Chocolate Hazelnut Banana Loaf

Call me a cliche - isolation baking banana bread

If you’re like me, you might have stocked up on “healthy” foods like bananas, only to look over them for more comforting treats.

I really hate waste, which means I can’t throw out over-ripe fruit. I have to repurpose it into something more delicious – enter, banana bread!

Some very smart person mentioned toasting banana bread and covering it with Nutella and I couldn’t believe I’d never thought of it before. In fact it was such a good idea I just had to make some and try it. And thinking of how well banana bread and Nutella would go together, I wanted to infuse some Nutella flavours into the loaf itself.

Banana Chocolate Fudge Cake

Next in my series of foods that you can make with what's on hand at home/non-perishables!

This is great because it uses no butter or eggs, and almost everything is taken from the larder/cupboard, alongside some unhappily over-ripe bananas that you’d never have eaten anyway. 

It’s fudgy and dark and sweet and it really hits the spot. I adapted it from a vegan recipe, so it can easily be made vegan with the use of vegan dark chocolate and oat or almond milk. Feel free to adjust the sugars as well, granulated, caster, white, golden, muscovado, whatever! Adaptability is key.

Banana Caramel Cake

It's the weekend and it's time for cake.

I love making cakes. Baking fads will come and go (cronuts, anyone?), but cakes are forever. They're comforting, they're sweet, and they can look damn impressive if you pretty them up a bit. You know what you're getting with a cake. 

I'm slowly getting into the swing of cake decorating, and buttercream rosettes are my absolute favourite thing to do these days, quick and easy and pretty! I suppose I could have gone all out and iced the sides too, but there's something I find quite nice about leaving the golden brown edges of the cake exposed, so you can just get hints of the filling within. I suppose these days you'd call it a "naked" cake, so I think my laziness is on trend.

Banoffee Cupcakes

I like to think that my blog reflects the current trends in my eating habits, I post what I’m making for dinner, and what sweet treats I bring in for work and for me things tend to go in themes. For example, I recently had a go at low carb, raw type cooking. I still do that, but not having been in the kitchen for ages, I stored up lots of recipes that I was dying to try, and they don’t fall into the healthy category. And with that in mind..

Banoffee is basically the best dessert in the world.

I don’t think any sane person would disagree with that. My only problem with it is the whipped cream. I hate cream. When I order it in a restaurant, I scrape the cream off (to my willing boyfriend’s plate!) and when I make it at home, I make a non-cream one for myself.

A quick note about caramel – I find it really difficult to make. So this is from a jar. It’s a great shame of mine (if you’re keeping count, I buy ready made mashed potato and ready made caramel, but NEVER ready made custard) but I’ve had to ditch tons of otherwise great bakes due to failed caramel, and I won’t have it happen again!

So, this is you basic banoffee flavours in cupcake form, you’ve got banana fairy cakes smothered in caramel buttercream and dotted with dark choc chips and tiny fudge pieces. The cupcakes are light and delicate with a lovely banana sweetness, and the buttercream is rich and creamy and basically amazing. I had like a tbsp. left over and just ate it directly from the piping bag. Unless that makes me sound gross, then I totally didn’t.

Banana Peanut Butter Muffins

I'm post-nightshift and I feel like a zombie. I would be feeling worse if not for these little lifesavers, gratefully gorged on at 4am.

We’ve all been there. It’s the start of the week, and you have a bowl of rapidly browning, sad looking bananas left over from last week's shop in your fruit bowl. Sure, you could just eat them, but that feels like punishment. Instead, I'm going to give those bananas a fitting send off,

So, I decided to combine some of my favourite flavours and make some lovely muffins! These are really delicious, filling and flavourful. They make a very treat-ful breakfast. And are great for elevenses. And lunch-dessert. And midnight snack.

Peanut butter and banana really go well together and the hint of cinnamon just ties the whole thing together. The crumble topping really makes these muffins into something very, and you gotta make them to see for yourself.

Banana, Hazelnut and Nutella Muffins

Do you ever just want to make something really tasty and filling, that is sweet but still flavourful?

Look no further than these muffins. No-one hates Nutella, and the banana and hazelnuts add a real depth of flavour, taking it away from being too cloying and sweet. I did eat one for breakfast. I don’t exactly recommend it, health-wise, but it was great.

I don’t trust muffins which use butter, because they are never quite moist enough. So when making a muffin recipe I am looking for oil/milk/buttermilk instead to get the fat/liquid content needed.

Makes

Banana, Honey and Cinnamon-spiced Smoothie

Well, we are home from our hols and I am not happy about it. One thing I noticed in Dubai that every cafe had an extensive fresh fruit juice menu, with blended flavours creating delicious cold drinks. My obvious favourite is mint lemonade, which I plan to make soon for the upcoming summer weather (optimism!). But I noticed something similar to this on a menu, and I've turned it into a delicious spiced smoothie.

These smoothie posts are always light on photos, because there’s only so much that you can break a ‘peel, pour, blend’ recipe down into. They’re that simple.

There is only one simple fruit here, and it is allowed to shine. I don’t know about you, but I find eating a banana intensely boring. The flavour is so monotonous and I get distracted half way through. 

Not so with this smoothie! The vanilla yogurt makes it creamy, and the added sweetness of honey and spice of cinnamon makes this so different from any of the fruit-heavy other ones I normally whip up. In fact, it feels closer to a milkshake than a smoothie. And it is YUM.

Quick Blueberry Smoothie.

This is amazingly easy, adapted from my favourite smoothie from my favourite smoothie place. I may have had 4 of these smoothies last week. FOUR. And I have a few buy one get one free vouchers to use up this month, so I envision so many more. One of these days I will get a proper blender (birthday wishlist vibes..), but for now my little food processor will have to cope.

But since I can’t always be bothered to venture out of my house onto the metro to get one, I decided I had to learn to make my own. Especially because I was feeling a little bit in need of a detox today after a weekend at home (which equals a weekend of overindulgence!).

This is easy, so I won't dress up the method into anything more than it is: peel, pour, blend, drink.

Banana Bread (with cheeky chocolate chips)

Sliced up and ready to bring to work (with a few slices removed for home)

  

So, I have had two lonely, rapidy browning bananas sadly slumped in my fruit bowl for a couple of days now. 

Judging me.

I obviously wasn’t going to eat them, because bananas bore me slightly at the best of times, never mind the weekend. Plus, I have so many eggs to use!

So, I turned to my new favourite person ever, Mary Berry. I feel like I know her. And love her. She did not fail me, presenting me a beautiful banana loaf recipe which I bastardised with chocolate chips. AND I got to use my brand new loaf tin!

Best. Weekend. Ever.