Caribbean Slice

I very rarely bake anything for pudding requiring more than my beloved mixer and simply lining a cake tin but sometimes the urge hits me to destroy the kitchen and these did not let me down! Not sure why I chose to bake them, at the same time as making these lovely chocolate chip shortbread I saw at Cooking at Marystow, and to make dinner, as it was clearly a recipe for disaster – these slices were delicious, the shortbreads good, but the toad in hole was once again a disaster, and I have now admitted defeat. Batter will no longer be featuring within Annes Kitchen put it that way.

These slices came about as once again we had some slightly over-ripe bananas lurking in the fruit bowl, and having recently over-indulged in fruit due to over-shopping, the last thing I wanted was anything resembling fruit in its natural form! For a while I considered doing some kind of shortbread-y base, topped with the ‘nanas and then an oaty sort of topping resulting in a crumble type affair, though whilst I have squirreled that thought down for another time, didn’t really fancy it today. Another option was a banana and chocolate crumble that I’d saved a link on my favourites yonks back, unfortunately when clicking on it, it was no longer there so that was out, typical! Yet another idea was my lovely chocolate and banana muffins, though we’ve had quite a few muffins lately so it was not quite hitting the mark either.

And then I stumbled on greatness – I remembered baking a long time back a rather messy, but fabulous raspberry and coconut slice, from an old favourite blog Baking Cakes Galore, it got me looking at the bananas and my head conjuring up some sort of banana jam to replace the raspberry jam…. After mashing the bananas, with my hands, slightly ewwwy in texture but provides excellent results, it was quite gloopy and I thought it needed a little glue and remembered I still had some ground almonds knocking around from my Macarons, so added enough to lightly bind, which worked a treat. As my tin was a different shape and depth, I adjusted the quantities to what felt right, switched some of the sugar and baked it a bit longer, and a star was born! Only mild critiscim is that I should of waited for the oven to cool off a little from the t-i-t-h as it browned a little quickly at first and resulted in an awful picture, though fortunately wasn’t singed enough to affect the flavour and a good dollop of custard hides a multitude of sins! Despite appearances its also actually quite moist and fruity!

Overall I am very happy with these slices, its just perfect for pudding, its slightly different to my usual sponge and custard affair and my head is now looking at other fruit and pondering the opportunities….!

Dessicated Coconut, 100 g

Ground Almonds, 50 g

2 Bananas - Large

Caster Sugar, 40 grams

Large Free Range, 1 egg

Unsalted Butter, 60 g

Light Brown Soft Sugar, 75 g

Small, 1 egg

Bird's - Custard Powder In Tbs, 0.5 TBS

Plain Flour, 70 g

Self Raising White Flour, 11 g

1 tsp lemon juice

Pre-heat oven to 160 fan

Line a 8cm square cake tin with baking paper or parchment

Cream the butter and brown sugar until fluffy, beat in the small egg and sift in both flours, and custard powder to form a sticky dough. Press into lined tin, right up to corners and smooth over

Mash the bananas to a pulp, stir in the lemon juice and almonds and pour over base, smooth over

Beat the large egg, add the coconut and caster sugar, sprinkle over the top to form a layer

Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden all over and slightly puffed up, if browns too much reduce temperature slightly.

Keep in an airtight tin, will last maximum of a week – best eaten when warm and freshly baked though!

I must give thanks to Janice for help with the final name of this cake!