Bake off - banana lemon layer cake

After the tremendous interest at work in The Great British Bake Off on tv, we decided to have our very own bake off! 

As I am very competitive to a possibly unhealthy level this was a great challenge. However, after only one entry in several weeks things have died a bit of a death. So, last night I decided to have a go and was inspired by some very ripe bananas sitting in my kitchen - I'm a green banana person and they were only going in the bin otherwise! 

I set about finding a recipe for a banana based cake and came across a banana, walnut and lemon icing layer cake. I liked the sound of this sophisticated take on a banana loaf which also looks a lot more enticing that a plain banana loaf. The lemon icing really lifts the cake, and the walnuts add a good crunch. 

I actually halved the quantity of icing as the original recipe said to cover the whole cake which I thought would be a bit too sweet. If you did want to make it that way just double the quantity of the ingredients (increase icing sugar to 500g) and spread a third of the icing on the first layer leaving two thirds for outside.

The most important thing is it went down well at work and secured me a score of 53 out of 60!

Photo courtesy of David Smith - thanks Dave!

Banana lemon layer cake

INGREDIENTS
250g plain flour
1 1/2 baking powder
1/2 tspn salt
115g butter, softened
225g granulated sugar
75g soft light brown sugar
2 medium eggs
1/2 tspn grated lemon zest
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 tspn vanilla essense
60ml milk
75g chopped walnuts
pared lemon zest to decorate

For the icing
60g butter, softened
200g icing sugar
1/2 tspn grated lemon zest
25-45ml lemon juice

1) Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas 4. Grease two 23cm round cake tines and line the bases with greaseproof paper and grease the paper. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt

2) Cream the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, then stir in the grated lemon zest

3) In a small bowl mix the mashed bananas with the vanilla essence and milk. Add the banana mixture and dry ingredients to the butter mixture alternately in two or three batches and stir until just blended. Fold in the nuts.

4) Divide the mixture between the cake tins. Bake for 30-35mins, let stand for 5 mins then turn out on to a wire rack.

5) Make the icing. Cream the butter until smooth then gradually beat in the icing sugar. Stir in the lemon zest and enough juice to make a spreadable consistency.

6) Out one of the cake layers on a serving plate. Cover with half the icing. Top with the second layer cake and spread the remaining icing evenly over the cake and decorate with the pared lemon zest.

The recipe is taken from Cakes and Cake Decorating, by Angela Nilsen, Sarah Maxwell and Janice Murfitt.

Extra tips/info:
1) Weigh the cake tins when dividing the mixture to get exactly equal quantities.
2) I used a Microplane fine grater for the zest which I recently acquired and I have to say it is amazing - extremely fine zest and a pleasure to use!