Banana and Chocolate Cake

A brilliant cake if you ever need to make use of your brown-not-so-delicious-looking bananas and make something lovely with them!

Serves 10-12

Ingredients
100g butter
200ml caster sugar
2 eggs
300ml plain flour
2 tsps baking powder
2 tsps vanilla sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1,5 tsp ground cinamon
1 tsp ground ginger
100g chopped dark chocolate
2 bananas
3 tbsps milk

Instructions
Heat a fan oven to 175 degrees C (200 for non fan oven).
Melt the butter and leave to cool.
Mix eggs and sugar thoroughly.
Mix the flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar, cocoa powder, cinamon, ginger and chocolate and blend into the eggs and sugar.
Mash the bananas and mix them together with the rest of the ingredients together with the melted butter and milk.
Butter a 24cm springform tin or place baking parchment inside it and pour the baking mixture in.
Bake in oven for 25 minutes.
Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream - enjoy!

Linda x

Apple And Amaretto Cake

A naughty cake for tea time - nice and moist and you can pretend that the apple is one of your 5 a day!

 Serves 8-10 (depending on how piggy you are)

Ingredients
450g dessert apples
350g plain flour, sifted
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsps ground cinnamon
200g butter, softened and cubed
150g light muscovado or light brown soft sugar
2 large eggs
100ml milk
100ml Amaretto
200g sultanas


To decorate
3 small, red-skinned dessert apples
2 tbsps runny hunny

A 23cm springform tin, 6cm deep, lightly buttered and base-lined with baking parchment.

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) Gas .

Core, peel and chop the apples into 1cm chunks.

Tip the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, butter, sugar, eggs, milk and Amaretto into the bowl of an electic mixer (or use a large mixing bowl and an electric whisk) and beat together until combined.

Using a large metal spoon, thoroughly stir in the chopped apples and the sultanas.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and spread it evenly with a spatula.

To decorate, quarter the 3 red-skinned dessert apples. Don't peel them, but core them and thinly slice the quarters. Arrange the slices, slightly overlapping, on top of the cake in concentric circles.

Put the tin on a baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for one and a half to one and three quater, or until risen and golden and the apple slices on top are burnished. Cover the cake with foil towards the end of cooking to prevent over-browning, if necessary.

Warm the honey in a small pan, then use to brush over the top of the cake. Leave to cool in the tin before releasing it, peeling off the base paper and transferring to a plate or board to slice.

(Weekend Baking, Sarah Randell)

Yum yum

Sarahx

Pistachio Sables

Take one now or they will disappear!

Makes 30

(Originally found these while on holiday with Linda and Andy in Wales and a bar in a local hotel. Found the recipe and made some  for my parent's dinner party to go with cocktails and the plate was soon empty - so careful, they're morish!)

Ingredients
15g/1oz  shelled, unsalted pistachio nuts
40g/1½oz strong white flour, sifted
40g/1½oz unsalted butter, diced
40g/1½oz freshly grated parmesan
a pinch of cayenne pepper
seasoning

Instructions
Start by chopping the pistachio nuts in a mini chopper quite small. Then mix them with all the remaining ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Rub the ingredients together until the mixture starts to form fairly large clumps, then press the mixture against the side of the bowl to bring it together.

Now transfer the dough to a board and knead lightly, then roll into a sausage shape about 17.5cm/7in long and wrap and chill in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 170C/350F/Gas 4. After that slice the chilled log into discs about 0.5cm/½in wide and spread them out on the baking sheet.

Then pop them in the oven on the centre shelf and bake for 13-15 minutes, until they start to go golden around the edges. When they are cooked, transfer them to a wire rack to cool and store in an airtight tin.
(Delia Smith Recipe)

Sarah x