Macmillan Coffee Morning

Our Macmillan Coffee Morning was held yesterday on Friday morning, being postponed from last Friday due to a funeral being held in our Church (coffee morning is held in the Church Hall behind the Church).  I had lots of ideas as to what I would make but due to lack of time ended up making two cakes that were quite easy.

The first was Seed Cake - very easy and I have blogged this recipe before (so I won't bore you with it again).

The second was Chocolate Banana Cake - a lovely thick cake that I have made a few times before, but didn't have time for the chocolate frosting so took it as it was!

The recipe was taken from Books for Cooks Book No. 8.  I tweaked the recipe slightly by using cocoa powder instead of grated chocolate - this recipe serves 8.

Cake Ingredients:

160ml (5 1/2 fl oz/ 2/3 cup + 1 tbsp) milk
2 teaspoons lemon juice
450g (15oz/1 cup) mashed very ripe banana (this can be anywhere from 2-4 bananas, depending on size)
300g (10 oz/2 cups) plain (all purpose) flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
salt
150g (5oz/1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
225g (7 1/2 oz/1 1/4 cups) caster sugar
1/2 tsp natural vanilla extract
3 organic eggs
100g (3 1/2 oz) dark chocolate, finely chopped (chill it first if it's a hot day)

N.B.  I didn't use chopped chocolate but instead used 2 oz cocoa powder and 8 oz plain flour

Frosting Ingredients:

200g (7 oz) dark chocolate, broken into pieces
160g (5 1/2 oz/ 3/4 cup) icing sugar, sifted
125ml (4 fl oz/ 1/2 cup) sour cream

Heat the oven to 170 C (325F) Gas 3 (electric fan assisted ovens should be set at 150C).  Butter a 24cm (9 1/2 inch) springform cake tin and line the base with baking parchment.

Place the milk and lemon in a bowl and let stand for 10 minutes to sour the milk, then stir in the banana.

Sift together the flour (and cocoa if using), baking powder and soda with a pinch of salt.  In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Add one third of the flour mix to the creamed mixture and gently beat in.  Add one third of the banana mixture and gently beat in.  Alternately add the remaining flour and banana until just combined.  Gently fold in the chocolate (if using) until evenly combined with no trace of flour, then spread evenly over the base of the buttered and lined tin.

Bake until the sides of the cake have pulled away from the tin and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool for 15 minutes.  Run a knife around the sides of the cake to loosen before turning out on to the rack and leaving to cool completely.

Make the frosting when the cake has cooled.  Melt the chocolate, either in a microwave or in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, and stir until smoothly combined.  Let cool slightly.  Gradually beat in the icing sugar until smooth with no trace of sugar.  Stir in the sour cream until thick, smooth and glossy.   Use immediately: spread over the completely cooled cake.




There were some lovely offerings at the coffee morning and I naughtily had two slices of cake with my coffee - a coffee and walnut with cream cheese icing and a slice of chocolate guinness cake which had a cream topping ........... mmmmmmmmmm!