Nigella's Banana Cake...

She's the Goddess... Her Recipes are outstanding... She never lets me down... She makes me the party pleaser...

This recipe is Nigellas Banana Loaf... And its outstanding.. I made it two hours back... and nothing remains...

Ingredients

100g sultanas

75ml Rum ( I used Old Monk thanks to JJ)

175g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

125g unsalted butter, Softened

175g sugar

2 large eggs

3 very ripe bananas (about 300g weighed without skin), mashed

60g chopped walnuts

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoon Cinnamon powder ( Please powder them at the moment, packaged powder is just crap.)

Recipe

> Put the sultanas and rum in a small lil saucepan and bring to the boil. Try your level best to let the quantity of the Rum remain the same... ;) 

> Remove from the heat, cover and leave aside till required. The sultanas will absorb most of the rum... If not... No.. u don get a treat... that goes into the cake too...

> Preheat the oven to 170ºC and get started on the rest. 


> Sieve the flour, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon and salt in a medium-sized bowl, combine well.


> In a large bowl, mix the softened butter and sugar and beat until blended and Light n Frothy. 


> Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the mashed bananas. Then, with your wooden spoon, stir in the walnuts, sultanas and the extra rum and vanilla extract. 


> Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit. Scrape into the cake tin and bake for about an hour. I divided the entire mixture into two cake tins.


> When it's ready, an inserted toothpick should come out clean maybe with a few crumbs.

> Leave in the tin on a rack to cool.


Outstandingly soft... crumbly and heavenly....


Goes into the " Must Bake"...

Banana Muffins: Over Ripe Pleasure...

Love the way we cooks just find a way to make everything useful. Nothing is worth wasting and everything has a destiny. Just like my over ripe bananas just had to become Banana Muffins. Destiny.


Muffins : Bite sized cakes. Easy to pick. Really fast in the oven. And I kinda like it more than a cake cause its got more of an Edge to it... ;) Pun Intended.


The aroma of a muffin being baked in the oven is one of the simple and divine pleasures of life. A home can never be more inviting.

Dusted with sugar, with the perfect crack, with a walnut peeking from within and a sultana just ready to drop off, wrapped in colorful paper cups. How can anyone not gorge. Yes after the admiration is over, which usually doesn't last long.

Usually muffins are considered breakfast or tea time snacks. But trust me when I say :"Who Cares".

The Ingredients are as simple as it can get.

For the Muffin (Makes 12)

2 Eggs

125 ml Refined Vegetable Oil

150 gms Castor Sugar/ Grain Sugar

250 gms Refined Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda/ Soda bi Carbonate

3 Super Ripe Bananas

75 gms Mixed Walnuts & Sultanas

For the Sauce

100 ml Fresh Cream

3 heaped tsp Icing Sugar

2 pinches of Cinnamon Powder

2 squirts of Caramel Sauce ( or more, cause I like more)

Lets get our hands Dirty now...

Preheat the Oven to 200 degree Celsius and line the Muffin moulds with paper cups.

Whisk up the Wet Ingredients, i.e.The Eggs ----- The Sugar----- The Oil

Whisk em up till they are pale light and frothy.

On the other side mash up the Bananas. I like to keep them a little roughly done. Keeps the muffin more exciting with surprises within.

Sieve together the dry Ingredients, i.e.
The Flour---- The Baking Powder---- The Baking Soda

Pour in the Wet Ingredients and the mashed Bananas onto the Dry and whisk it together.

Add in the nuts and the Sultanas.

Use an Ice cream scooper and fill in the cups with the batter a lil less than three fourths.

Bake in the pre heated oven for about 15 to 20 mins.

Keep a watch, the muffins will rise and caramelize on top quicker. Once you achieve the color you desire remove and check whether its done.

Insert a satay stick right in the centre of the crack, way till the end and remove. If it comes out clean with just a few crumbs attached... its perfect.

If it comes out moist with a lil batter on it, give it just another few mins and check again.

Once done, leave it to cool for like ten mins on a wire rack and then dust it with Icing sugar...  what bliss..

They are perfect as it is, and a bite will take you to Banana pleasure.

Well I know you can't improve on perfection... But what the Heck.. y not ???


So whisk together all the ingredients of the sauce on an ice bed ( basically fill a bowl with ice and place your bowl of sauce ingredients on it) till it thickens a bit..


Pour this Mmmmm so fabulous sauce all over your moist and oh so wonderful Muffin and just, just Enjoy.

Its just sooo Fabulous.