Monday, June 30, 2008

Supermoist Banana & Almond cake

I love bananas; they are one of my favourite fruits. Although I love them raw, I love them even more baked into yummy treats. Throughout the years I have baked many, many banana cakes and banana muffins (much to Ryan's chagrin as he isn't the 'baked banana goods lover' that I am). When it comes to recipes, the moister, the better. So when I saw this recipe with the word 'supermoist' in the title, I HAD to try it out.

Some Facts About BANANAS:
  • The banana fruit grow in hanging clusters, with up to 20 fruit to a tier (called a hand), and 3-20 tiers to a bunch.
  • Western cultures generally eat the inside raw and throw away the skin while some Asian cultures generally eat both the skin and inside cooked.
  • Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colours when ripe, including yellow, purple and red.
  • Bananas are among the most widely consumed foods in the world.
EASE: 3.5/5. Although there are fairly few ingredients, most have to be processed or pureed which uses up more appliances to wash, so I have lowered the score.
Prep time: 20mins. 5mins to gather inrgedients and get the almonds into the oven. Beating the eggs/roasting almonds takes 10mins - then pureeing (I just used the processor again) the bananas and then combining everything to pour into the pan takes around 5mins.
Cooking time: 45mins. All subject to individual ovens - mine generally takes longer...cos it's a piece of shit.
TOTAL: 1 hour & 5mins.

TASTE: 4/5.
The cake is as moist it claims to be. I am not sure what difference roasting and processing the almonds, instead of just using almond meal has made to the taste, but it has made the cake a little grainier than using almond meal would have - which I will probably use next time. The cake is so most beneath the firm top that it actually makes a sound, similar to squeezing a wet sponge. I didn't have flaked almonds so I used a small amount of slivered almonds - I will definately use the flaked next time as I believe it would make the cake look better as well as taste better. I used 2 week old bananas which have made the cake very sweet, along with the vanilla it does become almost alcholic in its sweetness. I served mine with greek yoghurt to cut the sweetness, whilst Ryan had double cream with his - both were dusted with icing sugar.

Would I make again: Yes.
I actually prefer my denser banana cakes baked with flour, but Ryan actually liked this one, so I will probably make it again in the future.

Recipe:
http://thestonesoup.com/blog/2007/02/going-bananas/#more-98

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