mini banana breads

random favourite memory: eating honey and banana sandwiches with my grandad, who only made them with the squishiest of bananas on brown bread with plenty of runny honey. bliss. and so when I spied 4 decidedly shoddy looking bananas hanging out in my fruit bowl, looking all dejected, I knew it was time for a cake...hmm..but is it not ALWAYS cake time? Well yes, but this time was banana cake time, correction, banana mini-cake time!

Banana Loaf Cake

Ingredients

3-4 superbly ripe bananas, mashed with a fork

75g melted butter

150g light brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

180g wholemeal flour - or 187g plain if you'd rather...but why would you?

Runny honey

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C - lower if using mini tins, I used 150C

2. In a large bowl, mix the butter and bananas together

3. Add in the sugar, egg and vanilla - mix to combine

4. Add the spices and mix

5. Add the baking powder and salt - mix

6. Sift over the flour and beat in

7. Pour into prepared loaf tins, makes one large or 16 mini

8. Bake in the centre of the oven for 50 mins, or about 25 if mini

9. Remove when done and cool for in the tins before turning out...whilst cooling I pricked the top of the cakes with a skewer, heated some runny honey and poured a little over each cake

mini loaf cakes and a spot of millinery.

I often, of a lunch time, wander in and out of baking stores...mainly the steamer trading near my place of day work. I do indeed find it rather (cough*exceedingly*cough) over priced and invariably pick things up, carry them round the whole store with me, then pop them back down again muttering to myself and leave. then, every now and again, I have a fit of not caring about money and shoes and have a big old splurge. one such splurging occasion happened about a month ago, this being the same splurge in which I bought the overpriced tart rings (£4!!! for 4" rings! are you mad! thats a pound an inch! and now I only have two! obviously I need more than this. trapped, trapped in a cycle of ring buying...etc etc). amongst the other items bought in this splurge ( 4x dariole moulds and some miniature clothes pegs, oh and 4 mini-bowl things) I purchased 4 miniature loaf tins, so so so very cute, and have at last put them to good use. it was pointed out to me later in the day that I had bought a plethora of minature items, which whilst pleasing did not equate to a miniature total spendature. but hey ho I now have some very cute mini-baking items to coo over when I open the baking drawer. I am not someone who just dies! when they see little baby shoes, but mini baking items, oh yes, lovely! Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen's Lemon Yoghurt Anything Cake: Makes one large loaf tin cake or 13 mini loaf tin cakes. I first made a plain batter, leaving out any flavourings (lemon, vanilla) until I spilt the batter to make the mini versions. This cake is very moist, which I think really helps will the mini-ness as they stay lovely even though they are tiny small. I made three versions; Sour Cherry & Pecan, Almond & Rhubarb and Lemon Poppy Seed...but the possibilities are endless non? Ingredients for a plain batter which I split into three separate bowls: 1 1/2 cups plain flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 cup natural yoghurt 1 cup caster sugar 3 large eggs 1/2 cup vegetable oil Method Preheat the oven to 160C and grease your mini-tins (I used melted butter and a pastry brush). Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in one bowl. In another whisk together the yoghurt, sugar, eggs and oil. Gradually add in the dry mix and whisk to a smooth batter. 1. For the Sour Cherry & Pecan I added 50g sour cherries and 25g chopped pecans. Once poured into the greased mini-tins I added a pecan streusel topping by roughly rubbing together the following, then chilling in the freezer and adding to the mini-cakes half way through baking: 1/4 cup plain flour 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar 1/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans 28g cold butter, diced small 2. For the Almond and Rhubarb I added 1/2 tsp of almond extract to the batter (add more to taste but I found this plenty). I then filled the mini-tins 2/3rds full then popped in a layer of frozen sliced rhubarb and sprinkled over a teaspoon of sugar, then poured on another layer of batter to cover and finally topped with sliced almonds. 3. For the classic Lemon Poppy Seed I added 1-2 tbsp of poppy seeds (I love them so stuck loads in), 1 tbsp of lemon juice and the finely grated zest of 1 lemon. Once out of the oven I poked some holes in the top then poured over a syrup of lemon juice and icing sugar. Bake the cakes for about 20-30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean, the cake is moist so try not to overbake. Leave the cakes in the tins for about 10 minutes before turning out to cool completely on a rack; be careful when slicing as you could smoosh them. Yum!

dense chocolate loaf cake

erm, yum? correct. having spent the evening at a friends watching her make this, I then immediatley commenced to bang* about in my kitchen at 11pm on my return home to create my own. This page has been bookmarked in How To Be A Domestic Goddess since its purchase and now was the time for my dreams to become reality, and what a glorious chocolatey gooey reality it is indeed.

*why oh why are kitchen cupboards designed to make it impossible to retrieve any item from said cupboard without having to remove the ENTIRE contents each time? And I always think no, no I do not need to take out every saucepan, gridlepan and fryingpan to extract one solitary loaf tin....this thinking almost always leads to the meeting of my toes and a delightfully heavy le cruset pan lid. darn, and double darn.

Anyhoo, the cake!

Ingredients

200g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g dark chocolate (high % cocoa), melted & cooled

375g dark muscovado sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

225g butter, room temperature

250ml boiling water

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 190C, grease and line a 9x5x3in loaf tin

2. In a large bowl using a hand whisk (my kitchenaid would put too much air in the batter), cream the butter and sugar

3. Add in the eggs and vanilla, beating well

4. Fold in the melted chocolate using a spatual, mix well but do not overbeat

5. Add the flour & bicarb, spoon by spoon, alternately with the water - mixing gently until you have a smooth and fairly liquid batter

6. Pour the batter into the prepped loaf tin and bake for 30 minutes

7. After this time turn down the oven temp to 170C and bake for another 15 minutes

8. Remove and allow to cool in the tin on a rack