Bahama Mama banana rum cake

Recipe adapted from here

For the cake

Pecans- 3/4th cup

Butter, unsalted- 1 1/2 cups, at room temperature

Caster sugar- 1 3/4 cups

Brown sugar- 3/4th cup

Eggs- 5 medium

Banana- 1 cup, mashed (very ripe)

Vanilla extract- 2 tsp

Dark rum- 3 tbsp

Plain flour- 3 cups

Baking soda- 1 tsp

Baking powder- 1 tsp

Salt- 1 tsp

Yoghurt- 3/4th cup

Rum glaze

Butter- 1/2 cup

Water- 1/4 cup

Brown sugar- 1/4 cup

Caster sugar- 1/4 cup

Dark rum- 1/2 cup

Preheat oven to 175C and generously grease a large bundt pan with cooking spray or butter. Make sure you get it into the creases if its not the basic tube bundt.

Lightly toast the pecans in a pan over medium heat.  Roughly chop and sprinkle at the bottom of the bundt pan. Keep aside

In a large bowl, using a hand held mixer, cream together the butter and both sugars till light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition followed by mashed bananas, vanilla and rum. Mix well.

Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and using the lowest setting on the mixer mix well till no traces of flour is seen.

Finally beat in the yoghurt and pour the batter into the cake pan, and bake in the centre rack of the oven for about 60 to 80 minutes, or till a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, make the rum glaze.

Mix all the ingredients for the glaze in a saucepan on medium high heat and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to medium and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and keep warm.

Once the cake is done, transfer to a wire rack and cool for about five minutes.

Poke holes in the cake and pour half the glaze all over as evenly as possible.

Cool for a further five minutes and then invert on to a serving plate.

Spoon the remaining glaze on to the cake, bit by bit and let it stand till all the glaze has been absorbed. 

Wait till the cake cools completely to slice and serve.

Notes: The cake has a really strong flavour of rum. Omit the rum in the glaze if you are not a rum fan.

Use good, ripe bananas and this cake will be fabulous. I used the Indian bananas as opposed to the ones you get in the supermarkets here.

Jewish honey cake

This is a favourite cake of mine.Period.

I should seriously just stop with that and let the recipe speak. But obviously I cant just leave it at that. Its a cake I had posted long back and has fetched brilliant results all the time. 

Its a one bowl cake that is really easy to make and you get a spongy, moist cake perfect on its own. The first time I baked it, I had halved the recipe and still managed to get a large-ish cake. But this time I was baking it to give away some to my neighbour and so made the actual quantity and it came out as a dense and heavy cake, which I am just going to blame on the bundt pan I used as opposed to a pan with a larger circumference.

I was a wee bit disappointed by its fudgy texture (others begged to differ), but after a day of keeping it at room temperature, it actually was quite nice. I mean not that it was not nice right out out of the oven, but a little too rich for my liking, especially because I like my cakes light and airy with tea.

I would definitely not bake this in a bundt pan again, and halve it and bake two separate cakes if I want the entire quantity. So here's the recipe for one of my absolute favs. If you want to see the difference in the texture  check out my initial recipe here

Recipe adapted from here (makes one large 9 inch bundt cake)

Plain flour- 3 1/2 cups

Baking powder- 3/4 tbsp

Baking soda- 1 tsp

Salt- 1/2 tsp

Cinnamon powder- 3 tsp

Ground cloves- 1/2 tsp

Vegetable oil- 1 cup

Honey-1 cup

Granulated sugar- 1 1/2 cup

Dark brown sugar- 1/2 cup

Eggs- 3 

Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Warm coffee- 1 cup (dissolve 1 tsp instant coffee/ espresso in 1 cup warm water)

Orange juice- 1/2 cup

In a large mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon powder and ground cloves.

Make a well in the centre and add all the remaining ingredients.

Using a wooden spoon first mix in all the ingredients (to prevent a mess really) and then either use a hand blender or use paddle attachment in a free standing mixer and mix away till all the ingredients come together.

Make sure you scrape the sides and bottom so nothing sticks.

Once you have a well blended mix, pour into a well greased pan and bake in an oven pre heated at 176C for 60 to 75 minutes.

Do the skewer test and if it comes out clean then transfer the pan on to a cooling rack and after about 10-15 minutes, unmold and wait till its completely cool to cut a slice.

if you want, you can dust some icing sugar on top. Not really required as the cake is incredibly sweet.

Notes: Original recipe calls for a 1/4 cup of whiskey and almonds to be scattered on top of the cake. I avoided both.

Make sure the coffee is warm and not hot, as it could cook the egg

Increase or decrease the cinnamon powder as per taste. The first time i tried it, I thought the cinnamon was a bit over powering, but this time I was pretty OK with it

Make sure you properly grease your baking tray, as its a bit stubborn when you unmold.