Banana and Honey Teabread

I don’t know if I‘m alone on this one but does anyone else get excited when their bananas go ripe? I love any excuse to try out new and different versions of banana bread. Yesterday afternoon after doing all my house chores I decided to spend an afternoon in my kitchen and do some baking for my boys. Plus hubby is working from home for the rest of this week and I know how much he loves having my home-baked goodies to have with his cups of tea and coffee. This Banana and Honey Teabread caught my eye with the great combo of ingredients and delivered a whole new banana bread experience. It’s super moist and lusciously light. Perfect for those tea breaks!

Banana and Honey Teabread

Ingredients
225g self-raising flour
¼ level teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
100g butter
225g bananas
100g caster sugar
Grated rind of 1 lemon
2 large eggs
6 tablespoons thick pale honey

For the topping
2 tablespoons honey
Nibbed sugar or crushed sugar cubes, for sprinkling (I used granulated sugar)

Preheat the oven to 160oC/fan 140oC/Gas 3. Lightly grease a 900g/2lb loaf tin then line the base with baking parchment.

Measure the flour and nutmeg into a large bowl and rub in the butter using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Peel and mash the bananas and stir into the flour mixture, along with the sugar, lemon rind, eggs and honey. Beat well until evenly mixed, then turn into the prepared tin and level the surface.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 ¼ hours or until a fine skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cover the teabread loosely with foil during the end of the cooking time if it is browning too much. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack.

To make the topping, gently warm the honey in a small pan then brush over the top of the cold teabread. Sprinkle with the nibbed sugar.

Apple and Cinnamon Cake

In the UK the first day of autumn falls in September and runs through to December and it has to be said that autumn is my favourite season! Apples come into their own in autumn, with the cooking apple being one of them. I am not short of cooking apples at the moment and my family and friends have been enjoying apple crumbles, pies and cakes galore. My mother in law has an apple tree in her garden which was brimming with apples, hence why I have enough cooking apples to keep me busy in the kitchen baking up a storm! Yesterday I received a couple of new cookbooks from my recent late night browsing session on Amazon and this recipe happened to be the first I landed on, must have been fate! This cake is incredibly yummy and is wonderful served warm with custard, cream or clotted cream.

Apple and Cinnamon Cake=A slice of comfort

Apple and Cinnamon Cake

Recipe adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

Ingredients:

225g softened butter

225g light muscovado sugar

3 large eggs

100g walnut pieces, chopped

100g sultanas

225g self-raising flour

2 level tsp baking powder

400g cooking apples, peeled, cored and grated

1 level tsp ground cinnamon

To Finish:

light muscovado sugar, for sprinkling

extra chopped walnuts, for sprinkling

icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180oc/Fan 160oC/Gas 4. Grease and base line a 9 inch (23 cm) deep round cake tin with baking parchment.

Measure the butter, sugar, eggs, chopped walnuts, sultanas, flour and baking powder into a large bowl and beat well for about 2 minutes until thoroughly blended.

Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin then spread the grated apple and ground cinnamon in an even layer on top. Spread the remaining cake mixture on top, level the surface then sprinkle generously with light muscovado sugar and walnuts.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 1 ¼ - 1 ½ hours or until the cake is well risen and golden brown. Leave to cook in the tin for a few minutes then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

I had to share these pics of my gorgeous cat Madison whose been such a comfort to me in the recent weeks since Ollie's passing. His unconditional love for me never ceases to amaze me and his truly special! Here he is doing what he does best, being cute and posing for the camera.

"To some blind souls all cats are much alike. To a cat lover every cat from the beginning of time has been utterly and amazingly unique."