Sunday 5 August 2012

The Most Amazing Banoffee Chocolate Cake


This is one of the times when I genuinely wish that the pictures of this cake did better justice to the flavour of the cake. I suppose I can accept that it was never going to look absolutely stunning - loaf cakes rarely do, but this recipe is an absolute stunner and I thoroughly recommend it.

It came from one of the recipe cards that Waitrose have in their stores for customers to pick up free of charge. This one is (rather unsurprisingly) in association with Nestle Carnation. I do love a bit of Carnation Caramel, and thought I had a tin in my cupboard, so picked up this card. It turned out that my tin was over a year out of date so I ended up buying another tin anyway! I did have the requisite over-ripe bananas though so it wasn't a complete loss.


You can find the recipe here on the Waitrose website. I was slightly concerned after mixing up all the ingredients that the cake would overflow the tin, but luckily this wasn't the case. My cake neede a bit longer than the time specified and I think I covered it for the last  part of the baking time too, to prevent it overbrowning. 


Such a luscious cake - I particularly love the soft bit on the top of the loaf where it has cracked open. I used dark chocolate for the chocolate chunks and they were a great contrast to the sweet cake. Don't be mistaken, this is a sweet cake, but not excessively so and rather than just pure sweetness it is caramelly sweetness, i.e. extra delicious. My bananas for this cake were very overripe, but even so I was very struck by just how bananary this cake was - I have made other banana cake recipes with bananas of equal over-ripeness that have tasted nowhere near as bananary as this cake did. I think the combination of the caramel and the banana combined to boost the banana flavour.


I don't think this was a particularly cheap recipe (not least because the tin of Carnation caramel alone was £1.56) but it did allow me to use up three very over-ripe bananas heading for the compost heap and only uses one (expensive) egg and a little butter and sugar. I would definitely make this cake again and it was very popular at work too.

15 comments:

Kate@whatkatebaked said...

What a delicious sounding recipe! I don't think I've seen Banoffee in a loaf cake before, but will definately be bookmarked it for all those 'Gagh! I forgot to eat these bananas...Must make a cake!!' moments...

Baking Addict said...

omg this sounds amazing!! I've just baked 2 banana recipes tonight as I had a lot of over-ripe bananas so I'll have to get a new bunch and wait for them to ripen so I can try these. I can't believe the cost of eggs now!

Chele said...

That is a great recipe - where has it been all my life. Can't wait to try this, thanks for sharing.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Sounds divine - and what a good idea! (I'd have used out of date caramel - with all that sugar it'll be fine, surely?)

Spencer said...

Looks delicious! I would love to try some.

Suelle said...

I'd have used the out of date tin of caramel too - a year is no time at all for a tin! I wish I could make banana cakes - this sounds delicious - but no-one else here will eat them!

Jean said...

This looks brilliant and I'm sure it would go down well at our charity cake stall in November. I will give it a try. Thanks for the link.

Choclette said...

Oh C, you got me on the caramel. I can imagine caramel working really well with bananas and bringing out the flavour. I really like "plain" cakes that stand up as excellent in their own right.

Johanna GGG said...

I am not a fan of the ready made caramel because I prefer to make it form regular condensed milk but I am glad to see there is a reason to buy caramel in a tin - sounds like a fantastic cake

Unknown said...

Wowser, what a cake! I can't buy those tins of caramel without accidentally eating them, I'd hate to think how fast this cake would vanish at our place.

Nic said...

Ooooh, looks rather fabulous, would never have thought to put the caramel in a cake, might have to make one myself!

Katie said...

I love it when cakes turn out better than expected. The cake looks delicious and I love melty blobs of dark chocolate in my cakes too. Great find

Caroline said...

Kate - banoffee is amazing! It would be a perfect cake for those moments with excess banana!

Ros - it tasted amazing too. Yep eggs are pretty expensive if you need lots of them.

Chele - hope you like it!

Foodycat - it worked really well - the caramel replaced most of the sugar and fat. I guess it would have been fine, but I'm wary!

Spencer - thank you.

Suelle - You'll have to find an alternative audience who are more appreciative of banana cakes! This is a good one though, if you ever need one.

Jean - I hope you like it.

Choclette - yes, there is something about the word caramel that makes cake instantly more attractive! I'm a big fan of plain cakes.

Johanna - I guess this would work with homemade caramel too - perhaps even a vegan version with soya milk caramel?

Lucy - yes, they can be dangerous to have around can't they!

Nic - I hope you like it if you try it - a successful recipe round these parts!

Caroline said...

Katie - Melty chocolate bits are always the best!

banoffee cake said...

so Delicious banoffee is the best with chocolate

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