Golden Syrup Banana Cake

I frequently pick up the recipe cards that are available in the supermarkets. I think I must have picked up over a hundred over the years, and due to my squirrelling tendencies they don't tend to get culled very often. In my defence, however, occasionally, I will recall a recipe card with something I thought looked particularly good, but for whatever reason didn't get made at the time of picking up the card. That's the case with this recipe.

It was on a card from Waitrose (who do tend to have particularly interesting looking recipes - to my mind at least) and was for 'Sticky honey, almond and banana cake'. There was the immediate problem of having to substitute for the almonds - both ground in the cake and flaked on the top, but that was easily solved by substituting plain flour for the almonds and leaving off the topping.

You can find the original recipe here on the Waitrose website, and apparently I've been meaning to make it for a year now, having first seen the recipe in March last year. I also thought that since I was already adapting the recipe I'd make it cheaper by using golden syrup instead of honey (and for bonus points my golden syrup was on offer when I bought it!). I decided to use an 8" square tin (20cm square), which is about 15% smaller than the stated tin size, so I was prepared to give it a little longer in the oven than the stated 30-45 minutes.

So here is my adapted version...

Golden Syrup Banana Cake
Ingredients
125g self raising flour
50g plain flour
100g butter
100g light muscovado sugar (or light brown soft sugar)
100g golden syrup
1 very ripe banana, mashed
2 medium eggs, beaten

Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease and line an 8"/20cm square tin with parchment paper.
- Melt the butter, sugar and syrup. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly (I didn't leave mine very long at all).
- Mix together the flours in a bowl and add the melted mixture followed by the mashed banana and beaten eggs.
- Beat well (I did this by hand) to give a smooth mixture (well, smooth aside from the lumps of banana...) and pour into the prepared tin.
- Bake for around 35-40 minutes until risen and golden and a cake tester comes out clean.
- Allow to cool on a wire rack.

I served mine cut into 12 fingers.

This is a really useful recipe for when you need to use up just one banana that is well past it's eating best (in my opinion at least). Although it doesn't look anything special the cake was good - fairly moist (although it doesn't really look it) and with a subtle banana flavour. I didn't really get much flavour from the syrup, I'm sure the combination of honey and almond would have been much more flavoursome, but I did enjoy the cake as it was. I'll make it again, but now I know that the syrup flavour isn't particularly strong I think I'll add some spice next time - perhaps mixed spice, nutmeg or ground cardamom.

A very quick and easy bake, and I bet children would love to help with this one!

I'm going to send this to Credit Crunch Munch. It helpfully uses up that last overripe banana in the fruit bowl attracting fruit flies, uses syrup instead of expensive honey and is quick and easy to make. Credit Crunch Munch is hosted by Helen of Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla of Fab Food for All. The host this month is Helen.

I'd enter it into Dom's Random recipes too as the theme this month is cuttings, memories and clippings and I guess recipe cards would count. But I be lying if I said that the selection was random - I needed to use up the banana!

Simple and In Season Round-up February

Thank you to all of the lovely people who have entered their seasonal dishes into this edition of Simple and In Season, there is a fantastic range of recipes here and lots and lots that I will have to bookmark to try. Thanks too to Ren of Fabulicious Food for letting me host her event. 

So without further ado here are this month's entrants:

First is Jen of Blue Kitchen Bakes with a delicious looking vegetable cobbler with chestnut and sage scones. This looks like the perfect winter warmer to me.

Jen's second entry is a lamb, leek and mint risotto. I love risottos but haven't often used leeks in them. Another delicious winter warmer.

Next up is Janet of The Taste Space with a delicious and healthy way with brussels sprouts: Spaghetti squash with roasted brussels sprouts and chickpeas. Janet has also given us some hilarious cat videos to while away a few spare moments....

Janet has also entered her Roasted orange veggie noodle bowl, a beautiful looking bowl of goodness with something Janet hasn't tried before, roasted oranges. Like me she often roasts vegetables but fruit is a new venture. This looks delicious and fresh.

Janet's final delicious looking entry is a Turkish freekah pilaf with chickpeas and wild greens. It contains chicory greens which were a new taste and one that didn't particularly suit Janet, but I'm sure this would be fantastic with Janet's recommended substitution of Swiss chard.

Alida of My Little Italian Kitchen has entered her Butter free almond and orange muffins. A perfect use of the lovely oranges available at the moment and some lovely pictures of her little one too.

Alida's second entry is Baccala (salted cod) with leek and potatoes. This healthy and light dish is the perfect way to showcase seasonal leeks and it looks very inviting indeed. Hop across to Alida's blog for a step by step of how to make this dish.

Anneli of delicieux has entered her Cannelloni stuffed with leeks and brie. Another fabulous use for leeks here and one I will certainly be bookmarking to try as soon as possible. I love the filling idea for these cannelloni - a winter take on the spinach and ricotta I'm used to.

Simple and In Season founder Ren of Fabulicious Food has entered these delicious looking Courgette (Zucchini) boats with bolognese sauce. Ren is currently following the Paleo diet, where grains are not recommended (there is some more information about the diet on Ren's blog) but I think everyone would love this recipe! 

Shaheen of Allotment 2 Kitchen has entered these absolutely gorgeous looking Vegan parsnip, raisin and walnut cakes. This seems like the perfect way to use parsnips and the combination of flavours sounds amazing. Shaheen's blog is full of inspiring vegetarian and vegan food and I'm sure everyone would enjoy these cakes.

Shaheen's second entry is Beetroot 'love heart' hummus. A lovely combination of earthy beetroot and chickpeas and a pretty presentation too.

Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe, one of the blogs I have happily followed for a long time has entered her Cranachan this month. A combination of yogurt and cream sounds perfect to me as I am not a big fan of straight whipped cream. 

Helen from Fuss Free Flavours has entered her Strawberry and coconut smoothie with winter berries, educating me as to the availability of strawberries in the UK in the middle of winter! This fruity smoothie is packed full of goodness including coconut oil and chia seeds, an ingredient I have yet to try.

Louisa of Chez Foti has entered her Parsnip, pecan and maple syrup cake. I am a big fan of parsnip cakes and this one looks delicious! Louisa is a fan of baking with veg and there are lots of other recipes for veg cakes on her blog.

Louisa's second entry is a Sausage, bean and veggie hotpot, which looks so delicious for the cold weather we've had recently. This is also an entry into another blogging challenge looking for recipes for a Somerset based charity called Swallow - check out the post for more details.

Choclette of Choc Log Blog was lucky enough to receive some delicious limes and has been putting them to good use in her amazing looking cakes and bakes. The first entry she has sent for this month's challenge is a Mexican Chocolate Pudding with chilli and lime mango slices. It sounds utterly delicious although Choclette says it doesn't look as good as it tastes, describing it as very rich, very dark and not too sweet.

Her second entry is this Lime, coconut and cardamom loaf cake which looks deliciously moist. I love the sound of that flavour combination!

Next is Rita from Rita Cooks Italian with her take on a classic Italian soup, Minestrone. This looks amazing and what a good way to use our seasonal vegetables. Rita even gives us an idea for using the leftover soup the next day. Yum! 

Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen gives us her Roasted garlic and tattie and leek soup. A perfect winter warmer making use of potatoes - often overlooked in favour of more exotic veg. Although it uses a whole bulb of garlic Elizabeth reports that it isn't overpowering.

Kate from Turquoise Lemons gives us a perfectly seasonal Blood orange drizzle cake. This looks gorgeous and I must make it while the oranges are still in season. 

Our final entry this month, making 21 in total is from Belinda at Focus on Flavour, and is a Jerusalem artichoke and Goat's Cheese Gratin. Using seasonal Jerusalem artichokes and leeks this is a lovely final dish to finish our round up.

Thank you to everyone who entered their delicious recipes into Simple and in Season this month. It's been a pleasure to host the challenge and I've found lots of lovely new-to-me blogs to peruse. I hope you've enjoyed this round up and will hop across to the participant's blogs to read their posts. Please let me know if I've missed anyone out of the round up...

Simple and in Season is being hosted by Louisa of Chez Foti for the next month so do enter any of your seasonal dishes!

Ginger Chocolate Chewy Cookies

Also known as third time lucky! And also phew-just-in-time! When Choclette published a recipe for chewy apricot cookies back in December I immediately decided I needed to bake them. They looked delicious and pretty much my idea of a perfect cookie. And then I pretty much went off the idea of baking altogether. (Yep, it's been a bit like that round here recently).

But when I decided that I needed cookies I remembered Choclette's recipe and how good it had looked and decided to make some. Please don't ask what happened to the first batch, and then whilst making the second batch I completely forgot to add the baking powder. So although they turned out ok, they were rather more chewy than I was expecting and I decided that third time's the charm and had another go. I halved the recipe and these went perfectly well.

I'm going to give the recipe here as this is how I made them after adapting the recipe slightly. You can find Choclette's original recipe here.

Ginger Chocolate Chewy Cookies
Ingredients
50g butter, softened
50g light muscovado sugar
15g honey (I used a floral New Zealand honey.... airmiles *cough*)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
75g plain flour
scant 1/2 tsp baking powder
30g crystallised stem ginger, chopped
30g 70% cocoa solids chocolate, chopped

Method

- Preheat the oven to 175C/Gas4 (ish). Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

- Cream the butter, sugar and honey together until well combined.

- Add the vanilla extract, flour and baking powder and continue to mix. The mixture will seem very dry.

- Add the chopped ginger and chocolate and work the mixture together. I used the back of a spatula for this and then ended up squashing it together with my hands.

- Divide into approximately equal balls, I got twelve from my mixture.

- Squash the balls slightly, place well apart (although I only used one tray here and they didn't merge) and bake for 10-15 minutes. I found mine took 16 minutes.

I can see these becoming a favourite around here - they were really quick to put together and to bake and are deliciously soft and chewy. The ginger and chocolate work really well together and the honey is delicious too although the fairly mild honey I used doesn't come through strongly. As they don't have an egg in them it's really easy to halve the recipe too - always a bonus.

I am entering these into this month's We Should Cocoa challenge, hosted by Jen of Blue Kitchen Bakes and co-hosted by Choclette of Choc Log Blog and Chele of Chocolate Teapot. The theme this month is ginger and I absolutely adore chocolate, ginger and the combination of the two!

I'm also entering them into Jac's bookmarked recipes challenge as I had noted the recipe on Choclette's blog ages ago and have finally got round to making them.

Simple and In Season

Well, I hadn't really expected that break to be quite so long! I'm glad to have reached the weekend after a pretty stressful week last week and it's happily now February, which hopefully means less snow and more of these.... (I'm living in hope!)

And to start the month off well, I'm pleased to announce that I'm hosting Simple and In Season, as Ren has kindly let me look after her seasonal cooking challenge for the month of February. 

There are some guidelines to help you along:

1. Come up with a dish using any seasonal produce you like (savoury or sweet) and post it on your blog. You need to link to my blog: Cake, Crumbs and Cooking and also to Ren's blog: Fabulicious Food. It would be great if you want to use the badge - then we can spread the word about using fabulous seasonal produce.

2. This challenge will be open from now (i.e. the beginning of the month) until the 28th and I'll post a round up at the beginning of March.

3. You can take your inspiration from anywhere - the market/supermarket, cookbooks, magazines, blogs, create something from scratch or use a family favourite. Please ensure that you do not breach copyright if you are using someone else's recipe - a link to a recipe is great if it is available online though!

4. You can add as many recipes as you like and it's fine for them to be part of other blog challenges too.

As I can't seem to add a linky (you'd think after four and a half years I'd have figured out some of the technical aspects of blogging by now - apparently not so much!) please leave a link to your post in the comments and I'll be able to find all of your lovely creations.

Marmalade anyone?

If you aren't in the UK feel free to enter making use of produce that is seasonal in your part of the world, the more the merrier. You can find lots of resources for showing what is in season on Ren's Simple and In Season page. For the UK, BBC GoodFood has a good seasonal ideas on their seasonal tab. BBC Food also has some great seasonal ideas and recipes.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you all come up with!

Simple Double Chocolate Vanilla Marble Cake

Well, that break wasn't really expected - life sometimes gets in the way of blogging and I think a combination of post-Christmas readjusting to work and general busy-ness meant that January sped past before I knew what had happened. I'm sorry to have missed out on participating in all of the blog challenges I usually enter, but hopefully I'll be a bit more active this month.

To ease myself back into baking mode I decided to make something quick and easy, requiring no decoration but that also looked reasonably impressive. Marble cake fulfils all of these requirements and because I'm a chocolate fiend I decided to double up the chocolate goodness of the cake by adding chocolate chunks to the chocolate portion of the batter.

Double Chocolate Vanilla Marble Cake

Ingredients

175g butter, softened

175g white caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

50g full fat greek yogurt

3 eggs

175g self raising flour

100g chopped chocolate (I used 60% cocoa solids)

15g cocoa powder (approx...)

Method

- Preheat the oven to Gas 4/180C. Grease and line an 8"/20cm square cake tin with baking parchment.

- Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

- Add the vanilla, greek yogurt, eggs and flour and beat well to combine.

- Blob about half of the mixture into the tin in separated blobs.

- Add the cocoa powder and chocolate chunks to the remaining mixture in the mixing bowl. Beat to combine.

- Blob the chocolate batter into the spaces between the vanilla batter until the batter is all used up.

- Swirl the handle of a knife/fork/spoon through the mixture until it appears marbled (don't forget the corners!)

- Bake for about 40 minutes until risen, golden and springy and a cake tester comes out clean.

- Allow to cool on a wire rack before enjoying!

I do enjoy making marble cakes, they have the advantage of not really needing frosting/icing and this was a good one - the marbling went well and having the added chocolate chunks in the mixture made a nice contrast of texture and certainly enhanced the chocolate appeal of the cake! I use the handle of one of my soup spoons because it is wide enough to marble effectively - feel free to use your implement of choice. Not too taxing for a quick after-work midweek bake.