My loaf baking obsession continues. Banana bread is the one that started it all, I believe. When we were staying in Berlin earlier this year, we spent about a month in Kreuzberg where we were lucky enough to have Passenger espresso as our local cafe. This place served some of the best coffee in Berlin. We usually ended up going there several times a day, and invariably ordered a piece of their Banana bread along with our flat whites. The phrase ‘zwei flat white und ein stück Banane Brot, bitte’ is imprinted in my brain permanently (sadly that’s about the extent of the German I’ve remembered from the trip).

The particularly delicious thing about this banana bread is that it had ginger in it- LOTS of ginger, and you could tell they used fresh rather than powdered too. It was quite a surprising combination, but one that really worked. The recipe I used to make this loaf is quite different from the Passenger version, but one of the more delicious ones I’ve come across. I’ve made this recipe a few times now, but today was the first time we didn’t scoff it all before I’d had a chance to take a photo. I copied it off the internet somewhere (I can’t remember now) but I think it was attributed to Sophie Dahl. I’ve made some changes from the original, so here’s my version-

75g softened Butter
4 Bananas (mash 3 of them and break one up into small chunks)
200g Brown sugar
1 Egg
A 5cm knob of fresh Ginger (peeled and finely grated
rind of one Orange
1 teaspoon of Baking Soda
170g plain Flour
A pinch of Salt 

Mix together the Butter, Brown sugar, Egg, Ginger and Orange rind. Sift together the Flour, Salt and Baking Soda and add to the mixture. Pour into a lined loaf tin and bake at 180 degrees for about an hour.

The relatively large amount of Sugar in this gives it a deliciously dark caramely flavour. It’s quite a moist, crumbly loaf. Totally delicious and totally addictive.

As already mentioned, I’m on a bit of a ‘bread’ wave at the moment. The most recent of which I’ve made is Coconut bread. I think I first tried Coconut bread In Sydney, which makes me think that it might be a particularly Australian phenomenon, but I’m not sure. I have definitely had Banana bread as a breakfast in several Melbourne cafes so it seems likely that the loaf is popular over the ditch. From what I can gather, it’s basically a different format for a muffin, but makes you feel better about eating as it’s called ‘bread’. 

The recipe I used is here, it’s a Bill Granger one. I used a combo of long-thread coconut and the finer stuff for some variation in texture.  

I believe a slice of this must be served hot, so either cut a piping-hot and crumbly slice straight from the oven and slather it in butter, or keep it sealed in the fridge so it firms up a little and pop a slice in the toaster till the coconut is crispy and brown. It doesn’t contain a lot of butter or sugar so next time I think I might add blueberries (which I always have in the freezer) for some added sweetness and, of course, smother in butter to eat.

I’m all about bread at the moment. Not Bread Bread, which involves yeast and kneading and waiting a long time, but those pretend breads which are made in loaf tins and are actually more cake/muffin-type concoctions. Gingerbread, Banana bread, Date loaf, Fruit bread, and the current favourite: Corn bread. My friend Emily made this for us when we were in Berlin recently- she served it with a delicious, beery, spicy, black bean stew. The bread was such a hit with Ralph that I had to get the recipe off her.

CORN BREAD

150g finely ground cornmeal
150g plain flour
5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
60g sugar
1-2 tsp smoked paprika
2 eggs
200ml milk
300g sour cream
200g tin (or equivalent fresh would be even better!) of corn
Grated parmesan or tasty cheese to sprinkle on top 

Grease a loaf tin (I made half into a small loaf and the other half into muffins) Preheat oven to 200C. Mix all dry ingredients together. Mix all the wet ingredients then fold into the dry. Pour mixture into tin, sprinkle with cheese and bake for 30-45 minutes. When it’s ready the bread should be golden brown and firm to the touch. 

I have put the muffins in the freezer to use for Ralph’s lunches- how organised do I feel! Next up, Coconut bread. Yum!

Ralph will very shortly be turning ONE. Holy Mole.

I made him the cake below for a small family party today. Essentially it is my favourite banana cake recipe, which I’ve written about for the lovely wee days blog here. I increased the recipe by a third, which made the quantities quite easy to work with (for example, four bananas and four eggs, instead of three). This meant I had enough extra mixture to pour off three cupcakes worth into a muffin tin. These became the ears and an extra cupcake for the candle, as I didn’t want to put it on the monkey’s face.

The icing I used was from a ridiculously rich recipe, which I adapted from Smitten Kitchen, as follows:

375g icing sugar
225g butter
4 1/2 Tablespoons milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
120g dark chocolate, melted 

Blend all of the above in a food processor, except the chocolate. Take out 1/2 of a cup of icing for the ‘face’, then add the chocolate and blend some more. I then split the cake and filled it with a layer of chocolate icing. I added a large teaspoon of the chocolate icing to the lighter icing to make it a light brown colour. I used a plastic bag with the corner cut off to pipe the shape of the face around a template I had made then filled it in. This recipe is *extremely* rich icing, very American the whole buttercream thing, which I think I would have toned-down the butter quantity if I was doing it again.

My friend Tessa introduced me to the wonder of Guinness Chocolate Cake last year. She mentioned it several times when we talked about baking, which we did quite often, so I figured it must be an exceptional cake. I had put it on my mental ‘baking-to-try’ list, but forgot about it for many months until St Patrick’s Day this year, when Floriditas sold Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes. Dark, rich, chocolatey with a slight bitter tang. I tried them and was hooked. 

The recipe I found on my internet search was by Nigella Lawson, (linked there, so I don’t have to copy it out) so I was not surprised to see how indulgently decadent it was. A lot of sugar and butter, but maybe that’s OK because Guinness is good for you. The icing I would have to say is, in my opinion, an extravagance too far (I mean, it is cream cheese PLUS cream, with a tad of sugar) but you can’t fault it aesthetically. The cake does end up looking like a giant glass of Guinness. I can easily imagine a chef serving the cake in a Guinness glass as a dessert gimmick. But really, I think it would have been nicer with a simple chocolate ganache. 

I think I made the icing far too runny as it didn’t set, and perhaps was rather impatient in not waiting til it was completely cool to ice, but that did add to the frothy-stout-look. Here is me pouring an icing shamrock on to the top of the cake.

I think this might be my new most delicious cake ever. Eaten while still bearing the vaguest hint of oven warmth, it had the most sublime depth of chocolatey flavour. It has quite a dense texture, so doesn’t refrigerate well, although if you didn’t ice it you could probably warm a slice slightly in the microwave after it had been in the fridge and I’m sure that would be really good. Nigella’s right in describing it as being almost like a non-spicy gingerbread. Maybe gingerbread crossed with a brownie would be a good description. I will definitely be making this cake again. 

One of my recent-ish discoveries for foods that Ralph likes to eat is banana ‘ice cream’. It is in fact just frozen bananas (peeled and chopped) which are then blitzed in the food processor with some frozen blackberries until smooth and creamy. It’s quite delicious- I happily eat it myself too, and hard to believe it’s just fruit, so super healthy.

We let Ralph feed himself which can be rather messy, but he has become quite adept at feeding himself ice cream in a cone (he eats the cone too despite his lack of teeth). I have however learnt the hard way that blackberry stains are almost impossible to get out. Why isn’t he wearing a bib in this photo??!!