If we are what we eat, I am awfully sweet!
Hello peeps!
So I had shared a banana cake recently, and I couldn’t wait until I penned down this post for the layer cake I made with that cake! But things happened and real life took over while blogging life was forgotten a bit . i know my resolution of new recipes every week is kinda slipping away but will make up for the lapse in the weeks to come !
Lets talk cake!
Now this is a sugar bomb of a cake. And I mean that literally! There is banana cake, there is dark chocolate ganache, then there is salted caramel sauce, then there is more cake and more ganache and more caramel, and then there is more cake… OK, u get my drift!
Chocolate and caramel go really well together, so do banana and caramel (need to make a banoffee pie one of these days!), and ofcourse chocolate and banana too. So I just put them all together in this whopper of a cake. The darkness of the chocolate balances out all the sweetness a little bit and the wee bit of salt in the caramel sauce does its bit too.
The outsides of this cake is a little bit of a fail as I was in a rush to finish it and the caramel sauce was a little too thick to nicely drip along the sides like I wanted to. So I just did this random criss cross on the top as a sad excuse for cake decoration!
But hey, it’s what’s on the inside that matters more right. And the insides totally redeem the cake (and me!)
Banana , caramel and chocolate layer cake
Ingredients
For the banana cake
- 190 grams or 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour or maida
- 150 grams or 3/4 cup granulated or caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup mashed banana about 2 large size bananas
- 1 egg at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 120 ml or 1/2 cup milk at room temperature
- 60 ml or 1/4 cup curd or yoghurt at room temperature
- 60 ml or 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons hot water
For the salted caramel sauce
- 150 grams or 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 60 ml or 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup cream I used Amul
- 60 ml or 1/4 cup milk
- 56 grams or 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 tsp vanilla optional
For the dark chocolate ganache
- 500 grams dark chocolate
- 300 ml or 1 1/4 cups low fat cream
Instructions
To make the cake
- Preheat the oven to 180 C / 350 F. Butter/oil and flour two 6 inch round pans. Line the bottom with parchment paper (optional)
- In a bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients - flour, sugar , baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In another bowl , whisk together the wet ingredients - mashed banana, milk , yoghurt , egg , oil , vanilla and water - until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients and whisk only until you cant see flour anymore.
- Pour batter into prepared pan(s) .
- Bake at 180 C/350 F for 35 to 45 minutes until the cake springs back when pressed and the edges leave the sides of the pan. A toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake will come out clean.
- Cool in pan for 5 minutes, carefully remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
To make the salted caramel sauce
- Measure out your milk , cream and butter and keep ready .
- Heat the sugar and water in a thick bottomed saucepan (the wider the saucepan, the faster this will happen) on medium heat until sugar dissolves . Swirl the pan if necessary, but don't stir.
- Once sugar is dissolved , keep heating it until it changes colour to an amber colour. This may take from a couple of minutes to 7-8 minutes depending on your saucepan and heat.
- Once you get an amber colour and at the first whiff of smoke, add the butter, cream , salt and milk while stirring with a spatula or wooden spoon. When you add, the mixture will bubble up like crazy. This is because the other ingredients are cold compared to the hot caramel. Be careful . The bubbling will settle down in a minute.
- Keep heating and stirring until the butter dissolves and the mixture becomes smooth.
- Take off heat and mix in the vanilla and salt
- Pour into your storing jar or container and chill in the fridge until cool . It will thicken as it cools.
To make the ganache
- Chop up the chocolate as evenly and as small as possible.
- Place the chocolate in a small bowl.
- Heat the cream in a saucepan until it just starts bubbling.
- Pour the cream over the chocolate , and let rest for a minute.
- Stir until all chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth and glossy.
- Let rest at room temperature until set (scoopable).
To assemble
- Slice each cooled cake horizontally into 2 layers using a serrated knife.
- Fill about 1/4 cup of the ganache into a piping bag and snip of the corner.
- Place one layer of cake on a cake plate or board.
- Spread about 2-3 tablespoons ganache on the cake .
- Pipe a ring of ganache along the edge of cake ( this acts as a dam so the caramel doesnt ooze outside)
- Spread about 1/4 cup sauce or lesser inside this ganache dam.
- Place second cake layer on top and press gently.
- Spread ganache, pipe ganache dam and spread caramel sauce. Repeat until the last cake layer is on top.
- Spread ganache on top and sides of cake . Chill for 10 minutes.
- Apply more ganache and smoothen sides and top. Decorate as desired
Notes
Ganache and Salted caramel sauce can be made a week in advance , and the cake upto 3 days in advance.
Adjust salt in sauce as per taste.
I have used a ratio of about 1.5 :1 for the sauce. You may need more chocolate (2:1) if it is hotter.
My measuring cup is 240 ml.
This is a cake for the die hard sweet tooths (sweet teeths?) out there. In fact, I made it for a friend of mine who has a humongous love for all things sugar. She loved It to no need. I hope u like it as much!
Thanks Guys, Your Recipe Was Too Fantastic. Me and My Family Loved it. I Will Share your Rrecipe with my friends. Hope they will love it too.
Thank you so much !