Banana Toffee Cake with Brown Sugar Buttercream

As a keen and frequent baker, I'm not quite sure why I'd never made banana bread/cake before as I love bananas and it's pretty much a failsafe creation. In fact, it almost seems to be a rite of passage recipe for those who begin to pursue an interest in baking. Anyway, when the time came to make a cake for my mum and dad's joint birthday celebrations back in April, I wanted to make something different that I hadn't tried before which would be indulgent but not too complicated. I decided to do a banana cake but with added toffee flavouring, and paired with a brown sugar buttercream and chopped up Caramac and Chomp bars for extra celebration-appropriate banoffee decadence.

I found that the brown sugar buttercream was a bit looser than normal frosting but if you need it to be stiffer just add in some extra icing sugar.

INGREDIENTS

For the cake:

• 225g self-raising flour
• 100g granulated/caster sugar
• 90g dark brown sugar
• 225g butter/margarine
• 2 ripe/over-ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp Lakeland buttery caramel flavouring (optional but delicious)
• 0.5 tsp baking powder

For the buttercream/topping:

• 100g butter
• 100g dark brown sugar + a few pinches for sprinkling
• 100g icing sugar
• Few drops of Lakeland buttery caramel flavouring (again, optional but so good!)
• 2 Chomp bars (or other toffee/caramel chocolate)
• 1 Caramac bar

METHOD

For the cake:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C and line two round baking tins with parchment paper.
2. Whisk the butter/margarine and sugars together in a large mixing bowl until pale then whisk in the eggs,
3. Fold in the flour, mashed bananas, vanilla extract, caramel flavouring and baking powder until a batter of a soft dropping consistency has formed.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tins then pop in the oven and bake for around 20-25 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the sponges comes out clean.
5. When baked, leave the cakes to cool on a wire rack before turning them out of the tins. At this stage the sponges can be frozen for decorating at a later date if you wish.

For the buttercream/topping:

1. Place the butter, caramel flavouring and brown sugar in a bowl then whisk while gradually adding the icing sugar until a smooth mixture has formed.
2. Spread half of the buttercream on one of the sponges then sandwich the other on top, then spread the rest of buttercream on the top layer.
3. Chop the Caramac and Chomp bars into small squares using a sharp knife or scissors then place them on top of the cake before finishing off with a few sprinkles of brown sugar.

I also used this recipe to make cupcakes to take to my old workfriends :) The above quantities will yield about 12-15 cupcakes.

Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes

I've always thought there's something so cute and jolly about (albeit not strictly traditional) Mr Kipling style individual bakewell tarts, with their pure white fondant icing and bright red cherry decorations sitting atop jam-filled sponge and pastry. I'm not even a fan of almonds but I love them! They were the inspiration for these lovely and easy to make cupcakes, which I think scream retro village fete cake stall. I'm always reluctant to use glace icing due to being paranoid its runniness will make my creations look like a three-year-old was let loose in the kitchen but luckily keeping it at quite a thick consistency meant they looked a tad more sophisticated.

I just used ground almonds in the sponge as I didn't have any almond essence to hand and still managed to achieve a subtle nutty taste, but you may like to add some almond essence to the sponge and/or icing if you have some to further enhance the bakewell flavour.

INGREDIENTS - makes approx. 12-14 cakes

For the cakes:

• 6 oz self-raising flour
• 3.5 oz ground almonds
• 8 oz caster/granulated sugar
• 8 oz butter/margarine
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the glace icing/jam filling:

• 4 oz icing sugar
• Water or milk
• 12-14 tsp (approx.) strawberry or raspberry jam (raspberry is traditional but I used strawberry as my friend at work is allergic to raspberries)

METHOD

For the cakes::

1. Line a baking tray with 12 paper cases.
2. Whisk the margarine/butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until pale then whisk in the eggs.
3. Fold in the flour, ground almonds and vanilla extract until a batter of a soft dropping consistency has formed.
4. Drop the mixture into the cake cases using a teaspoon until they're each about two thirds full.
5. Pop in the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for about 12-15 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the sponge comes out clean.
6. When baked, place on a wire rack and leave to cool. At this stage the cakes can be frozen for decorating at a later date if you wish.

For the filling/icing:

1. If your cupcakes have risen up to form dome tops in the oven and you'd prefer a flat surface to put the icing on to avoid excessive drizzling, use a serrated knife to slice the tops of the cakes off (don't throw them away - scoff them later!)
2. Using a teaspoon or small sharp knife, carefully cut a small hole (about 2cm deep by 2cm wide) in the top of each cupcake. Don't discard the bits you've cut out!
3. Drop about a teaspoon of jam into each hole and then gently push the sponge part that was cut out back into each one so that the tops of the cakes are even.
4. Place the icing sugar into a bowl then add enough milk or water and stir to form a thick but slightly running mixture.
5. Spread the icing onto the top of each cupcake in a thick, even layer using a teaspoon or pallette knife and top with a glace cherry.

Coconut Ice Cakes

I should probably begin this post by declaring the following: I do not like coconut cake. I really don't. However, for some bizarre reason, I'm a huge fan of the colourful sugary treat known as coconut ice. I'm not normally a big lover of sweets in general but I've been craving this by the bucketful the last few weeks and so, out of curiosity, had a Google to see whether anyone had had the stroke of genius to incorporate it into a cake recipe. Shockingly enough, turns out no one had. Naturally, I had to try and resolve this so I donned my experimental chef's hat and hit the kitchen armed with desiccated coconut, red food colouring and crossed fingers. I'm pleased to say the result was fantastic - simply adding desiccated coconut to regular buttercream icing really does make it taste very reminiscent of the sweet itself - and it went down a storm with my colleagues :)

For an extra homemade touch, you could make the actual coconut ice yourself (it's very easy - mostly just desiccated coconut and condensed milk) but, if I'm brutally honest, *whispers* I prefer the bought stuff. On that bombshell, here's my recipe...

Aren't they pretty??

INGREDIENTS - makes approx. 12 large squares

For the cakes:

• 12 oz self-raising flour
• 12 oz butter/margarine
• 12 oz granulated/caster sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 oz strawberry milkshake powder
• 1 tsp strawberry extract
• Few drops of red gel food colouring

For the coconut icing/jam filling:

• 4 oz icing sugar
• 2 oz butter (unsalted if preferred)
• 2 tbsp desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Few drops of red gel food colouring
• 4-5 tbsp strawberry jam
• 12 small cubes of coconut ice (or 6 large chunks cut in half)

METHOD

For the cakes:

1. Grease two identical cake tins with butter/margarine or line with baking parchment.
2. Whisk the margarine/butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until pale then whisk in the eggs.
3. Fold in the flour until a batter of soft dropping consistency has formed then place half of the mixture into a separate bowl.
4. Add the vanilla extract to one bowl and set aside.
5. Add the strawberry milkshake powder and strawberry extract to the other bowl then stir in the red food colouring a drop at a time until the mixture turns a pale pink colour.
6. Pour each bowl of cake batter into the two separate tins and bake at 180 degrees C for about 15-18 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the sponges comes out clean.
7. When baked, place the cakes on a wire rack and leave to cool. At this stage they can be frozen for decorating at a later stage if you wish.

For the coconut icing/jam filling:

1. Spread the strawberry jam onto the top of the pink sponge and carefully place the yellow sponge on top (you may wish to trim the tops to make them nice and flat so they sandwich together more easily).
2. Place the butter and vanilla extract into a bowl and stir/whisk while gradually adding the icing sugar until a thick, fluffy mixture has formed.
3. Stir in the desiccated coconut and red food colouring until the icing turns your desired shade of pink.
4. Spread the icing over the top of the cake in an even layer then neatly trim off the outer edges of the cake to get the full effect of the lovely coloured sponge layers (but don't throw away the offcuts, they're still yummy!) 
5. Cut into 12 even squares then top each one with a piece of coconut ice.

Maria's Ridiculously Good Best Ever Blondies

I normally find it quite arrogant when people put their names on recipes but I couldn't resist putting my stamp on this one as it's my definite favourite of all the baked creations I've made up myself so far, and their irresistible butterscotchy flavour really makes them ridiculously good!

I was reluctant to reveal my secret ingredient to my eager samplers but I shall share it here for the benefit of the baking community at large (ahem). And that secret ingredient is...*drum roll*...custard powder. This idea came about when I was simply too lazy to look up a blondie recipe and decided just to go by my fail safe brownie recipe (available here: http://cloudninepointone.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/best-ever-jack-daniels-brownies ) and substitute the milk chocolate for the white variety. It then dawned on me that I had no idea what to add in place of the cocoa powder. There's no such thing as white cocoa powder (to my knowledge?!) and I was worried that making up the cocoa quantity with more flour would affect the flavour and make them too plain so, in the absence of butterscotch Angel Delight, I reached for the vanilla scented custard powder. And hey presto! The rest is scrumptious cakey history.

The lovely golden blondies pictured with their darker chocolate bretherin, pre-cutting...

INGREDIENTS

• 200g granulated/caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 80g self-raising flour
• 120ml cooking oil
• 130g white cooking chocolate
• 4.5 tbsp custard powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• Few drops of Lakeland buttery caramel flavouring (optional but really makes the butterscotchy flavour pop!)

METHOD

• Grease the baking tin with margarine/butter or line with baking parchment.
• Briefly whisk the sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla extract and caramel flavouring together in a large mixing bowl.
• Chop the chocolate into small chunks and melt in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot water or place in the microwave and heat in blasts of about 1 minute until smooth, then pour into the mixing bowl.
• Fold the flour and custard powder into the mixture and pour into the lined tin.
• Pop in the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the cake comes out pretty much clean then leave to cool.
• Cut the blondies into squares using a sharp knife and marvel at their deliciousness as you dive in.

Hot Chocolate Biscuits

My original attempt at hot chocolate biscuits were a sub-par batch of dry, cakey chocolate cookies from a recipe I found online so I went back to the drawing board and invented my own version which keeps the hot chocolate powder, generous chocolate chunks and gooey marshmallow but uses icing sugar in place of caster sugar and plain flour instead of self-raising. This creates a more even and less puffed-up biscuit without making them hard and brittle.

The combination of chunky milk chocolate pieces and chewy marshmallow inside a rich, dark cocoa biscuit makes for a delicious taste and texture. For further hot chocolatey decadence, sandwich two biscuits together with Marshmallow Fluff - scrumptious!

Note: the large chocolate chunks in these cookies means the dough will be fairly thick and slightly uneven when rolled out and the final result will be a little bumpy with oozy marshmallow patches, so I'd advise using a simple cutter rather than an intricately shaped one for this recipe.

INGREDIENTS - makes approx. 20 biscuits depending on size of cutter

• 8 oz plain flour
• 1 oz cocoa
• 1 oz hot chocolate powder
• 1 tsp Horlicks (or other malt drink powder)
• 1 oz icing sugar
• 6 oz margarine/butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 oz milk chocolate chips or cut-up chunks
• Handful of marshmallows snipped into small bits
• 0.5 tbsp instant ground coffee dissolved in approx. 0.5 tbsp boiling water

METHOD

1. Boil the kettle and pour about half a tbsp water over half a tbsp instant ground coffee and set aside.
2. Whisk the margarine/butter and icing sugar together until combined.
3. Add the flour, cocoa, hot chocolate powder, Horlicks, chocolate chunks and bits of marshmallow and mix briefly.
4. Add the vanilla extract and prepared coffee then use your hands to squash the mixture together to form a ball of dough. If it's too sticky, add a bit more flour.
5. Wrap the dough in clingfilm or a freezer bag and chill in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes.
6. Place the ball of dough onto a large clean sheet of baking parchment then place another sheet on top and roll out with a rolling pin until about 1.5cm thick, depending on the size of the chocolate pieces (alternatively, you could roll the dough out on a floured surface but this may spoil the colour of the biscuits a bit).
7. Cut out as many biscuits as possible using your cutter of choice (I used a flower shape) and place onto a parchment-lined baking tray then squish the offcuts of dough together, re-roll and repeat the process until all the dough is used up.
8. Pop in the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for about 8-10 minutes then transfer onto a wire rack. This is the part where I'd normally say leave to cool but don't leave them too long as they're delicious while still warm from the oven - just beware of molten marshmallow!