Twix and Banana Cake

With all the brouhaha about Delia’s new book, “How to Cheat at Cooking”, a recipe for Twix and Banana Cake by Michelin star chef Eric Chavot, that I found in an article about “How to Cheat at French Cooking” in the Observer Monthly Food Magazine, really made me smile. Also as I can’t easily find chocolate chips or other such lovely baking goodies here, the idea of incorporating a Twix bar in a cake I found quite interesting. Eric makes his with a pound cake, which I find can be a bit dense, so I thought something a bit lighter, with more of a muffin texture, could possibly work well. It would also mean far less butter and sugar and, as you will see below, I have also gone for the still healthier option of wholewheat flour and brown sugar.

Well today was the day I decided to give it a try. A really beautiful spring day where the best place to be was at home with the house wide open and spending my time pootling around and having a bit of a lounge on the terrace. For an experiment this turned out very well. The cake had a nice open crumb and although the prominent taste was banana muffin those little pieces of Twix really shone through. The cake could have been a little deeper so perhaps a 21cm cake tin would have been the better choice ... apart from that I'm really pleased with it.

Twix and Banana Cake – Serves 8-10

275 g wholewheat flour
3 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn salt
2 (58g) packets Twix, roughly chopped
2 large eggs
150 ml milk
75 g brown sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
2 ripe bananas, roughly mashed
90 g butter, melted

Preheat oven to 190°C. Lightly butter a 23cm Springform cake tin and line the bottom with greaseproof paper, also lightly buttered on upper side.

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix in the chopped Twix.

In a separate bowl beat the eggs with a fork. Add the milk, sugar, roughly mashed bananas, and melted butter. Mix well. Pour liquid ingredients into dry mixture and stir until just combined. The batter will be lumpy but no dry flour should be visible. Spoon mixture into the prepared cake tin and sprinkle over a little brown sugar.

Bake on the centre shelf of the oven for 45 minutes, or until the cake feels springy in the centre. Allow it to cool before removing the sides of the tin. Then slide a palette knife gently under the base and transfer the cake to a wire rack to finish cooling.