Roasted Banana Cake

Our freezer decided to defrost itself on Sunday.

There's were some casualties (rest in sweet peace Ben & Jerrys) but the salvageable parts had to be cooked. I made pies, pasties, stews and more. The oven was on and off, almost constantly. I decided to take advantage and roast some bananas that were also threatening to turn just over ripe.

Roasting really transforms the rich, caramelly notes of the bananas and surprisingly gave this cake a lighter texture.


My recipe calls for melted butter. Roast your bananas, throw in that butter to the still warm pan, give it a little wiggle to submerge the creamy little chunks in that intense banana syrup and then leave the whole lot to cool. Labour saving. I'm into that. Especially when I have to figure out what to do with another packet of half defrosted meat...

Ingredients

Banana Cake
3 whole, unskinned, bananas
1 cinnamon stick, snapped in half
100gr butter, room temperature and chopped into chunks
1tsp baking powder
260gr self raising flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 Ndali vanilla powder (or 1/2 tsp good vanilla extract)
100gr caster sugar
60gr dark brown soft sugar
2 eggs
2tbsp milk

Glace Icing
150gr icing sugar
1-2tbsp water

Method

1, Preheat your oven to 200 o/c and arrange your bananas in a heatproof bowl. Add in the cinnamon stick and roast for 10-15minutes until brown, bubbling and swimming in their own sweet liquor. Drop the oven temperature down to 170o/c and grease/line a deep 7 inch cake tin.
2, Carefully remove from the oven and slide in the butter. Give it a little wiggle to immerse the chunks in the banana-y syrup and leave to one side so that the butter melts and the bananas are cool enough to handle. Peel and discard the skins along with the cinnamon stick and mash the flesh into the melted butter.
3, Sift together the baking powder, flour, cinnamon and vanilla powder together and whisk in the sugars to keep it airy and light.
4, Beat the eggs and milk into the now cooler banana mix and add into the dry ingredients. If you are using vanilla extract instead of vanilla powder, simply beat this in with the eggs and milk too.
5, Gently fold to combine until you have a smooth batter and pour into your prepared cake tin. Smooth the top and bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
6, Remove from the tin and cool on a cooling rack.
7, Make the icing by stirring the icing sugar with water until you have a thick paste. Spread over the top of your fully cooled cake and leave to drip down the sides.