I bought these organic bananas the other week -they were massive -I mean seriously huge -so big in fact that I was too embarrassed to walk down the street eating a whole one -yes that big! So I had a couple left that started to get some brown spots -now, I have very few fussy habits when it comes to foods but brown spots on bananas ...even just a smattering of flecks and I start to gag but enough about the giant bananas ;) The base recipe for this is taken from Blazing Salads Cookbook 1 and is pretty healthy overall -honey instead of sugar and also calling for wholemeal flour. It was of my own volition that the cream cheese frosting landed atop the finished product -for balance of course, for balance. I think this makes a great slightly healthy / slightly indulgent birthday cake or weekend coffee break cake or after dinner with a cuppa cha cake or afternoon slump with espresso pick me up cake -ah heck it's just a great cake.

What you need; -makes one loaf tin

120g sunflower margarine -I used butter (room temp)
150g honey
2 eggs
180g wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
80g walnuts (reserve some for the top)
2 bananas -if using giant ones -1 should suffice
200g cream cheese

What you need to do;

turn oven on to 190'C/ Gas 5/ 375'F
grease a 450g loaf tin
cream the butter/ sunflower margarine and honey -using hand beaters or food mixer
beat eggs and add
toast the walnuts gently
roughly chop the bananas and add along with the walnuts
mix the flour and baking powder add to wet mixture
pour into loaf tin and bake for 50-60 mins
when you can stick a skewer in and it comes out clean the cake is cooked -there might be some wetness from the banana
turn onto a wire wrack to cool
mix the cream cheese with a tbs of honey - I like it not too sweet -adjust according to your own taste
spread the frosting on and finish with some walnuts

Eat the cake before word reaches your friends that you've made it...

Do you remember the cartoon - Banana Man a schoolboy named Eric who turned into a super hero when he ate a banana? I used to go out with a guy called Eric (drifting into daydream) but enough about the giant bananas...

So, recently I had an operation which meant a whole week at home for recuperation. I wasn't really able to do much, which generally meant I was forced to knit by the fire, peruse cookbooks and watch cookery programmes -there was an upside to the pain! About a week after the doctors dissected me I suddenly felt the urge to bake a cake -I knew in that moment I was almost fully recovered. I had been studying a French cookbook, Savouring France by Georgeanna Brennan (recipe below taken from it) and also watching a series on the 'god-fathers' of French cuisine 'The Roux Brothers' -wow, how inspiring.
There was a cake on the show and in the book that caught my eye and excited my taste buds, a cherry custard cake Calfouti aux Cerises -I had to make it. And after all this was a celebration and also a thank you to my family for looking after me. It's such an easy cake to make -you don't need a food processor as it's more custard than sponge, actually zero sponge. In France it is usually made when the cherries are in season and called a clafouti when made with other fruit it's called a flognard. I had to root in the freezer and in the depths I found the remains of a glut of currants; red, black and white. Usually you wouldn't use frozen berries in a recipe but needs must, so I defrosted them gently in a very low oven, over some kitchen paper -to reduce the wetness. And when the cake came out of the oven I couldn't stop smiling -that's part of the joy of cooking for me, it can make you and others feel so goddamn happy!

Get a spoon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flmoa2dVOSU The very sexy & French -Carla Bruni !

Preheat oven to 180'C, grease a flan dish size 23-25 cm
Combine 1 cup milk, 1/4 cup double cream, 3 tbsp good vanilla extract, 3 eggs, 1/4 cup caster sugar(extra if using tart berries), 1/4 tsp salt, 2/3 cup all purpose/plain flour sieved -make sure you have no lumps.
Pour in about 1 cm of the custard into the dish and put in oven for 2 minutes
Put in your fruit -berries, plums or cherries (stoned), pour over the rest of the custard
Cook in the oven for 30mins or until it has risen, browned and you can get a clean knife out of it
Dust with castor sugar, allow to cool a little -serve warm or cold.
Return for seconds.....!

Ready for the oven

Any Time Any Place - Banana & Walnut Cake

Flognard/Custard Cake with Currants