Lazy weekends call for baking

I love lazy weekends. I don't get them often as I have a toddler who is so full of energy I sometimes wonder if I'm feeding him crazy pills! On the few weekends I can get him to have a midday nap, I either take advanatge of the quite time and also take a nap or or flip through a variety of cookbooks to dream up my next baked treat.

The weekend just passed, I decided to bake instead of sleep. It rained all week, so something sweet was definitely in order. I had a few bananas left over from lunches so thought I'd do something with those and mix it with either chocolate or caramel. I started flipping through some books I'd borrowed from the library as well as searching some of my favourite recipe sites and found a recipe for a Banana Caramel Cake - so caramel won over chocolate!

The original recipe called for sliced bananas on top of a caramel cake, however I'm not really a fan of the texture of baked bananas so I went with a more traditional style banana cake and incorporated the caramel sauce. While baking this cake the house filled with a glorious fragrant of sugar, bananas and warmth (yes, that is a smell!). Then once it came out of the oven, I realised this is the perfect afternoon tea/dessert cake!

There are a few treats you can make that work as a sweet afternoon tea cake or a decadent dessert cake. This cake serves both purposes. At room temperature it is a moist banana cake with a sweet caramel topping. Heated up slightly and served with fresh cream for dessert, it is a sticky, rich cake that smells divine! ENJOY!

Caramel Banana Cake

Adapted from Taste.com.au 

110g butter, softened

1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar

2 bananas, peeled and mashed

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon golden syrup

3/4 cup plain flour, sifted

1/3 cup self-raising flour, sifted

1/3 cup milk 

Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a loaf pan and line with baking paper.

Combine 10g butter, 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons cold water in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes or until sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil. Cook for 3 minutes or until thickened. Pour into prepared pan.

Using an electric mixer, beat remaining butter and sugar for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until just combined. Stir in golden syrup and half the flours and milk until just combined. Stir in remaining flours and milk until combined.Fold through the mashed banana. Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in centre comes out clean. Stand in pan for 5 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

I also did another batch of chocolate ganache tarts over the weekend. I've posted the recipe before, but they were pretty cute so wanted to share the pictures.