Banana Fudge Loaf.

This loaf cake is a staple from my childhood. My mum used to make it very occasionally and it was always a great treat! A word of warning though, it is very rich!
I made this for a party and the whole thing was gone in under 5 minutes. The combination of the bananas and fudge is a real killer and the cake is lovely and moist. A real show stealer for guests. If you've got time you can probably make the icing a bit neater than I did, but you have to be very quick as I found it sets almost immediately so the fudge won't swirl in easily!

Banana Fudge loaf

Ingredients

Cake:

115g / 4oz spreadable butter
175g/ 6oz soft brown sugar
4 bananas
2 eggs (beaten)
225g / 8oz self raising flour
50g / 2oz glace cherries
115g / 4oz vanilla fudge

Icing:

115g / 4oz icing sugar
115g / 4oz vanilla fudge (chopped)
2 tsp milk (or more or less for preference)
1-4tbsp warm water

Oven: 160c / gas mark 3

Tin: 900g/ 2lb loaf tin, greased. You can also use a strip of parchment in the bottom and up the sides to make it easier to remove the loaf from the tin.

• Peel, chop and mash the bananas
  
• Roughly chop the cherries
  
• chop the fudge, set aside
  
• Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl
• Add all the other main cake ingredients barring the fudge.
• Mix well with either a wooden spoon of a hand mixer on a low setting
• Fold the fudge into the mixture
• Pour into the tin and bake for around 1-1.30 hours depending on your oven.
• Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly in the tin, and then turn out onto a cooling rack.
• Once the loaf has cooled, mix the icing sugar with 1tbsp of water at a time until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
• Melt the fudge over a pan of hot water, stirring.
  
• Add the milk to achieve a smooth consistency
  
• Pour the icing over the loaf and spread it with the back of a spoon
• Swirl the melted fudge into the icing (this is harder to get neat than it may at first seem).
• Make patterns in the fudge with a toothpick if you want!
• Leave in the fridge or a cool place until the icing sets.
• Serves 5-15, depending on how greedy your friends are feeling.

Mmmm, look at that slice, lovely and moist and fudgey.
Caution, do not show to any people who may be on a diet. They will not like you.

Simple Apple crumble recipe + streusel loaf experiment

Apple surfeit? Don't mind if I do. Yes, it is, yet again, a post involving apples (a lot) and cinnamon (a little). Well, in my defense they do taste great together.
So, while I was visiting my parents, I thought I would make my dad an apple streusel cake. But my mother didn't have any small sandwich tins. She did, however, have a 1lb loaf tin. So I thought I'd try using that.
Unfortunately, she also has a fan oven. Mine is gas and old as the earth. So my time conversions were a little off and it got a wee bit burnt on the outside as you can see below. It still tasted good though.


It also tasted pretty damn good served with cream. I may try serving it with ice cream next time.




So, basically, the aforementioned apple streusel cake recipe works well enough in a small loaf tin, but you do need to fudge the cooking times a wee bit.

Anyway, after I had made that, I had some streusel topping and apples left. I didn't want to waste them, so I thought "Ooo. Apple crumble".
Of course I had no recipe, so I just made one up. Below is the basic recipe, but it can generally be adjusted to taste, I imagine.


Basic apple crumble

Ingredients:

3 apples
1 tsp cinnamon
handful raisins
1 tbsp brown sugar

Crumble topping:

2 tbsp butter
40g sugar
58g plain flour
(these measurements are approximate. If the crumble is too sticky, add more flour, if it is too dry, add more butter.)

Preheat oven to 180c

1. Peel, core and slice the apples
2. Place in a saucepan with the cinnamon, raisins, brown sugar and enough water to cover them.
3. Cover and stew till soft
4. While the apples are stewing, rub the flour into the butter until it forms crumbs.
5. Stir the sugar into the flour mixture
6. Spoon the apple mixture into a 15cm pyrex dish and cover with the crumble
7. Sprinkle some extra sugar and cinnamon on top to taste
8. Bake in the oven for around 40 minutes or until golden brown

This dish is best served warm with either cream or ice cream. As you can see below, it is very popular and when you come back to take a photo of it most of it may have disappeared.