Banana cake with chocolate chips

I had been dying to bake this cake for ages, but my boyfriends doesn't like it (at least he claims he doesn't), which makes baking it a very dangerous thing for me to do. The reason it's dangerous is that if this cake is in my kitchen, I WILL eat it, and within long I will have devoured an entire cake. I could freeze it, but what can be frozen can be defrosted, within minutes with the help of a microwave oven, so that won't help. It will call my name from the freezer, and I will do its bidding. 

I considered inviting some friends over, but that's pretty much impossible for me these days, since my exams are claiming my every waking minute. That's why the other day, when a couple of my colleagues at work were jokingly trying to get each other to bring cake, I screamed with excitement, "I will!". Not sharing my love of spending time in the kitchen, they asked me if I was serious, but soon understood that I was. Very serious. As one of them left work a few hours later, she casually suggested that I bake banana cake and was once again baffled by my excitement when I screamed, "thats EXACTLY what I had in mind!"

When this was first served to me by my very best sugar-loving buddy, I immediately asked for the recipe. Every time I have served it to friends since, someone has asked for the recipe. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

FYI: In spite of the addition of fruit, this cake is packed full of calories. Ye be warned!

This portion was big enough to feed my entire office. It can easily be halved, in which case I normally bake it in a 31x11 centimetre bread tin. This one I baked in a 35x25 centimetre baking tray. 

Banana cake with chocolate chips:

280 grams salted butter (Soft)

360 grams sugar

6 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

The seeds from half a vanilla pod

360 grams of plain flour

5 ripe bananas (the riper the better)

100 grams dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

In a bowl, mix together butter and sugar, and whisk until white and fluffy. Add the eggs and stir well. Add baking powder, bicarbonate, cinnamon, vanilla seeds and flour, and mix thoroughly. In another bowl, mash up the bananas and add them to the dough, followed by the roughly chopped chocolate. Pour the dough into a tin lined with baking paper, and bake in a preheated oven for 35-40 minutes (Maybe more, maybe less, depending on your oven).

Leave to cool, if you can wait that long!

Kanelsnegle (Danish cinnamon buns)

Variations of sweet buns with a sticky cinnamon filling exist all over the world. In Denmark we call them cinnamon snails, and I have never known a single person who doesn't like them! Me and my best sugar-loving buddy agree that the only right topping is white frosting. Chocolate frosting on cinnamon snails is just insane!

My before mentioned sugar-loving buddy and I shared these in a nearby park, lounging in the grass under a shining sun, doing absolutely nothing. Life is good.

Kanelsnegle (Danish cinnamon buns):

100 grams butter
250 ml milk
25 grams fresh yeast
2 eggs
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
600 grams flour

Filling:

150 grams soft butter (yes, by now you've used an entire 250 gram tub. Mmmm)
100 ml sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

For the dough, melt the 100 grams of butter in a saucepan and add the milk. When the mixture is lukewarm, pour into a bowl, crumble in the yeast and stir until the yeast is dissolved.  Stir in the 2 eggs, the sugar and the salt. Add the flour and knead well. If it's too sticky, add more flour. Be careful not to add too much though - stop just as it stops sticking to your fingers. Leave in a warm place to rise for about an hour.

In the meantime, use a fork to mix the soft butter, the sugar and the cinnamon in a bowl.

When the dough has grown to approximately double size, punch it down and roll it out to form a big rectangle, maximum one centimetre thick. Using a knife or a spatula, spread the filling evenly over the dough. Roll the dough up like a Swiss roll, long ways, so the rolled up dough is the length of the long edge. Cut the roll into one centimetre pieces, fold the lose end under the bun and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Leave them to rise for another 15 minutes while you preheat your oven to 200 degrees C. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. If you want, wait til they've cooled down and drizzle with frosting made from icing sugar and water.

Perfect rainy afternoon!

Ok, so today wasn't really that rainy, but it was grey and it did rain a little bit. Also, I was trying to come up with excuses so that I didn't have to revise, so when my Adam suggested we make pancakes, how could I possibly say no?

Pancakes are dangerously easy to make, and I almost always have all the ingredients, which does mean I make them slightly too often. When I've been clever and not bought any sweets or puddings to avoid temptation, chances are I will have eggs, milk and flour, and within half an hour, I'll find myself eating half a portion of pancakes. This recipe makes about ten thin pancakes on my regularly sized IKEA pan.

Pancakes:

350 ml flour
400 ml milk
3 eggs
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp water

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, stir well, and fry in butter for about one minuter on each side. Add rain running down your window for optimum enjoyment.