from bbcgoodfood.com by Sarah Cook
Serves 8
Ingredients:
100gms softened butter, plus extra for greasing
8 tbsp maple syrup
3 small ripe bananas and 1 very overripe banana
200gms dark brown soft sugar
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla paste or extract
200gms self-raising flour
100gms pecans, broken into pieces
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
200gms pot full-fat Greek yogurt, plus extra, or vanilla ice cream, to serve
For the sauce
100gms whole pecans
100gms salted butter, diced
100mls double cream
100mls maple syrup
Method:
1.Heat oven to 160C. Grease a 20cm square cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. For the cake, pour in half the syrup, swirling to coat the bottom. Peel and halve the 3 ripe bananas lengthways and lay, cut-side down, in the tin.
2.Beat together the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and overripe banana with an electric whisk. Tip the flour and pecans into a food processor and pulse until finely ground together. Stir into the butter mixture with the bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon, then stir in the yogurt. Carefully spoon into the tin without dislodging the bananas. Bake the cake for 45 mins-1 hr until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with only moist crumbs.
3.Meanwhile, make the sauce. Toast the pecans for 1-2 mins in a pan, add the remaining ingredients and cook until the butter has melted. Then bubble for 5 mins until it has thickened a little.
4.When the cake is cooked, poke it all over with the skewer – inserting it about halfway into the cake each time. Pour over the remaining maple syrup and allow it to soak in for a few mins, then turn the cake out of the tin, upside-down, onto a serving plate. Reheat the sauce, and serve with Greek yogurt or vanilla ice cream.
Le Vin:
Legend of the Barossa, (Pedro Ximenez), Dandelion Vineyards, Barossa Valley, South Australia, Avg 30 yrs, AUD28