It is only recently that I've discovered the key ingredient to cake baking is not love, but in fact baking powder. It's made the whole thing a lot simpler and since this revelation I've been throwing myself as any cake recipe I can find. This won't end well.
I was recently cooking for an important birthday, and upon idly remembering that cake is a - if not the - most important part of a birthday only the day before. The following recipe comes from the often brilliant and sometimes difficult BBC Food site, it's not only yummy as hell but really quick to make.
It can be made in the smallest of kitchens (this has been tested) and shouts of homemade goodness. In short, the type of cake Mothers make.
Ingredients
200g caster sugar
200g softened butter
4 eggs, beaten in a little bowl first
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract (not the worst thing in the world if you don't have any)
2 mashed, ripe bananas
For the filling
284ml double cream
4 tbsp Banoffee toffee (Merchant Gourmet Banoffee Toffee, from major supermarkets is ideal
1 banana, sliced
(If you find yourself without Banoffee toffee goo, as my local supermarket fails to stock any, boil a tin of condensed milk for three hours, Magically it turns brown and toffee-like.)
Directions
1. Preheat to 190C and grease two sandwich tins (line with non-stick baking powder if you like
2. In a big bowl, mix all the cake ingredients together. Beat until you have a smooth, soft batter
3. Divide mix between two tins and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden. The cakes should spring back when pressed. Leave to cool.
4. For the filling, whip the double cream (patience required) and fold in the Banoffee toffee. The consistency of the toffee or boiled-condensed-milk might completely ruin this wonderful whipped effect, but continue whipping inanely and it'll go back to normal.
5. Spread half the mix onto the bottom cake and top with a sliced banana. Plonk the other cake on top, and cover this one with more cream mix.
6. Decorate with "an elegant drizzle of banana toffee".
Throwing caution to the wind (and because condensed-milk-cum-toffee doesn't like to spread, gloop, or in any way play ball), I layered half the banana on top of the inner filling and half on top of the cake. It looked better for it.
Advised: Keep in an airtight container and eat within 2 days, if, unlike me, you can avoid scoffing the entire thing in one sitting.
Image © Claire Tayler for BitchBuzz.com