supermoist banana cake with Italian Merengue frosting

So I had some bananas left over yet again so once more I made the amazing banana cake from my last blog but this time I had a heap of egg whites left over from a lemon meringue pie (unusual that with a meringue you'd have left over whites not yolks). Anywho I googled for an hour trying to find a way to use them and went with the Italian meringue which is amazingly easy.

Italian Meringue Frosting

1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract or the seeds of one pod scraped

1. Add water, sugar and tartar to a small saucepan, cook over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and bubbling.

2. In a mixing bowl beat the eggs white and vanilla to soft peaks, with the mixer still going (stand mixers are handy for this type of work) slowly start pouring the sugar syrup into the egg whites. Beat until the mixture is all combined, glossy and lost most of its heat. This will take about 5-7 minutes.

3. Frost your cake or eat straight from the bowl.


This recipe made a heap of frosting, enough for me to use it as a filling for my cake as well as quite thickly on top and all around the cake.

Next time I make this cake I think I will toast some shredded coconut or flakes and coast the frosting with that. Extra flavour, texture and colour.

I'm doing a bit of baking this week so hopefully I won't be so lazy about writing posts now that I have finished my certificate. Upcoming are salted caramel, salted caramel chocolate brownies, chocolate hazelnut meringue torte and the mother of all chocolate cakes. 

Banana, raspberry and walnut cake

I've been a bit lacking in the baking department lately but I had some bananas that were past the point where I enjoy eating them so I though't I'd whip up a banana cake. I didn't want just a plain banana cake or bread though so I found a recipe on the Thermomix community; tweaked it slightly and boy was it tasty.

Kirby's Banana, Raspberry and Walnut Cake w/ Maple Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients

• 130 g softened unsalted butter (or if you are using salted then omit the salt later on)
• 120 g raw sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 medium bananas
• 300 g Self Raising Flour
• 1/2 tsp Bi Carb Soda
• 4 Tbs Milk or Buttermilk
• chopped walnuts (adjust to preference) plus extra to decorate
• pinch of salt
• frozen raspberries (adjust to preference)
• 250 g block of softened cream cheese
• 75 g softened unsalted butter
• 40 g maple syrup (I never use imitation syrup as it tastes disgusting)
• 2 C icing sugar (adjust to how sweet you like it)

Method

Preheat oven at 180 degrees.

Grease and line your cake pan.

Mix sugar for 10 seconds on speed 9.

Add butter and cream on speed 5 for 10 seconds.

Mix again on speed 5 and add one egg at a time for about 10 seconds.

Add bananas and mix again for about 10 seconds.

Add flour, salt, bi-carb soda and milk and mix for 20 seconds on speed 5.

Add chopped walnuts and mix on   speed 4 for 10 seconds or until just combined. 

Pour half the batter into cake pan and spread to cover the base.

Dot as many frozen raspberries as you want to use around the mix then pour remaining batter over the top and evening it out.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack.

Icing

I made my icing using Gertie (Kitchenaid mixer) but you could do this in your Herman too. Just pop the cream cheese, butter and syrup into the bowl and mix speed 6 until smooth, you may have to stop a couple of times and scrape the bowl to make sure it all gets mixed. Add half the icing sugar and mix again until smooth, add last cup of sugar and mix again.  

Once the cake is completely cooled spread over your icing and top with extra chopped walnuts. 

I forgot to set the timer when I put this in the oven so 30 minutes is a rough guess on how long it will take.

steamy banana cake

so I'm taking my blog in a different direction now, there'll still be posts about my ongoing cancer appointments and my life in general but I'm going to focus it on my cooking and thermomix escapades.

So here's the first installment of Kirby's Not Drunk Kitchen. (Youtube 'My Drunk Kitchen' for a few laughs)

I've had a Tupperware microwave steamer for a couple of years now and I hardly used it, I bought it after we got back from Bali and trying their steamed pandan and coconut cakes. Naturally I never made any.
Well I found a recipe for a steamed banana and coconut cake and thought what better time to try it than now as all the work would be done by Herman (my thermomix) with a little help from me.

Now I tweaked the original recipe a little so here's the original Thermomix Community recipe.

These cakes were so moist and full of flavour, I'm going to track down some pandan extract and try them again.

Steamed Banana and Coconut Cakes

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time 25 minutes

Makes approximately 12 cupcake size portions

• 75g butter
• 2 very ripe bananas
• 1 ripe banana cut into thick slices
• 1 egg
• 100g raw sugar
• 160g coconut milk (or any type of milk; cows, nut, soy etc)
• 160g self raising flour    

1. Melt butter in TM 40 sec, 50 deg, speed 4
2. Add the 2 bananas, egg, milk and sugar to bowl, 5 sec, speed 6 until combined with butter, scrape down sides and mix again if necessary
3. Add flour, 4-5 sec, speed 4 until combined, scrapes sides again if necessary.
4. Position moulds or silicone muffin tray in Varoma, place slices of banana in each cup and pour over cake batter.
5. Clean TM bowl and add 900g water. Position Varoma over the lid.
6. Cook Varoma temp, 25 minutes, speed 1 or until skewer comes out clean. 

Great served warm with a caramel sauce or coconut custard. Fabulous cold too. 

 I used my square ramekins in the Tupperware microsteamer, cut the cooking time down the 14 minutes as the ramekins were smaller. I'd already 'tested' one for quality control at this stage :)

                                                     End result of the Tupperware cakes

the Tupperware silicone cake form in the Varoma at the end of cooking. This form is a large muffin form so if using silicone cupcake moulds they would be a bit smaller.

Guilt trip

So once again I've left it quite a few weeks to write another update, I don't do it on purpose I'm just forgetful as all hell lately (thanks chemo).

I've been feeling really good lately, I've been put on a tablet for my thyroid levels as they were massively high (talking 91 when it should be like 3) and this has helped with symptoms I was putting down to the tamoxifen. I'm back at work on full time hours  and I'm a lot happier with actually going to work now. There's no dread when I wake up in the morning and wishing I had the flu just so I could get out of work.

Life is moving forward, I'm having some reconstruction done on Tuesday for my wonky boobs and I'm excited and nervous (who isn't in the face of more surgery). We're buying Chris a new car as lord knows the guys been pretty damn patient and my savior. It's his very first (and probably our last) brand new car and I'm super excited for him. I splurged and bought a thermomix so we'll see how my kitchen escapades go with using that. Softball has been great fun for me over the summer, we may not win every week but all the girls are great fun and really friendly. It's been just what I need, getting out there and meeting new people and playing the game I love. I even managed to hit a home run today.

One downside that has started to show itself is that I'm made to feel guilty for having a bit of good fortune in our life. After the horror of 11 months we went through last year I thought we were finally moving forward and that everyone would be happy for us but unfortunately that hasn't been the case. Chris and I both work hard to be able to buy the things we do and it's not fair that we're being made to feel like we're bad people for enjoying what we've worked for. I'm not rubbing things in peoples faces, I just want to share the happiness I'm now finally experiencing after what was the worst year of my life.

Anyway I've got that off my chest and I'm continuing forward without looking back .

I'm off to go make me some banana bread in my thermi.

Night all.