled and diced
2 pieces of stem ginger (60g)
A pinch of salt (optional)

Topping

25g unsalted butter
2 generous tbsp plain flour
1 level tbsp demerara sugar
2 tbsp pecans, chopped

Chocolate, Banana and Ginger Cake

Method

1. Heat the oven to 160C Fan. Butter and line the bases of a 30CM loaf tin with baking parchment. Start by making the topping, rub the butter into the flour, then mix the demerara sugar and chopped pecans. Melt the chocolate in a small glass bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir until smooth and remove from heat.
2. Cream together the softened butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the egg, beating well between each addition. Sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa and fold in. Add the sliced (don't mash it) banana and stem ginger and chocolate and mix well. Christine's Top tip - Don't slice up the banana until you're ready to use it othewise it will go black.
3. Pour the mixture into the tin and add the topping gently pressing it into the top of the mixture to ensure some of it sticks.
4. Bake for about 65 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for ten minutes in the tin then turn on to a rack to allow to cool completely.

The topping provides an extra crunchy dimension with the stem ginger providing some additional zing! Overall a delicious chocolate cake, can be served warm or cold.

Herman - The German Friendship Cake

Friendship cake has been around for years.  In fact, I can remember a next door neighbour bringing my mother a batch to our back door almost 40 years ago, perhaps she should have kindly declined and shut the door. 
But that's not very neighbourly is it?

Apparently, 'Herman the German' has gone viral and "Friendship-Kuchen", as I'm now calling it is moving swiftly from one house to another with only one thing on its mind, global cake domination.  I actually believe that Herman is Frau Merkel, the German Chancellor and in a last ditch attempt to rescue the Euro she has gone on a charm offensive handing out pots of Friendship-Kuchen to senior dignitaries of the Euro countries.  I'm sure Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is handy in the kitchen. 

Herman with Apple and Cinnamon

So, motivated and uplifted by the recent Celebrity Bake Off I thought I'd give it a go. How difficult can it be? If you've not had the pleasure of making this cake you should be aware that it has a very strange appearance.  I could not bring myself to describe it as my husband suggested!  It is a milky, sloppy, blob which has about as much going for it as road kill. 

Each Friendship-Kuchen comes with a set of instructions and a recipe that has a time span of several days, in fact it takes 10 days.  I have a problem making a recipe that takes 10 minutes!  For some unknown reason it has also been christened Herman.  How did that happen?  The cake originated from the United States many years ago allegedly where they call it Amish Friendship Bread.  Interestingly many people have claimed responsibility for this sour-dough cake.  Unbelievably, a girl scout, obviously trying to achieve a 'baking' badge to beat all badges was responsible for the blob that now crosses our doorsteps.  Like a vampire you have to invite it in and that's when the fun really starts.  

The life of my little Herman was nearly cut short by my health and safety conscious husband  who thought it was time to throw this strange, bubbling gunk, that probably originated from an offspring's bedroom, into the recycling bin where it rightly belonged!  Fortunately, he had second thoughts and left Herman to multiply and prosper as a happy yeast should do.

How to birth your own Herman Friendship-Kuchen

Firstly, get hold of your Herman. Assuming you have friends this step should be easy.

Hello my name is Herman. Yes, he's talking to you!

I am a sour-dough cake I live on your worktop for 10 days without a lid on. I cannot go in the fridge or I will die. If I stop bubbling then I am dead.

DAY

1. You get Herman put him in a large mixing bowl and cover loosely with a tea towel.
2. Stir him well
3. Stir him again
4. Feed Herman he's hungry. Add 1 cup each of plain flour, sugar and milk. Stir well
5. Stir well
6. Stir well
7. Stir well
8. Stir well
9. Assuming you've not lost the will to live. Herman is hungry again, add as day 4. Stir well. Divide into 4 equal portions and give 3 to friends including a copy of the instructions. Keep the 4th one.
10. Herman is very hungry. Stir well and add the following.

Herman with banana, pecan and mixed spice

Ingredients - (American Measures)

1 cup sugar
Half teaspoon salt
2 cups plain flour
2/3 (two thirds) cup of cooking oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cooking apples cut into chunks
1 cup of raisins
2 heaped teaspoon cinnamon
2 heaped teaspoon baking powder

Mix everything together and put into a large greased baking tin. Sprinkle with a quarter of a cup of brown sugar and a quarter cup of melted butter. Bake for 45 minutes at 170-180c. When cold cut into finger pieces. Cake freezes well and is delicious warm with cream or ice-cream.

I did omit the topping of sugar and butter and it was delicious without!  The only problem now is that I can't stop eating it! 

Being protective of my family of Hermans I only gave away two and baked two varying the ingredients by replacing apples and cinnamon with banana, pecan and mixed spice....Yummy!

Milk Chocolate with Banana

Well it's all been happening this week. The world has finally gone bonkers....well to be exact the News of the World has gone bonkers allegedly hacking into anything electrical that might give them an advantage over the competition. The UK's favourite red top has folded, no pun intended, gone from the news stands for ever. Should I rush out and buy the last edition? I imagine a new paper will rise, like the Phoenix from the ashes in a few days or so and we'll all be reading News of the Universe. My grand parents were avid readers of the paper and I can remember as a youngster spending many hours and hours trawling through all those outrageous headlines trying to understand who had run off with who and more importantly why.


Not only have the news papers gone banana's but it also seems that Thorntons has possibly lost the plot bringing out a milk chocolate block with banana.

Thorntons Go Bananas

This bar has some great credentials using both Fairtrade and Organic certified products. The dried organic and Fairtrade bananas originate from Ecuador providing and to quote, "a fruity flavour which perfectly complements the hint of spice in the organic milk chocolate." It's also good to know that Thorntons are investing in the farming communities.

The Chocolate: A 37% milk chocolate which melts quickly releasing sweet chocolate and hints of banana, for my liking it is a little too sickly. Each chunk contains a good amount of banana which gives the chocolate a rather strange chewy mouth feel. The chocolate itself does have some caramel coming through but the spice is masked by the amount of sugar used.


Overall not a bad try and a score of 5/10 is probably generous but Thorntons have tried to be a bit creative with this one.  The organic and Fairtrade credentials have my vote and that's probably the only reason I would buy it again. I purchased 3 bars for £5.00 which is good value for money in these harsh times. To buy online click here.


If you like banana in your chocolate read about Perky Nana, from New Zealand, by Chocolate Reviews.