Nigel Slater's Banana, Hazelnut & Choclolate Loaf Cake

This is just the BEST cake!!!  I had a couple of extremely ripe banana's and as I am loath to throw them away, I freeze them, skins & all.  When defrosted they are mushy but when shoved in a cake, it doesn't really matter.  Anyway, usually I make the Hummingbird Bakery Banana Loaf cake which is just lovely (perfect with a cup of tea) but I have recently started following Nigel Slater on Twitter and someone asked him what to do with a glut of ripe bananas that they had and he suggested his recipe for this cake so I decided to give it a go

Glad I did, it is just lovely!  Very crumbly in texture and the hazelnuts give a nice background to the flavour but I suppose you could substitute with any other ground nut, almonds say.  I ground my own hazelnuts, just putting them in the oven on a tray for 5 mins to warm up and then rubbed the skin off with kitchen roll.  I put them in my little fab kenwood chopper (love it, its a great handy little chopper - birthday present from my mum!) and it made short work of blitzing them up.  Or I guess you could even leave them out if you wished. I also used all soft brown sugar as that's all I had in the cupboard whereas the recipe states half light muscavado & half golden caster sugar.  

I wanted to make the cake in a loaf tins and I need 2 of them and as I find recipes for 'loaf type cakes' can generally be split between 2 tins to make smaller loafs, but I wanted these to be full size so to speak so I took the recipe quantities and divided in half and then added that half back to the original amount (does that make sense??!!)

If you are baking this weekend or fancy trying something that is simple to make but lovely to eat, then I urge you to bake this cake!!

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To follower Nigel on Twitter his address is @realnigelslater

Ingredients

• 175g/6oz unsalted butter, softened
• 175g/6oz sugar (half light muscovado, half golden caster)
• 75g/2½oz hazelnuts
• 2 free-range eggs
• 175g/6oz self-raising flour
• 2 very ripe bananas (about 250g/9oz total weight)
• drop vanilla extract
• 175g/6oz good-quality dark or milk chocolate chips
• a little demerara sugar

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3. Line the base and sides of a 20cm x 12cm/8in x 5in loaf tin with baking parchment.
2. Beat the butter and sugars until light and coffee-coloured. This is best achieved in a food mixer.
3. Toast the hazelnuts, rub them in a tea towel to remove their skins, then grind quite finely.
   
   
   Watch technique0:52 mins
4. Slowly add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture, then mix in the toasted ground hazelnuts and self-raising flour.
5. Peel the bananas and chop them the small pieces. Gently fold the vanilla extract, the bananas and the chocolate chips into the cake mixture, turning gently and taking care not to overmix.
6. Scoop the cake batter into the prepared loaf tin. Dust with a little demerara sugar. Bake for between 1 hour and 1 hour 10 minutes, covering the cake with foil if the top starts to darken too quickly.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Mrs Short's Birthday Baking Bonanza!!

It was Mrs Short's birthday last week and as I had the house to myself on Saturday as OH was enjoying himself watching his team beat Chelsea I decided it was going to be a Baking Bonanza Saturday!

First on the agenda was a ginger cake for Mrs S as her little bump (or 'sprout' as it has been named!) is currently making her feel slightly sick and ginger is renowned for getting rid of queasy feelings.  A lovely loaf cake was produced with instructions to just have a slice in the morning with a cup of tea.....not sure whether she stuck to the one slice a day rule, I think a few at a time may have been consumed!  I didn't take any pictures of the cake as well a ginger cake is not very interesting to look at really!!  But I will post the recipe later.  Ginger cake is one of those lovely cakes that just gets better and better the longer you leave it (if you can manage to leave it alone).  The flavour mellows and the top goes all sticky and you are left with a perfect piece of cake to have with a cup of tea, or simply smothered in lots of vanilla custard (Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Madagascan Vanilla Custard is just the perfect partner!)

In honour of her birthday (and the fact that she was having a get-together) I made a few lemon cupcakes with a lemon buttercream icing.

I also made some Melting Moment biscuits which I will talk about in the next post for the get-together......they proved to be popular....very popular indeed!!

Humming Bird Bakery Coffee & Chocolate Loaf Cake

As a big fan of The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook I had been eagerly awaiting their next recipe book called Cake Days. It was described as “recipes to make every day special”.  I bought it as soon as it came out some months ago now and so far it has not disappointed me.   Cake Days is crammed with cupcakes, whoopie pies, muffins and special occasion cakes. All split into handy sections; Spring, Mother’s and Father’s Days, Halloween, Easter, Bonfire Night etc. 

There are loads of recipes and beautiful pictures to accompany them and the best bit is they show you how to ice the cupcakes their way by showing you in pictures, which is really handy for anyone who has attempted to try to recreate their signature swirl that you see in their cookbooks.  Well worth looking at!!

There are a few good recipes for Whoopie Pies which seem to be enjoying a whole craze all to themselves.  I have to admit though I am not a big fan of them to be honest.

There are a few cake loafs and layer cakes as well. The coffee and chocolate loaf was very easy to make as I did it at the weekend and it tastes lovely.  I split the mixture into 2 loaf tins quite easily but it is more like a thick sponge mixture rather than a batter as the recipe states which suggested to me that it would be runnier. Nonetheless, it’s still delicious and rather than being overpowering in coffee flavour (which I am not a fan of), it subtly brings out the rich chocolaty flavour of the cocoa in the cake.

Chief Taster, Jess stated it would go perfectly with a cup of tea or as a dessert with cream and was very pleased when I gave her half the loaf to take home and Ve, Chief Taster Number 2 said, and I quote,…..”Amazing and in heaven!!” (think she liked it!!).  It’s a very light cake and lovely eaten just slightly warm.  Me & the OH also had it with some Chantilly cream that I made (whipping cream, icing sugar & vanilla whipped up) and that was just as nice as well.


Will post the recipe tomorrow as I forgot to jot down the ingredients from the recipe! (Duh!!)**

**  Recipe is as follows:

Coffee & Chocolate Loaf Cake

190g unsalted softened butter

130g plain flour

190g soft light brown sugar (or light muscavado if you prefer)

3 large eggs

60g cocoa powder 

1 teaspoon baking powder

20ml milk

1 tablespoon strong coffee (brewed and cooled)

Loaf tin*

* I split this mixture between 2 loaf tins to get 2 slightly smaller cakes, you can of course just fill one loaf tin.  I also use loaf tin liners as I find they are far easier to get the cakes out and its less faffing with greaseproof paper etc!

Pre-heat the oven to 170°C (I do it to 160°C as I have a fan assisted oven).  Then grease and flour your loaf tin(s) if you are not using liners.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a freestanding mixer until pale and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time and making sure you scape down the sides of the bowl after each addition and mix well.  The mixture should be quite fluffy and almost 'moussey' when you have finished.

Measure the milk and add the cooled coffee to it.  Set aside.

Add the dry ingredients and two batches, alternating with the coffee mixture.  Mix on a low speed until everything is incorporated, remembering to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Once everything is well mixed, increase the speed to medium-high and give a quick blitz to make sure you have a smooth batter.  This mixture is not very liquidy and is more like a regular sponge batter.  Spoon into the tin(s) and bake for one hour or until a knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake.  Allow to cool for a while in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

This is lovely eaten slightly warm.