Sunday, March 4, 2012

Back on track with a cinnamon banana cake dream

 So after an extended hiatus from this blog and a mammoth effort to finally finish/update/publish previously neglected posts, we are finally back on track.

After several months of morning sickness, several other months of supporting (and feeding) my mum through chemotherapy for ovarian cancer (what a survivor she is!) and now 5 weeks after the birth of my beautiful son, I think we are finally back on track!

Oh how I have missed playing with joy and gay abandon in the kitchen! How I have longed for the time, inclination and appetite to experiment without guilt, nausea or pregnancy nutrition on my mind! And here at last it is.

Three things that I want to get to this week:
  1. Test the new cook book I got for Christmas (achieved today!)
  2. Cook with truffled honey
  3. Use the purple corn flour that has been hiding in my cupboard

This afternoon I hit up 'Daisy' -my languishing yellow kitchenaid- and broke in a recipe book that was given to me for Christmas (2months ago) by my gluten intolerant and healthy eating advocate bestie JD. Okay, so we trialled one recipe over NY (courgette and chamomile cupcakes), but since that delicious NYE taste test my beautiful gift had been gathering dust on my cookbook shelf.

Let it be noted here- the book is an absolute winner:
Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache by Harry Eastwood.

The premise behind the recipes is simple- conventional cake making is limiting, we should look beyond wheat flour and dairy for the joys that gluten free and added vegetables can bring to cake baking.

And Eastwood is more than right.


So finally this afternoon some soggy looking bananas yielded the fluffiest cinnamon banana bread you can possibly dream of, all sans dairy or wheat. Taaa-Daaa! And Thank You Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache, pg 97.

There was a little tweaking of the recipe to make it fit what we had in the cupboard- but that's what I love best about cooking in my own kitchen when I am in my right mind... substituting. And some minor changes yielded a spectacular result.

Ingredients: 

  • 2 bananas
  • 2 medium eggs
  • 140g caster suger
  • 150g rice flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt (I used tahitian vanilla salt from Gewurzhause) 
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract (which can be left out if you have the vanilla salt)
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg (freshly grated is best)
  • 50g LSA mix
  • sprinkling of trail mix (or any seeds/nuts you like) for dressing the top of the loaf
Method:
Preheat oven to 180degC and use veg oil to grease a loaf tin.
In a separate bowl mash the bananas well and set aside. In a large bowl (or kitchenaid/mixer) whisk eggs and sugar till light and fluffy. Add the banana and mix well. Add all remaining ingredients (except dressing nuts/trail mix) and stir thoroughly. Pour the mix into the prepared loaf tin and sprinkle the top with reserved trail mix/nuts and then bake for 45mins or until golden and firm. 
Remove from oven and cool for 5mins before turing out to a wire rack to cool.
Best served hot with a cup of single origin stove-top espresso, but it's great at any time of day really... and it's gluten and dairy free. Who's have thunk. Particularly when it turns out so light, fluffy and delicious! 

Sigh of relief... kitchen, I am back! Stay tuned for more kitchen capers. 
Happiness.