If you watched the Great British Bake Off for Sports Relief you will have seen one of the technical challenges was for all the contestants to make Mary Berry’s Banana and Chocolate Chip Loaf cake. Surprisingly, for such a simple cake, it was one of the most disastrous challenges I think I’ve ever seen!  However, I was inspired to give it a go, convinced that I could make a better job of it – and I did!

I always seem to have overripe bananas in the fruit bowl, so any recipe that uses up squishy bananas is going to be a hit with me – and this one was truly delicious. This maybe because I melted a Lindt Teddy Bear to drizzle over the top but I’m sure any sort of chocolate would be equally yummy!

1 ripe banana (peeled weight 100g/4oz)
1 tbsp milk
50g/2oz soft butter or baking spread (e.g Stork)
75g/3oz plain flour
75g/3oz caster sugar
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 free-range egg
50g/2oz chocolate chips
50g/2oz chocolate (melted, to decorate)

Preheat the oven 160C/325F/Gas 3. Grease and line a 1lb loaf tin with non-stick baking paper
Mash the peeled banana in a large bowl. Add remaining cake ingredients (except chocolate chips) and beat with an electric hand whisk until combined.
Stir in chocolate chips and spoon mixture into tin
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until well risen & golden-brown.
Allow to cool then drizzle with melted chocolate

(NB. Quantities can easily be doubled to make a 2lb loaf – my 2lb cake took and extra 5-10 minutes to bake)

As with all our cake recipes, if you do decide to give it a try, we’d love it if you came back and left a comment as to how you got on. Happy baking!

To celebrate National Baking Week (17^th-23^rd October) we thought we would revisit some of our favourite cake recipes on the blog to give you some baking inspiration.

As anyone who has been to one of our MTB networking meetings will know, homemade cake is a big part of what makes our visitors feel welcome. Over the past few years we have been posting recipes for some of our most popular offerings including a simply perfect Lemon Drizzle Cake, our gooey & chewy Flapjack, my mum’s (dairy free) Carrot Cake and our signature bake (which requires no baking) - Chocolate Fridge Cake!

Here at MTB we are big fans of Brownies and have road-tested a variety of flavours at our meetings – you can try my foolproof Brilliant Chocolate Brownies, or for something more exotic how about White Chocolate & Raspberry Brownies or Banoffee Brownies.  

If it’s cupcake inspiration you’re after then we can heartily recommend these Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes, Lemon Meringue Cupcakes and these really decadent Rocky Road beauties!

Being such fans of cake you can also read about the time we went on a Mum’s Who Bake Cupcake Decorating Course as our MTB Christmas Social Event or the time I adopted the work ‘Cake’ for charity!

And don’t miss one of the most popular posts on our blog – 10 Uses for Squishy Bananas - which has some great baking ideas if you are always left with brown, overripe bananas at the bottom of the fruit bowl every week.

Finally, if you want to make sure you don’t miss any future recipes you can subscribe to the RSS feed for the Cake section of our blog here.  Or you can can subscribe to Mum’s The Blog by email or RSS on the blog homepage.  

Happy National Baking Week and have fun with your baking!

Impressive looking and easy to make!

For the cakes
115g butter or margarine
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
115g self raising flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 tablespoons milk
choc chips – any or mixed
handful mini marshmallows
flaked almonds or brazil nuts

For the topping
75g dark chocolate – chopped
50ml double cream
Optional extras
flaked almonds or brazil nuts
choc chips
mini marshmallows

To make;

1. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
2. Beat in eggs
3. Stir in flour and cocoa powder and then milk
4. Add choc chips, marshmallows and almonds
5. Spoon into cases
6. Bake at 180C/350F for approx 15mins
7. Cool completely
8. Heat cream until nearly boiling and pour over chocolate and leave for 5 mins
9. Stir until smooth and creamy then leave for another 30 mins until thick and glossy
10. Spread on cakes and sprinkle extra toppings over if required

Ingredients

115g butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
115g self raising flour
Grated zest and juice of a lemon
3 tablespoons of lemon curd

To decorate

150g caster sugar
2 egg whites 

Method for cakes

• Beat flour and sugar together
• Beat in egg
• Add flour
• Stir in lemon zest and juice
• Put a spoon of mix into  cup cases, add a small dollop of lemon curd then top up with cake mix
• Cook for approx 13minutes at 180C/350F until golden and risen
• Cool on a wire rack

To decorate

• Put the sugar and egg whites in a bowl over a pan of simmering water
• Whisk constantly for about 5 minutes until the mixture is thick and glossy and stands in peaks
• Pipe onto cakes
• For a soft topping leave 30min and for a firmer set meringue leave for at least 3 hours

Ingredients

115g butter
115g caster sugar
2 eggs
115g self raising flour
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

 Topping

90g white chocolate
90g cream cheese
3 tablespoons of crème fraiche
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons icing sugar
Fresh strawberries

(Please note I have halved the quantities suggested in the book as I had loads left over when I made mine)

 Method for cakes

• Beat flour and sugar together
• Beat in egg
• Add flour
• Stir in vanilla extract and milk
• Spoon into cases
• Cook for approx 10minutes at 180C/350F until golden and risen
• Cool on a wire rack

 To decorate

• Melt chocolate in bowl and allow to cool slightly
• Beat other ingredients together and then add cooled chocolate
• Smooth mixture over cakes to top of cases
• Chill for 1 ½ hours and add the fresh strawberries to decorate

And by making these cakes, not only have you kept the children amused for half an hour, you now have the perfect reason to put your feet up and have a cuppa. Enjoy!

Helen’s alternative fruit trifle

This pudding came about as a last minute ‘what have we got in that I can make something with’ type event.

• Punnet of strawberries – washed and sliced – or raspberries or other fruit
• Large tub Greek yoghurt
• Packet of Amaretti biscuits – crushed

Simply layer the biscuits, fruit and Amaretti biscuits in a bowl or individual glasses repeatedly and chill. Looks great, is tasty and healthy too.

Vanilla and red fruit sundaes

I found this great recipe in a magazine a few years ago and as my Father-in-Law is diabetic and it is nice to make something we can all eat without it being just fruit salad.

• 2 tsp powered gelatine
• I  tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp brandy (I also use Damson port) – optional
• 3 tbsp sugar substitute
• 750g plain or Greek style yoghurt
• 1 sachet of sugar free raspberry jelly
• 225g fresh frozen summer fruits

Prepare gelatine by sprinkling on to 3 tbsp cold water, leave for 5 minutes till spongy then heat gently till all gelatine dissolved or  as per packet instructions.

Mix the sugar, brandy and vanilla into the yoghurt and then stir in the gelatine thoroughly.

Spoon into 6 glasses/individual bowls or ramekins and chill for at least an hour

Dissolve the jelly in ½ pint or 300ml boiling water

Add fruit and stir well – allow to cool

Carefully spoon jelly and fruit mix onto set vanilla layer and return to fridge overnight.

Fruit mille-feuille

This is so simple – but looks really professional

• Roll out some puff pastry on a floured surface – place on a non-stick tray and brush with  egg wash
• Make sure it is cooked through and risen – it should be lightly golden brown – and transfer to a wire rack to cool
• Slice in half horizontally
• Spread bottom half with cream, crème fraiche, mascapone or anything else you fancy
• Cover with a layer of fruit – I tend to use summer berries but you could  add some kiwi for colour and figs make a nice change
• Spread more cream on top layer and sandwich together
• A dusting of icing sugar before serving and its ready to eat.

As a result of my blog post last week,  containing

If you are looking for a more exciting use for your overripe bananas then I can’t recommend these highly enough. And I have a sneaky suspicion that they might prove popular with any small people in your house too!

Chewy, squidgy, sweet, moist, crunchy, unctuous – just some of the words I could use to describe these absolutely gorgeous cakes! But let’s face it – anything that contains butter, sugar, white chocolate and caramel is going to get the thumbs up from me!

Ingredients
250g golden caster sugar
100g butter
100g caramel , from a jar or tin (Nestlé Carnation Caramel works well) plus 2 tbsp for the top
100g white chocolate
2 eggs
200g self-raising flour
2 ripe bananas , sliced

• Heat the oven 180C/fan 170C/gas 4.
• Melt the sugar, butter, caramel and chocolate together until smooth.
• Cool a little, then add the eggs and fold in the flour and banana.
• Pour into a lined 20cm square tin and add a few blobs of caramel to the top
• Bake for 45-50 minutes or until risen and set.

I only hope my photo does them justice and you can see  the dollops of caramel and the gooey banana middle. And even if you don’t eat them, they are worth making just for the delicious smell that comes from your oven!!

If you do go away and try them, please come back and leave a comment afterwards – would love to know what you think!

One thing you can guarantee about kids is that they are contrary. One week they love something, the next they won’t touch it with a barge-pole. Such is the case, in our house, with bananas. My girls always used to enjoy a banana or two, but now they are met with scorn and disdain. Trouble is, I keep buying them on autopilot, so every week or so I find myself lumbered with squishy, overripe bananas and a lack of ideas for what to do with them.

A few weeks ago I put out a cry for help on Twitter for recipe ideas for my surplus bananas and half an hour later I had a long list of suggestions. At the time I joked that “I could feel a blog post coming on”. So, as promised, here it is - my 10 Uses for Squishy Bananas.

One of my favourite websites for leftover ideas is Love Food Hate Waste. They have a recipe section which is split into different pages for each main ingredient. Their Banana section is full of ideas, my favourite of which is Banana & Peanut Milkshake.  They also have a lovely recipe for Banana & Walnut Loaf, with added vanilla and cinnamon, which can be adapted to make mini muffins.

Another favourite online cookery website of mine is the BBC Good Food site. The site contains over 5,000 recipes so is always a great resource if you are lacking in culinary inspiration. And their recipe for Caramel Banana Blondies has got to be work a try!

For basic, child-friendly dinners and recipes to cook with your children you can’t beat Netmums. Most of the recipes have been submitted by mums, or tested by them, and they have a great receipe for Banana Flapjack which is perfect for school lunchboxes. They also have a great page of Smoothie Ideas, all of which contain bananas.

Think a Banana Split is just a banana cut in half, a scoop of ice cream and a smattering of chocolate sauce, then think again! Food Network has a whole collection of banana split recipes so you need never get bored, including a Banana Split Brownie Pizza!

If I’m after a recipe that’s a bit special I normally reach for my Nigella cookbooks and as squishy banana recipes go, her Banana & Butterscotch Muffins are a little posher than your average muffin! You can use the same recipe but substitute the butterscotch for chocolate chips or cranberries – so 3 for the price of 1 with that recipe! And as an idea for a dessert, or breakfast with a difference, how about trying Nigella’s recipe for Banana Pancakes – yum.

Now you can’t think of bananas without thinking of Banoffee Pie (well I can’t!). There are lots of recipes out there but one very simple one that I have tried is Cheats Chocolate Banoffee Pie using Carnation Caramel, and it is delicious.

And finally, if none of my suggestions have whetted your appetite, then you need to visit  www.bananarecipes.net – a website dedicated solely to all things banana. If you can’t find something on their site to transform your squishy bananas, then quite frankly, you must be a lost cause!!

If you have any other great banana recipes then please do share and leave us a comment.

A month ago, if you had asked me what my dream job would be, I would probably have replied with something flippant like Johnny Depp’s personal secretary or a chocolate taste tester. Well, my friends, be careful what you wish for, because sometimes dreams do come true!

Thanks to the magic of Twitter and the British Mummy Blogger community I heard that Green and Blacks were looking for blogging taste testers. Without hesitation I volunteered my services and several weeks later, quite unannounced, a large jiffy bag arrived in the post, bursting at the seams with scrumptious chocolate! Since then I have been on a culinary chocolate journey, using my Green & Blacks bars to nibble, suck, scoff, melt and bake.

My surprise parcel contained 11 bars of chocolate – 8 to eat, and 3 bars of cooking chocolate. First off I ate the ‘flavoured’ bars – Butterscotch, Cherry and Almond.  Now I am a firm fan of Milk Chocolate so found both the Butterscotch and the Almond bars quite divine – both creamy and sweet with the perfect amount of burnt toffee flavour crunch in the Butterscotch and whole almonds in the other. Last up I tried the Cherry bar. I normally find dark chocolate too bitter for my taste, but the bittersweet tang of the whole cherry pieces made this bar really enjoyable, and not harsh in the way I normally find dark chocolate – in fact it’s definitely a combination I could get used to!

Onto the plain bars – Milk, Cream Milk, White, Dark 70% and Dark 85%. Now I could have just eaten these – no problem – but I thought I’d be a bit more creative and use some to bake with (although I’m ashamed to say the Cream Milk did disappear in a single sitting!). The Dark 70% was lovingly turned into Valentines Molten Chocolate Pots (see right) by being melted down and mixed with butter, ground almonds, 1 egg, 1 yolk, caster sugar and Baileys liqueur. Once melted the 70% Dark was like pure, black silk and the resulting pudding was incredibly rich but not in a sickly sweet way. Needless to say, my ‘Valentine’ was very impressed!

The Dark 85% was both eaten and baked. I felt I had to try the 85% because I don’t think I have ever eaten chocolate with that high cocoa content before. However the 85% Dark is ‘softened with Madagascen Vanilla’ which you could really taste and did take any bitter edge away from the chocolate. The rest of the bar, along with a bar of G&B cooking chocolate, was melted down and turned into Best Ever Brownies (see left). When I make Brownies I normally use cocoa powder so I needed a recipe that used real chocolate  – and boy could I tell the difference! When I got them out of the oven I was too impatient to wait for them to cool down completely so cut them up while they were still warm. The insides of the Brownies were still gooey but they cooled to an absolutely perfect velvety chocolate consistency which was met with lots of appreciative “ooohs” and “aahs” when I took them along to one of our Mum’s The Boss meetings for some of our members to sample. And to make them even better they also contained chunks of the Milk Chocolate and White Chocolate bars for good measure – chocolate cake heaven personified!!

Which just leaves me with 2 bars of cooking chocolate left. One of these is earmarked to make some chocolate cornflake cakes with the girls and the other will be used to make our signature cake at meetings, and the most popular search phrase that leads people to our blog – Chocolate Fridge Cake!

When I excitedly posted on Facebook that I would be taste testing for Green and Blacks one of my friends replied “What’s to review? It’s chocolate. ‘Nuff said!”  Turns out though, that there’s more to this chocolate lark than meets the eye - and I’m more than willing to learn!

I’m ashamed to admit it has taken me 40 years to have this great idea, but now I have, I thought I would a) share it with you and b) ask your advice. 

This week I borrowed 2 cookery books from my local library. What a fantatsic idea I thought. I can have a proper read through and see if there are any actual recipes in it that I will make. Genius!

I love cooking and I love cookery books and have a fair few on my kitchen shelves. But from each book I have probably tried a dozen or so recipes, and from that dozen maybe 2 or 3 have become favourites that I cook regularly. So I figure this way I can either copy down the 2 or 3 recipes that prove a hit, or if it looks really promising buy the book myself.

So this week I have borrowed The Delia Collection: Soup and Tana Ramsay’s Family Kitchen. At first glance I would say there are maybe 4 or 5 soups I would try from Delia’s book so probably not worth buying, but the Tana Ramsey book has some definite potential.

So my question to you is, which cookery books would you recommend me to borrow from the library next week?