Gloverly Cupcakes

I always seem to get asked on my Birthday “Are you baking your own cake?” and the answer is always “YES!” I love baking and it’s the one cake a year where I get to do exactly what I want! So this year I made the banoffee cake which was in March’s Olive magazine and chose a design that was simple but elegant. Click

I made some slight alterations to the method that is described below, as I wanted to cover my cake with sugar paste rather than cover with the buttercream and top with the caramelised bananas. So  I made 5 small layers, then cut out 5 inch circles in 2 of the tiers. When I assembled the cake I used a solid layer on the bottom, spread it with a thin layer of caramel, then put one of the layers with the hole in on top. I filled the hole with a thick layer of buttercream and then added 1/2 of the caramelised bananas. I then placed a solid cake layer on top and repeated. Therefore when the cake was cut there were 2 surprise caramel banana layers hidden inside the cake! I found the butter cream too soft to use to ice the cake and apply the sugar paste over the top, so I made a normal butter cream and added a tsp of caramel essence to it and used that instead.

Here is the recipe:

Cake

300g Butter softened

300g soft light brown sugar

4 large eggs

300g plain flour

2 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 ripe bananas mashed

Caramel Buttercream

150g butter softened

500g icing sugar

200g cream cheese

100g Carnation Caramel

Topping

150g Carnation Caramel

25 butter

2 ripe bananas sliced

Pinch of sea salt flakes (optional)

Heat the oven to 180 C or 160C fan. Butter and line 2 x 20 cm cake tins (or I used 2 x 7″ cake tins)

Beat the butter and sugar together in a mixer till light and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time mixing between each one till well combined. Mix in the flour, baking powder and bicarb. Then stir in the vanilla and mashed bananas till well combined.

Divide between the cake tins – I made 5 layers, so did 2/5 in one tin and 3/5 in another tin. Bake for 35 mins (or longer depending on which cake size) until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 mins in the tins before transferring to a wire rack.

To make the butter cream, beat the butter and icing sugar together till light and fluffy, about 5 mins. Add the soft cheese and beat for another minute. Then add the caramel and beat until thick yet spreadable.

Spread 50g of the topping caramel on top of one of the sponges, followed by a thick layer of butter cream, then chill for 10 minutes. Put the plain sponge on top of the iced one and spread over the remaining butter cream, over the top and sides. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

In a bowl whisk the remaining 100g of caramel with 1 tbsp of water until smooth. Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the bananas for 2-3 minutes till they begin to caramelise. Cool and stir through half the caramel.

Put the cake on a serving plate or stand. Pile the chopped bananas on top then drizzle with the remaining caramel and a sprinkle of sea salt if you like.

The cake tasted absolutely amazing and I will definitely be making it again! May be next time I’ll follow the instructions and pile the caramel bananas on top instead, but having them inside worked really well for a covered cake.