Banana maple upside-down cake by Bill Granger

Okay, so I'm not that great at making pretty cakes, as you can see from the photograph of the plated cake at the bottom of this post. I'm also not the best at working out how to arrange bananas in a cake tin a la the photography in Bill Granger's book. Nonetheless, this Banana maple upside-down cake from Best of Bill tastes great regardless of how it looks.

Banana maple upside-down cake
from Bill Granger's Best of Bill, pp. 152-3
serves 10-12


50g unsalted butter
55g (1/4 cup) soft brown sugar
60ml (1/4 cup) maple syrup
3-4 bananas, peeled and sliced in half lengthways
100g unsalted butter, softened, extra
230g (1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
155g (1 1/4 cup) plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
vanilla ice-cream to serve

1. Preheat the over to 180 degrees Celsius. To make the topping, place the butter, brown sugar and maple syrup in a small saucepan. Cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, or until the sugar melts and the syrup is rich and golden. 

Pour the syrup into a 23cm (9 inch) greased or non-stick springform cake tin and arrange the sliced banana, cut side down, over the base of the tin. (Yes, I just noticed I put the bananas upside down, and I repeat, a logical way of arranging the bananas was completely gone to me when I was baking this cake...)

 2. To make the cake, place the extra butter and caster sugar in a bowl and beat until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition, then add the vanilla.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt and gently fold through the mixture. Spoon the batter evenly over the bananas and caramel and smooth the top with a spatula.

4. Place the cake in the oven on a baking tray to catch any escaping caramel (my tray was covered in said caramel - definitely necessary) and bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

5. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Transfer to a large serving plate. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Okay, so I know my efforts in baking this cake were poor and I made a few mistakes. Hence why there's no image of the whole completed cake as not to deter you from cooking it (the failures all being on my part, not the recipe's). But seriously, this tastes beautiful. It is lovely and moist and works a treat with vanilla ice cream. Like Liaw's Ant's nest cake, the texture is not that different to a pudding, and the crisp maple adds another degree of stunning flavour. Would I cook it again: most likely, yes.

Visit Bill Granger's website, or even better, one of his cafes

Ants' nest cake by Adam Liaw

I received the above cookbook from the family of a boy I tutored. It was one of those "We receive too much junk and need to get rid of some of it" gifts. Regardless, I was ecstatic and have been meaning to cook something from Mr Adam Liaw since that fateful day (probably back in September/October) but hadn't gotten around to it.

I had been eyeballing the iced coffee pudding with tea-smoked chocolate and five-spice tenkasu (pp. 212-3) for a while. Needless to say, the lengthy name - with all its unfamiliar ingredients - basically spelt out that the recipe may be difficult to source ingredients for, let alone cook.

So instead, I set my heart on cooking the above Ants' nest cake (apparently it's known as "honeycomb cake" in England).

The cake looked beautiful on the pages of Liaw's Two Asian Kitchens, as well as relatively cheap to make given its short list of ingredients (many of which are pantry staples). 

Ants' Nest Cake

from Adam Liaw's Two Asian Kitchens, pp. 126-7

220g caster sugar

85g unsalted butter, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs, at room temperature

125ml condensed milk

150g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

As I mentioned, the ingredient list is rather short, making cooking the cake very tempting considering that the shorter the ingredient list usually means the cheaper the end product. Of couse, I took a couple of shortcuts (I am working on a strict budget given I am both a student and live out of home) and replaced the butter and vanilla extract with Coles brand canola spread and imitation vanilla respectively.

The recipe, like the ingredients, is simple and, as it turns out, extremely easy to follow:

1. Put the sugar into a medium saucepan and heat gently, swirling the pan occasionally, until melted to a dark caramel. Reduce the heat to low and add 250ml water (it will spit, so stand back). The caramel will solidify but continue to stir over low heat until no lumps remain and you have a thin liquid caramel. Set aside to cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

 2. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Grease an 18cm round cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Cream the butter and vanilla extract in a large bowl until the butter becomes slightly pale.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs until well combined. Add the eggs, condensed milk and caramel to the creamed butter and whisk to combine. Sift together the flour and bicarbonate of soda and use the whisk to gently stir into the butter mixture. Don't worry that the butter doesn't mix in evenly - this is how it should be.

4. Pour the cake batter into the tin and leave for a minute or two. 

Bake for 50 minute or until the cake is springy to a gentle touch in the centre. Leave to cool in the tin, then run a knife around the edge before turning out.

This cake is plain beautiful. I've cooked it twice in the last week and really, there's little room for error making it the perfect cake for beginners or those, like me, who just fell back in love with baking after a long hiatus.

The cake itself is quite dense, almost like a pudding in terms of texture - deliciously soft and moist. I could imagine it would go down excellently with a butterscotch or caramel sauce. Mind you, this Ants' nest cake is extremely rich by itself, with a very strong caramel flavour. So, if you don't have an insatiable sweet tooth like me, maybe just pair it with ice cream.

And as well as tasting good, Liaw's cake looks great. The lines of caramel that make their way throughout the cake is where the name comes from. The cracked top and crisp golden flavour are likewise lovely characteristics of what is a near flawless cake.

Buy the book or visit Adam Liaw's website

Chickpea Stew with Cous Cous and Roti

I've decided I'm going to document what I cook more often. For tonight's dinner I made chickpea stew from scratch, and served it with some roti, heated up in the frypan, and Ainsley Harriot's "Spice Sensation" cous cous. I poached the recipe from a very old issue of Grazia Australia, inspired by a very tasty chickpea tagine I was involved in cooking at a friend's place.

My version of Grazia's chickpea stew was okay, but not great. I should note that I changed the ingredients slightly according to what was in my pantry - omitting the ginger, zucchini and cumin and adding capsicum. Nevertheless, this is a cheap and easy to follow recipe: the perfect meal solution for any student surviving on a very strict budget!

Chickpea Stew

Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a pan.

Fry 1/4 diced onion, 1/2 crushed garlic clove and 1/4 tsp each of coriander, cumin and turmeric.

When onion is soft, add a pinch of grated ginger, 1/4 deseeded and chopped red chilli, 100g tinned tomatoes, 200g tinned chickpeas (rinsed) and 1 sliced zucchini.

Simmer for 10 minutes.

Garnish with fresh coriander.