Let them eat Cake!

I love baking cakes. Everything about it. Cakes are all about celebration, feeling happy, treating yourself and others, or just showing love. When you bake a cake you cant help but smile the whole way through it. 

Making a banana cake is a personal favourite, because you are guaranteed to get something that is moist and crumbly -  never dry. The trick is to get bananas that are so over ripe they are almost black, they will give you the most fragrant cake. If you want a cake but cant be bothered to wait till the bananas over-ripen, I thought of a little trick! Wrap them in foil and bake them in a hot oven till they look like this:

The skins will go black and the flesh inside is aromatic and gooey and gorgeous. I got the idea from a summer recipe, where you slit open the top of a banana, add chunks of chocolate just under the skin, wrap in foil then cook on the BBQ. But for here, just the flesh is all you need and when its baked in this way its perfect for this cake. 

My original recipe for this was taken from the Green&Blacks' recipe book, but I always change some of the details to suit my own taste. I add choc chips, lots of them, that way I find the kids get more excited when they see the actual chocolate (by the way, don't tell them its a banana cake, they won't eat it! Most kids think bananas are not fit for human consumption, but give them this cake and they will come back for seconds...and they did.)  To make a lighter cake you can substitute some of the flour for custard powder, this also adds a slightly warmer colour to the cake, but I didn't do that this time round. I use a wheat & gluten free alternative to regular self-raising flour, and I find that is already lighter and works brilliantly. The thing about making cakes is enjoying every stage. Put some 'smooth' sounds on, a bit of Al Green always seems right when I'm creaming the sugar and butter together! Take your time with that bit, be patient and enjoy it. When your arm aches you know its gonna be a good cake. Then the fun begins, combine all the rest of the good stuff together and you get a beautiful batter, thick, moist and gloopy. Pour into a lined baking tin, place gently in the oven, and find a quiet spot where you can lick out the bowl without being disturbed. You regress back to childhood when you take a moment to enjoy the full pleasure of licking out the bowl and spoon, slowly, almost in a zen like manner. Talk about being in the moment! (Ok, I don't get out enough...)

As its baking, the smell coming from the oven is the most comforting, warming fragrance for a freezing cold winter day. I literally let out a little squeal of joy when I took it out. It was so beautiful - I felt like doing a little dance. (In fact, I did.) Then, let it cool a little, cover the top with grated chocolate, and you have a little something like this:

Moist, crumbly, fragrant, soft and totally indulgent. 

Perfect for deepest darkest winter days.

Perfect covered with custard, for keeping kids quiet (at least till the sugar high kicks in...then you hand them back to their own parents),

Perfect for sharing with your girl friends whilst getting hysterical/teary/laughing like hyenas/whilst watching re-runs of SATC,

Perfect for eating alone, served with a large mug of frothy hot chocolate, curled up on the sofa, and watching the world go by.

Just Perfect.