Sunday, August 27, 2006

Best Banana Cake Ever

It has been a weekend of activity at wrecker central. Mr Accordian has bought a new instrument called Hammond and has been filling the air with melodious meanderings and I have been going silly in the garden and kitchen. So today I am publishing a coupla wrecker recipes.

BecNana Cake
Don't you hate it when you walk into a room and someone has a bigger banana than you? This happened to me, believe it or not, when I had a recent banana harvest and then saw some other cheatin bananas on steroids at the Ekka. How demoralising.
Left with a heap of small manky looking bananas getting riper by the day, I knew I had to take some action.

You will need about 10 finger-sized drought dumps (bananas) or 2 normal ones or one banana on performance enhancers.
1. Peel the nanas and cut out the bad bits. Let the wrecking begin- you may choose to use a fork for the smashing.
2. Put 125g butter (not margarine for heavens sake) and 3/4 cup of dark brown sugar (the one with a hint of molasses is best) in a bowl and beat until fluffy.
3. Add 2 eggs, one at a time beating in until mixture goes mousse-like.
4. Add the smashed bananas.
5. Add 1 & 3/4 cups - 2 cups of self raising flour.
6. Mix lightly with a slosh of milk until combined.
7. Add a handful of chopped walnuts. You could also add pecans or dates.
8. Bake in a cake tin in a moderate oven- 160degrees c. for 1/2 - 3/4 hour until golden brown on top and cooked in the middle.

Melodius Meandering Mulberry CordialMy lovely friend, Tipi-Laura gave me a little mulberry bush years ago and it is now a colossus.
Thanks Laura.
Normally the fruit bats get most of the harvest and spray our house and car in purple poo. Making me glad we chose to paint the house in 'mulberry desire' anyway and that Mr Accordian bought a car in the same colour.
I don't really like to eat mulberries on their own because of the stalk but have made sorbet with them and now cordial, inspired by the Cascade Rasberry Cordial (yeah okay it's red cordial) we are addicted to.
You will need a bowl of fresh picked mulberries.
1. Wash the berries and put them in a saucepan and cover them with water.
2. Add a cup or so of fine white sugar and peel of half an organic lemon - use a vege peeler.
3. Simmer for one hour mashing the berries every so often.
4. Strain and cool. Pour into a bottle and refrigerate.

Drink with soda water, ice and garnish with mint for a cool summer drink. Add gin or vodka to taste... Arrange your extra mulberries in a Shannon Garson native violet dish and take in Mr Accordian's melodious meanderings.


10 comments:

Florence Forrest said...

Now I know what to do with all the mulberries on the back tree!

loved the nana cake too. It funny though I don't eat raw nanas I like Nana cake.

xx

Jean-Luc Picard said...

Though I'm not fond of nanas, they looked like great recipes.

Ramona said...

I cant tell you how much I am craving a banana. they are like the heroin of the fruit world down here they are so expensive!
mandarins jsut aren't cutting it for me anymore...

Rebecca-the-Wrecker said...

I think Cap'n Picard's been in outer space too long and forgotten the human evolutionary earth memory of bananas. Lolly bananas and banana chips are all they have in the outer galaxies I hear...

Liana Kabel said...

Recipies are just what I need right now. With The German visiting I am forced to cook proper meals every day - oh dear!

Anonymous said...

Another recipe for those heady days when bananas are cheap again! Like the idea of gin or vodka with the mulberry cordial. Rum is very good with baked bananas+butter,brown sugar and orange juice. Come on north QLD gets those bananas growing.

Rebecca-the-Wrecker said...

fruit + sugar + alcohol = fun
you can see my genetic inheritance...
liana, you must be wishing we could bring back the 70's and 80's when cooking dinner meant opening a can of apricot puree, a pack of french onion soup, a can of condensed milk and whacking it all in the oven with a half dozen chicken breasts swimming around in it. Damn that Donna Hay.

stay tuned: i'm prediciting a banana glut this xmas.

mb said...

i reckon that when you and the tupperware queen have your exhibition launch(possibly at new farm park or shorncliff)mullberry cordial should be available by the gallon and lots and lots of smashed banana cake by the way i didn't know you suffered from banana envy -it's incurable from what i'm told

Anonymous said...

cheap are bananas, the country youre in is expensive. why not grow your own banana tree?

Rebecca-the-Wrecker said...

shango- yes i have several banana trees in my yard but because of the drought, they are delivering pathetic bunches of teeny drought bananas - hence my banana envy for bananas grouwn in areas of higher rainfall..