Banoffee Peanut Butter Cake

This showstopper bake won't disappoint. I saw the recipe in the March 2014 edition of the Waitrose Kitchen Magazine - and as soon as I saw the recipe I knew I had to try it! For those of you who follow my blog regularly you'll know that I recently made my own peanut butter *here* and so this recipe married perfectly with using up some of my homemade stock. 

The cake consists of two banana bread style dense round sponges, sandwiched together with caramel, sliced banana and fresh cream, topped with the second cake, peanut icing and smashed up homemade peanut brittle! Wowsers!

This cake is not for the faint hearted - at 646 calories per 12th of the cake it is a mega treat! I just had one slice on Friday night, and haven't touched any more - one slice is better than none though right? It's been hard not to devour the rest - but I'm pretty sure the final 3 slices will be eaten by somebody over the next few days!

Banoffee Peanut Butter Cake

SERVES 12

Ingredients

CAKE

100g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

250g unsalted peanuts

100g honey

200g light soft brown muscavado sugar

8 ripe bananas (4 mashed, 4 sliced)

1/2 lemon juice

3 eggs, separated

25g crunchy or smooth peanut butter

225g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp caramel or toffee sauce

150ml double cream, softly whipped

PEANUT BUTTERCREAM

50g unsalted butter, softened

100g crunchy or smooth peanut butter

150g icing sugar

2 tbsp double cream 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180/Gas Mark 4. Lightly grease two 20 cm sandwich tins, and line the bases with parchment. Toast the peanuts in a dry pan set over a medium-high heat, tossing regularly until golden (about 4-5 mins). Set aside and wipe the pan clean. Gently heat 75g of the honey and 75g of the sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Cook over a medium-high heat, without stirring, for 2-3 minutes, to make a rich, golden caramel. Tip in the peanuts and stir gently to coat, then pour onto a parchment lined tray. Cool completely, then chop/blitz or bash with a rolling pin in a sealed bag, until roughly ground - you want a mixture of smaller and bigger pieces. 

My mixed peanuts in their caramel goodness

2. Cream the butter with the remaining 125g sugar and 25g honey until light and fluffy, then beat in the mashed banana, lemon juice, egg yolks and peanut butter. Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt and 3/4 of the caramelised peanuts (use the smaller bits and keep the bigger pieces for decoration). In a clean bowl or in your mixer, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Carefully fold through the cake batter until evenly mixed.

3. Divide between the two tins and bake for 30-35 minutes until a skewer into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack, remove the parchment, and leave to cool completely. 

My two cakes cooling

4. For the buttercream, use electric beaters or your stand mixer to mix together the butter, peanut butter and icing sugar. Increase the speed for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in 2 tbsp double cream until smooth and spreadable. 

5. Transfer one cake to a cake stand/plate and spread over the caramel sauce - don't worry if some spills over the sides - it will add to the homemade look of the cake. Top the caramel with half of the sliced bananas, then the cream. Sit the second cake on the top and cover with the buttercream. Decorate with the leftover sliced bananas and the caramel peanuts. I used the fine powdery pieces of the peanut brittle to push against and stick to the wet sides of the cake - although this wasn't in the original recipe it really helped dress up the "messy" sides. 

T'ah d'ah……! 

There are just no words!

Who could resist a slice of this?

I added 12 slices of banana around the top of the cake like a clock face to help make it easy to portion out as the cake serves 12, handy! 

You will not regret baking this cake. Except perhaps after your 3rd slice when you realise you may have just put on half a stone :-D

Go on, treat yourself, it is the weekend after all! 

Mrs B

xxx

Bert is 7 Months Old Today! *cute baby pic alert*

How on earth is it possible that my tiny baby boy is 7 months old today? The time has genuinely flown by, and I can't believe he's over half way to being a year old!!

His cheeky little face and hilarious expressions make me giggle every day. Snuggles with him are still the best things I've ever experienced, and I wake up happy every single morning knowing that I get to spend the day having an adventure with my boy. 

So, shamelessly I wanted to share with you some recent pictures of my little dumpling! 

shocked expression but mega cute! 

aww who can resist a baby in old fashioned pjs?

those eyes! 

aww cute pj alert again - i found these in H&M for about £7 and they popper instead of button - double bonus! 

I just can't resist those feet! 

Neither can he! 

cuddles with his Auntie Danni at Woburn - we took him to see the animals for the first time! 

Doing his stag impression on the stag picnic rug! :-)

Laughing at his awesome stag impression, hehe! 

OMG! That face! :-)

A face that is just like his Daddy's! 

the morning feed

first ride in the trolley seats at Tesco

mum, why have you put a cage around the fire place?

tongue out! cuddles with Uncle Paris in his tangerine jumper! 

first try of (mild) chicken curry! 

breakfast with the cat! 

morning mum! 

snuggles with my Nanny Seaside! 

Bouncing in his door swing - he defo has a touch of the Irish jig going on here! 

This is the first time I've uploaded a video of my munchkin to Blogger, so I hope it works and brightens your day! 

Here's hoping that you're all having a happy Saturday - I have a scrumptious new recipe post heading your way tomorrow, so watch this space! 

Mrs B 

xxx

12 Month Baking Challenge MARCH: Coffee and Walnut Battenberg Cake

For March's baking challenge I decided to make Mary Berry's recipe for a Coffee and Walnut Battenberg cake (original recipe found here). 

I've never made a checkerboard cake before, and don't often fiddle around with the aesthetics of my baking - I tend to go for the "rustic" look and concentrate on the flavour of the bake…so I thought this would be a great challenge for me. 

I guessed as it was a Mary Berry recipe I could safely trust that the flavour of the cake would be reliably good – so I just needed to concentrate on following her instructions to the best of my ability. I found the recipe easy to follow, and far less complicated than I had imagined. I was pleased with how my cake turned out – and all who ate it say it was a “good bake” to use a GBBO term! So I was right to trust Mary’s wisdom.

The only thing I would change in the recipe with hindsight is the amount of coffee buttercream – next time I make it I’ll definitely double the quantity as I think the cake would have benefitted from a thicker layer of buttercream to sandwich it together and fix the marzipan to the sides. This is purely down to personal taste, as I prefer my cakes to be moist and unctuous. I have changed the quantities for the buttercream below, but feel free to halve it if you’d rather make a lighter cake.

Coffee and Walnut Battenberg Cake

Ingredients

For the cake

• 100g/3½oz margarine
• 100g/3½oz caster sugar
• 2 free-range eggs
• 100g/3½oz self-raising flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 50g/1¾oz ground almonds
• few drops vanilla extract
• 3 tsp milk
• 1½ tsp instant coffee powder
• 25g/1oz shelled walnuts, chopped

For the coffee butter icing

• 200g icing sugar
• 80g butter, softened
• 1 tsp instant coffee powder
• 3 tsp milk

To decorate the cake

• 225g/8oz white marzipan
• 5 small walnut pieces

Method

1. For the cake, preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3. Grease the bottom and sides of a 20cm/8in square, shallow cake tin.
2. Cut out a piece of greaseproof paper that is 7.5cm/3in longer than the length of the tin. Fold the paper in half widthways. Open out the paper and push up the centre fold to make a 4cm/1½in pleat. Line the base of the tin with this, making any adjustments to ensure the pleat runs down the centre of the tin making in effect two rectangular 'tins' within the tin.
3. Beat the margarine, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and ground almonds in a large bowl for about 2-3 minutes, or until smooth, slightly lighter in colour and glossy looking. (If you put a damp cloth under the bowl, it stops it from moving around.)
4. Spoon slightly more than half the mixture into a separate bowl and stir in the vanilla extract and 1½ teaspoons of the milk. Set aside.
5. Mix the coffee in the remaining 1½ teaspoons of milk, stirring until it has dissolved (you don't need to heat the milk), then stir this into the other bowl of mixture along with the chopped walnuts. Spoon the vanilla mixture into one half of the tin and the coffee-walnut mixture into the other half. Level the surface of each half with a knife. Check the paper divider is still straight and in the middle.
   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   
6. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until the cake is well risen, springy to the touch and has shrunk slightly from the sides of the tin. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then loosen the cake from the sides with a round bladed knife, turn it out, peel off the parchment liner and finish cooling on a wire rack.
   

   
   

   

   
   
7. For the butter icing, sift the icing sugar into a medium bowl. Add the butter. Mix the coffee and milk together until the coffee has dissolved, and pour into the bowl. Beat everything together with a wooden spoon until soft and smooth. Set aside.
8. Trim the crispy outer edges off the cooled cake with a serrated knife, then cut and trim if necessary into 4 equal strips. Lay one vanilla and one coffee-walnut strip next to each other, then use a little of the butter icing to stick them together. Spread a bit more icing on the top. Stick the remaining two strips together with icing and place them on top to create a chequerboard effect.
9. Spread a little more icing over the top of the assembled cake.
10. Cut two pieces of string, one that is the length of the assembled cake and one that will wrap all around it.
11. Roll the marzipan out, on a work surface lightly dusted with sifted icing sugar, into an oblong the length of the cake and sufficiently wide to wrap around the cake, using the pieces of string as your measuring guide.
12. Lay the butter iced side of the cake on the marzipan, positioning it so that when you lift up one long side, it perfectly covers one side of the cake (this way the join will be neatly in the corner).
13. Reserve a teaspoonful of the icing and spread the rest over the remaining three sides of the cake (not the ends). Brush off any crumbs from the marzipan and work surface. Roll the cake over in the marzipan, pressing to neatly cover it, then brush the corner join lightly with water, pressing it to seal. (Try to avoid touching the marzipan with wet fingers as they will mark it.) Turn the cake over so that the join is underneath. Trim a slim slice from each end of the cake to neaten and show off the chequerboard effect. Smooth the marzipan over with your hands so their warmth will give it a smooth finish.
14. While the marzipan is still soft, crimp the edges by pinching the marzipan between your thumb and first finger at a slight angle and at regular intervals. Score the top of the cake with long diagonal lines using a sharp knife. Sift over some icing sugar to lightly dust the top, then lay the walnut pieces down the centre, securing with the reserved butter icing.

    
    

    The cake serves 8 people ample slices, and is around 308 calories per slice.

    
    

    
    

    

    
    

    
    

    

    
    

    

    
    

    

    
    

    

    
    

    
    

    I was so pleased with the outcome of this months baking challenge and would definitely make this cake again! If you've not had a go at something like this before then I'd urge you to have a go…there is nothing like the feeling of baking something from scratch for the first time and it working well and tasting good! 

    
    

    Happy Baking! 

    
    

    Mrs B

    
    

    xxx

    
    

    
    

Homemade Peanut Butter & PB Rice Krispie Squares

This week I've been doing a lot of baking and home making - sometimes I just get a real rush of baking mojo and decide to plough through lots of recipes. 

I had a friends birthday and a dinner party to make a little gift for, and I've been meaning to try making my own peanut butter for ages - the friend who's birthday it was is a peanut butter nut (she has been known to eat it straight out of the jar with a spoon - Karly, you know it's you!) and my friend Liz who was hosting the dinner party last night also loves peanut butter and anything homemade, so I thought a couple of jars of some homemade peanut butter yumminess would make great gifts. 

I used the recipe from The Guardian here by Phil Daoust (@philxdaoust on Twitter) - and it worked perfectly! 

HOMEMADE PEANUT BUTTER

(Makes one large 400g  jar)

Ingredients

600g of monkey nuts (de shelled and peeled) OR 600g unsalted peanuts, whichever you can find

1.5 tbsp peanut oil

1 tbsp honey

sprinkle of salt to taste

Method

1. Pop half of the nuts in a food processor and blitz until they form crumbs (as below). The mixture will stick to the sides so use a spatula to scrape down the sides as needed. 

2. Next, add the rest of the peanuts (keep 100g back if you want a really chunky/crunchy peanut butter) and add 1/2 tsp of oil, keep blitzing the mixture.

3. After 5 minutes of blitzing add another 1/2 tbsp oil. Keep blitzing for around 10-15 minutes until the mixture starts making a moist paste, add another 1/2 tbsp oil if you think it needs it. 

4. Add your 100g left over nuts (skip this if you want it smoother) and blitz up until the paste has little chunks of peanut running through it. Salt to taste and then add 1 tbsp of honey, give it a quick final blitz and store in a jar in the fridge for up to one month (You can add up to 2 more tablespoons of honey if you like your peanut butter super-sweet). 

yummy - homemade peanut butter - glossy and unctuous 

all jarred up and ready to give as a gift! 

Homemade Peanut Butter - its easy - have a go yourself! 

The peanut butter is 150 calories per 15g tablespoon. 

If you fancy an easy no bake recipe to make with the kids then my peanut butter Rice Krispie squares are a surefire winner! They take minutes to make, are stored and eating straight from the freezer - what could be easier?

PEANUT BUTTER RICE KRISPIE SQUARES

Ingredients

65g Rice Krispies

8 tbsps homemade peanut butter

2 tbsps Golden syrup

60 ml Maple syrup

5 tbsp honey 

Method

1. Melt the peanut butter, syrups and honey all together in a pan and mix until combined. 

2. Mix the Rice Krispies and peanut syrup mixture in a large bowl until the Rice Krispies are completely coated in the syrup. 

3. Spoon into a 8 inch square lined tin, or silicone mould and press down firmly until flat. 

4. Place in the freezer for half an hour before cutting into 8 large rectangles and serving your yummy "squares". 

These squares will keep in the freezer and are a great sweet treat if you're looking for an instant sugar hit!

all ready for the freezer

all ready to scoff! 

yummy gooey peanutty goodness! 

206 calories per square, or alternatively cut into 16 to make smaller portions at 103 calories per portion. 

I really recommend both recipes, very fun, not too taxing and you get two items that last in the fridge and freezer and can be called upon when ever you need some food-based comfort. 

Happy Weekend Baking guys! 

Mrs B

xxx