Caramelised Banana & Lychee Cake
I love flicking through magazines and newspapers looking at recipes but I rarely clip them out because I know that I’m not likely to get around to trying it out. However, I love banana cake and when I saw Patrick Craig’s Caramelised Banana cake recipe in one of the Melbourne papers (I forget which), it sounded so good that I had to tear it out. This was in July last year and I have only just made it today, but I DID actually get around to making it – woohoo!
This isn’t your everyday banana cake as it does include the addition of pineapple pieces, as you would find in a Hummingbird Cake. However, I couldn’t find any cans of pineapple pieces in the pantry so I decided to swap it with lychee instead. Now, that probably sounds strange initially because I certainly haven’t ever seen a banana cake with lychee before but it actually works really well as the flavours are not too dissimilar.
So, onto the recipe itself:
1. Combine 2.5 cups plain flour, 1.5 cups caster sugar, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 2 tsp baking powder, 1.5 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt
2. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk 5 eggs and add 1.5 cups olive oil then add to dry mixture
3. In a hot pan (no butter, no oil), quickly caramelise 2.5 cups chopped banana pieces & 400g lychee pieces
4. Add fruit to cake mixture & pour into 22cm round cake tin (or a loaf tin & some muffin caese!)
5. Bake at 180C for 30 min or until cooked through (I had to bake for 50-60min).
6. Serve with whipped cream (or ice cream)
March 29th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Great McGyver style improvisation Cin. I think those two flavours would work together too.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Banana and Lychee, sounds like a good combination. It was be very moist and lovely and sweet. I have bananas at home, I think I need to buy some lychee’s
March 30th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
@Thanh: Thanks! I used to LOVE watching McGyver when I was little & would still like to know how to fashion a bomb to blow open a locked door if I was ever in a pickle. Oh well, I must have picked up some good tips along the way!
@Maria: It turned out to be really lovely and, yes, moist, as well. Perhaps that’s why it took so long to finish baking. Try serving it with whipped cream mixed with buffalo yoghurt as suggested in the original recipe.