Banana cake with cashew nuts

Last weekend, feeling better after a cold, I was in the mood for some baking: the days were cold, so turning the oven on was a very nice thing to do. I had a few bananas getting super brown on the counter and knew that they deserved to be used in something delicious, that is why I baked a banana cake with cashew nuts – I took the cake to the office on Monday, and it was a huge hit with my coworkers.

A week or so before I had bought some ingredients with a very nice baking session in mind, and after deciding to make a banana cake I grabbed the cashew nut flour and the salted, toasted cashew nuts to incorporate them into my recipe.

The cake turned out absolutely tender and moist, because of the addition of the nut flour and yogurt, and with that kind of deeply banana flavor that can only be achieved by using really ripe bananas.

I poured a quite simple glaze on the cooled cake and sprinkled it all with the chopped toasted cashew nuts – the cake turned out beautiful and the combo of flavors was spot on. The batter is prepared like a muffin batter, so no need to use a mixer or any other equipment.

When I saw the cake, I thought “well, that is a LOT of cake”, but when I saw my coworkers raving about it (and some of them getting seconds), I knew it was the right amount. 😊

 

Banana cake with cashew nuts

own recipe

 

Cake:

1 ½ cups (210g) all-purpose flour

¾ cup (75g) cashew nut flour (replace with almond flour if you like)

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon table salt

4 medium very ripe bananas (400g/14oz unpeeled)

1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon (total of 78g) granulated sugar

2 tablespoons (26g) light brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup (85g) plain yogurt (no sugar added)

½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

¼ cup (60ml) neutral vegetable oil

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons Frangelico or Amaretto – optional; they enhance the nut flavor

 

Glaze:

1 cup (140g) icing sugar

2 ½ tablespoons milk

 

Finishing touches:

½ cup (70g) salted, toasted cashew nuts, chopped

 

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350°F. Line a 20x30cm (8x12in) baking pan with foil and brush the foil with oil.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, the cashew nut flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until you get a rustic purée. Add the sugars, yogurt, butter, oil, eggs, vanilla and Frangelico/Amaretto (if using) and whisk well. Add the dry ingredients and whisk again to incorporate – do not overmix. Pour batter into prepared pan, smooth the top and bake for 30-35 minutes or until risen and golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely over a wire rack.

Glaze: sift the icing sugar into a small bowl and gradually add the milk, whisking until you get the desired consistency. Pour over the cooled cake and spread it evenly. Sprinkle with the toasted nuts.

 

Makes 24

Chocolate berry pots

It has been so insanely hot here in São Paulo lately, in the middle of the winter, to the point of affecting my mood: I know that not everyone is into cold days like me, and I also know that I live in a tropical country where it feels like summer 9 months per year, but the three winter months have been my refuge since I was a kid, the part of the year when I felt better, energized, happy about the weather. That is over, and it might be over forever, which makes me really, really sad. 

Having said that, those of you who have been around for long know that I make warm desserts even with temperatures above 30°C (86°F) and I also have to tell you that I have soup for dinner even in the summer (and I don’t like cold soups): last Saturday I made two huge pots of soup and frozen them for the week. Having soup for dinner and sweating, but all good. 😊

These chocolate pots are a very easy to make dessert, are ready very quickly and they’re delicious too! They are creamy in the middle, like chocolate fondants, and have a brownie-like crust around – I used berries and white chocolate to make them richer (I always have these berries in my freezer to make smoothies), but of course you can make the recipe without them, and also replace the white chocolate with milk chocolate, for instance.

 

Chocolate berry pots

own recipe

 

¼ cup (35g) all purpose flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

50g dark chocolate, chopped

3 tablespoons (42g) unsalted butter, chopped (at room temperature it will melt faster)

¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup (42g) white chocolate chips (feel free to use chopped white chocolate if you prefer)

50g frozen berries, unthawed

 

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Butter three ½ cup capacity ovenproof ramekins.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a small heatproof bowl, combine the dark chocolate and butter, place it over a saucepan of simmering water (do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water) and stir until melted. Remove from the heat and let it cool slightly. When lukewarm, add the sugar and whisk very well. Add the egg and whisk vigorously – the batter will become shiny and thick. Whisk in the vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula until incorporated. Stir in the white chocolate and the berries and then divide the batter evenly among the ramekins – you can add a few more berries on top if you like before baking. Place the ramekins in a baking sheet and bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with a little batter on it (the pots are creamy on the center, like chocolate fondants).

Remove from the oven, let it cool for about 10 minutes and serve – you can place each ramekin in a small dish to serve and avoid burned fingers. 😊

Serves 3

Pear, chocolate and yogurt cake and nostalgia

To me it is fun to go through my old photos for the Instagram #tbt: I don’t have many of them, but the ones I have always put a smile on my face. Weeks ago I posted a photo of my pre-adolescent self on my great-aunt Angelica’s kitchen:

 

This is the kitchen where I baked my first cake, and where I started to learn how to cook. I have so many wonderful memories from there, I was so happy in that house! I used to spend my weekends there to escape the awful and sad environment I had at home. My aunty and her daughter, my cousin Soraia, filled me with love, support, guidance… They helped me become who I am today. I was feeling so nostalgic with that photo that I felt like baking a cake! <3

 

Ever since baking the first variation of the Epicurious’ yogurt cake it has been inevitable: when I think of baking a cake I think of that perfect and so versatile recipe. Easy to make, minimal washing up, no mixer required, simple ingredients… and the result is always a delicious, tender and moist cake! I have made so many different versions of it that I lost track of how many.

 

Decided to create yet another version of that recipe, I gathered all the basic ingredients and reached out for some small pears I had purchased a couple of days before: they were not as sweet as I’d expected, so a bit of heat would do them good. I love pears with nutmeg, so I added a bit to the cake batter as well. While preparing the cake pan, I kept thinking of what would go well with the pears and dark chocolate came to mind: I chopped some, keeping the pieces a bit larger than I usually would.

 

The flavors matched perfectly, the melted chocolate pieces inside the cake are a gift in each bite and the pear cores on top are there just because I wanted to make the cake more beautiful: you can skip that step if you want, no worries.

 

Pear, chocolate and yogurt cake

another version I created for Epicurious’ perfect French yogurt cake

 

3 small pears (220g in total)

1 ½ cups (210g) all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon table salt

¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (175g in total) granulated sugar

¾ cup (180g) plain unsweetened yogurt

½ cup (120ml) flavorless vegetable oil

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

100g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (you can use chips if you prefer) – I used one with 64% cocoa solids

 

Preheat oven to 180C/350°F. Brush with oil a 6-cup capacity loaf pan (22x11cm/8.5x4.5in), line with baking paper leaving an overhang in the two longer sides and brush the paper as well.

 

Core the pears, remove the seeds and cut into about 1cm-cubes – in case you want to decorate the cake as I decorated mine, slice 2 of the 3 pears vertically close to the core, leaving the cores and the stems intact. Chop the remaining parts of pears in cubes.

 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all purpose flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.

 

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, yogurt, oil, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Fold in reserved dry ingredients keeping 1 tablespoon in the bowl – if batter is too lumpy, whisk for a few seconds; do not overmix or the cake will become tough. Add chocolate to the bowl with the remaining dry ingredients, mix well, then fold into the batter – dusting the chocolate chips/chunks with the flour mixture will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cake.

 

Pour the batter into prepared pan and smooth the top. If decorating the cake as I did, arrange the cores on top of the batter and press slightly. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a skewer or toothpick inserted into center of the cake comes out clean.

 

Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Carefully and using the paper as a guide, remove cake from pan and transfer to the rack to cool completely.

 

The cake can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

 

Serves 8-10

Apple blueberry bars and 2024 resolutions

My dear and lovely readers, I hope you are all well and having a very nice year so far. It has been a very, very long time since I last posted something on this blog, so I would be surprised if anyone stopped by, but anyway I would like to talk to you today about New Year’s resolutions (in April – I know, I know). 😊

In the beginning of 2023 I made a list of resolutions for that year and I kept it very small to avoid frustrations: I wanted to finish writing my e-book (in Portuguese) and publish it (did it on June 2), to exercise more often (still to be improved in 2024, but I started and it was very good for me) and to treat myself more kindly than I used to (this is a work in progress so it is on the 2024 list as well).

To my surprise, the e-book has sold many copies, I have received several emails and messages from people who bought it saying they loved it, also received photos of some of the recipes being prepared at my readers’ homes… It was one of the best things I had in my whole life.

By early January this year I decided to write again the list of resolutions, and again I would keep it small: one of them was to keep blogging, at least once a month, even though blogs cannot compete nowadays with Instagram and TikTok (I must be honest and say that I don’t even know how to use the latter, I’m too old for that). So far I have managed to keep that promise for my blog in Portuguese (I even posted twice back in February), therefore I will do the same with this blog in English.

I’ll start with these delicious apple blueberry bars, that were meant to be blueberry bars only, but when I checked my freezer, I saw that my blueberry stash was not as big as I thought. One look at my counter and the beautiful apples I had brought home a couple of days before almost smiled at me, begging to be used: they were the perfect pair for the blueberries and the bars turned out wonderful.

 

Apple blueberry bars

own recipe

 

Crust and topping:

2 cups (280g) all purpose flour

1/3 cup (46g) fine corn flour/corn meal (not corn starch) – if you cannot find it, replace with all purpose flour

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon fine salt

1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon (total of 78g) granulated sugar

¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

 

Filling:

2 medium Gala apples (total of 250g)

1 cup (150g) blueberries, fresh or frozen (unthawed)

¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar

1 teaspoon corn starch

pinch of salt

½ tablespoon lime or lemon juice

 

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly brush a 20cm (8in) square baking pan with butter, line it with foil leaving an overhang in two opposite sides and butter the foil as well. Set aside.

 

In a medium bowl whisk together the all purpose flour, corn flour, cinnamon, salt and sugar. Add the butter and whisk it in using a fork until you get coarse breadcrumbs texture. Transfer 2/3 of this mixture to the prepared pan and spread it evenly on the bottom. Press the mixture down onto the bottom of the pan (using your fingertips or a small measuring cup) to make the crust of the bars. Freeze the base and the remaining mixture for 10 minutes while you prep the fruit.

 

Core the apples, remove the seeds and cut into 1cm (little less than ½ inch) cubes. Transfer to a medium bowl, add the blueberries, sugar, corn starch, salt and lime/lemon juice and mix to combine.

Remove the pan and bowl from the freezer. Spread the fruit evenly over the base and sprinkle over the remaining mixture – you can squeeze portions of the mixture in your hand to create different sizes of crumbles if you like.

 

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and let cool completely over a wire rack before slicing and serving.

 

Makes 16

 

Lime poppy seed waffles and memories of traveling

Living in pandemic times is tiresome, and one of the things I miss the most is traveling: from time to time I browse the photos I took in past trips. First I thought that it would be painful to see those photos, but actually it felt really good to realize the privilege I had to know so many wonderful places. Even with the vaccination process going forward, traveling abroad will no longer be like it used to, given the Brazilian currency is completely devaluated. Traveling abroad is now only for a selected group of people, like it used to be in the past, when I was a kid and a teenager.

I look at the photos and think of the wonderful places I visited, the beautiful museums and parks, the restaurants and delicious meals I had. It makes me nostalgic, but happy at the same time.

While browsing my travel photos on a flash drive, I found a folder with recipes I made a good while ago but, for some reason, I did not post here because I did not like the photo, did not like the recipe result, or because of a certain ingredient, like these waffles: poppy seeds have been hard to find in Brazil, therefore I ended up forgetting about the recipe.

Weeks ago I was finally able to buy some poppy seeds and immediately baked an orange cake with them – after that, I posted these waffles on my blog in Portuguese, and now I post them here too. The waffles are delicious, perfumed with lime and with an extra crunch from the poppy seeds – I hope you like them.

 

Lime poppy seed waffles

own recipe, adapted from these waffles

 

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

finely grated zest of 2 large limes

1 ¼ cups (175g) all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

1 large egg, room temperature

¼ cup (60ml) extra virgin olive oil

¾ cup (180ml) whole milk, room temperature

2 teaspoons lime juice

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

 

In a medium bowl, place the sugar and lime zest and rub them together with your fingertips until sugar is fragrant. Add the flour, baking powder, poppy seeds and salt and whisk well.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, olive oil, milk, lime juice and vanilla. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir just until incorporated – do not overmix.

Heat a waffle iron until very hot; lightly coat with nonstick spray – my waffle maker is nonstick, so I do not coat it.

Working in batches, cook waffles until golden and cooked through. Transfer to a wire rack set inside a baking sheet and keep warm in oven until ready to serve.

Makes 5-6 waffles