Makes: 8 inch cake (4 layers)

Time required: 5 hours in total

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Inspiration:

After brainstorming ideas for an upcoming birthday cake, I decided to draw inspiration from one of my favourite snacks at work – banana & chocolate croissants from the amazing Joel Robuchon. The croissants are a great afternoon snack – deliciously flaky pastry, filled with light banana custard … lightly sweetened with chocolate.

The elements making up this cake are:

• four layers of banana cake
• Almond and hazelnut dacquoise to add some texture
• chocolate ganache to sweeten the cake
• meringue buttercream
• Decorations: dried pineapple flowers, torched meringue, chocolate shards

Ingredients:

Banana Cake:

• 6 bananas
• 250g plain flour
• 100g almond meal
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 200g butter, softened
• 150g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2tsp vanilla
• 300ml sour cream

Almond dacquoise:

• 90g almond meal
• 90g pure icing sugar
• 4 egg whites
• 90g caster sugar
• 20g cocoa powder
• crushed hazelnuts. to sprinkle

Chocolate gananche:

• 150g dark chocolate
• 150ml cream

Meringue butterncream

• 4 egg whites
• 360g caster sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 450g butter
• 1tsp vanilla
• 20g cocoa powder

Chocolate drip:

• 150g dark chocolate
• 200g butter

Decorations:

• dried pineapple slices
• chocolate shards
• merginue

Instructions:

Banana Cake:

1. preheat oven to 180C. Butter two 8 inch round baking pans
2. mash ripe banana with a fork and set aside
3. whisk together the flour, almond meal and baking powder
4. in a separate bowl, beat butter until smooth. add sugar and beat until pale and fluffy
5. add eggs one at a time into the bowl and whisk to combine
6. add in vanilla and combine
7. mix in half the dry ingredients
8. mix in sour cream
9. fold in the remaining flour mixture
10. fold in the banana until just combined
11. divide the cake batter evenly into the two tins and bake for 25 minutes
12. place the baked cake on a wire rack to cook and then turn out after 10 minutes to cool completely

Almond Dacqouise:

1. preheat oven to 200C
2. sift almond meal with icing sugar and cocoa powder
3. in a separate bowl, whisk egg whites with caster sugar until stiff peaks form
4. gently fold in the almond mixture
5. sprinkle with crushed hazelnuts
6. pipe the mixture onto a baking sheet (make 3 x 8 inch discs to layer between the banana cakes) and bake for 24 minutes or until the dacquoise doesn’t sink when touched

Chocolate ganache:

1. bring the cream to boil over low-med heat
2. pour boiling cream over the chocolate and set aside for 2 minutes
3. mix together the chocolate and cream

Meringue buttercream:

1. bring the sugar to boil with 1/2 cup water
2. while whisking the egg whites on maximum speed, pour the sugar syrup in a slow steady stream
3. continue to mix on high until the meringue cools and forms stiff peaks
4. whisk in the butter until well combined
5. add vanilla and cocoa powder and whisk to combine

Chocolate drip:

1. melt chocolate over double boiler
2. stir in butter to melt

Assembling the cake:

layer the cake in the following order from bottom to top:

• banana cake (cut each of the 8 inch cakes in half to create 4 layers of banana cake)
• chocolate ganache
• almond dacquoise
• meringue buttercream
• repeat until all layers of banana cake are used
• coat the entire cake in the meringue buttercream – to create an ombre/rustic effect, split the buttercream into 3 batches and colour each batch a different shade of brown
• pipe on the chocolate drip
• top with decorations: dried pineapple flowers, torched meringue, chocolate triangles

 

 

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