Going Banana's.

You know that it's going to be a good day when you're woken up to the image of your mother's face looking as though she's just escaped from the sanitorium; eyes wide, eyebrows raised and hands full of...what...is...that...

"I've got black bananas!"

Well there you have it folks. The woman who brought me into this world had now discovered the reason why she had done so. She had black bananas.

"Is this really worth waking me up for?" I replied somewhat groggily. (When I say somewhat, I mean that the aforementioned speech was what I intended to say but merely came out as mmmmmghhgffffhrrrrrmmmmm, I've saved you the trouble of hiring a translator.)

"You are going to make a banana cake." she replied. She then proceeded to stomp out of my room, black bananas swinging from her hands. Probably the closest I will ever see a person get to the beginning of man's evolutionary progress.

Three hours later I had risen. Three hours later I trawled for a recipe to incorporate bananas within. I got distracted for about three days after that, found a good recipe and made something epic.

Needless to say, my monkey...ahem...mother was suitably impressed.

So here's the recipe!

Banana and Brown Sugar Walnut Cake

this recipe is an adaptation from Gourmet's Banana Chocolate Walnut Cake, I changed a considerable amount of the recipe because when I made the first one it was a bit too floury and needed the caramel of the brown sugar. I also omitted the choccy for this recipe but have added the measurements if you feel your recipe needs a bit of a fudgy kick. :)

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons butter, softened, plus 2 tablespoons, melted and cooled

1 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups mashed very ripe bananas

2/3 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (if you don't have this, you can use buttermilk or sour cream, they don't work as well though...)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup 70%-cacao bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (you really can use whatever chocolate you have lying about, even those cooking chocolate chips...save those for cookies though.)

1 cup walnuts toasted, cooled, and coarsely chopped

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Method

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees celcius.

To toast your walnuts, bung them on a baking tray lined with baking paper, spray them with olive oil and then put them in the over for 10-15 minutes or until they're golden brown.

The rest if pretty much stock standard cake baking. In a separate bowl, combine your flour, salt and baking soda.

Then, in another bowl, cream your butter and WHITE sugar together. (The brown is for later)

Then gradually beat in the eggs one by one. Then beat in the vanilla.

Stir in the yoghurt and mashed bananas. The mixture SHOULD look curdled so don't be concerned.

Mix your wet with your dry until just combined. The mixture should be pretty thick as there is a lot of flour.

In another bowl, combine your melted butter, brown sugar, walnuts and chocolate. Stir this mixture into your main banana cake batter. It should look swirly and fabulous.

Stick him in a loaf tin lined with baking paper (or if your brave, grease it up with butter) and put it in the oven for 35-45 minutes or until your skewer comes out clean when you plunge it into your little cake.

Serve warm with a bit of honey, ricotta and butter! Enjoy!