Scrummy Banana Pecan Loaf

Absolutely delish banana, pecan and golden syrup loaf.

Gluten and dairy free.  Totally delish.  Started at 8 am, baked at 8pm!  Life interrupted.  A lovely Sunday. How lovely if we could sit and have a cuppa and a slice together, eh?



 

The BEST Coffee and Walnut Cake

On Sunday I had a rare day with not much on, so I thought I'd bake a cake.  I went through a stage of baking a cake every weekend a while back, but that had gone by the wayside recently.  But I just felt like something super yummy to have with a morning coffee.  I was totally inspired by a new cookbook I bought recently - it is so mouth-watering, I just drool over the pages as I flick through.  I've declared to myself I will systematically bake every recipe in the book - a bit of a Julie/Julia Child thing.  No pressure Sooze..I mean I didn't set a time frame.  I think I might set a counter up and count down the number of recipes in the book...mmm I just need to figure out how to do that! 

 

I won't keep you in suspense any longer................

 

 

 

here's what it looked like from the top....

 

 

and side

 

 

 

 

It was to-die-for-delicious and got the biggest thumbs up from my girls. Totally gluten-free.

 

Thanks Julia Thomas from Cake Angels

 

 

Epic baking fail....aka lemon brick cake

You know that saying "When all else fails bake a cake"........well what happens when the cake fails? 

My Sunday baking was a Lemon Drizzle Cake - a gluten free version.  All mixed in a food processor, whacked in the tin and the oven - easy peasy. 

First sign of impending disaster was that the mixture curdled in the food processor.  Mmmmm I stood and looked and considered this...do I add more flour?  No I think I'll soldier on being my first attempt at the recipe.  Put it in the silicone loaf pan and slid it into the oven.  Watching it carefully as my oven is awful.  I really must get someone out to look at it.  It was browning up very quickly but sloppy as all get out.  The butter was bubbling all around it.  Was that the silicone baking tin?  (It's not a tin, but what else do you call them?)  I bought it recently as I needed a loaf pan of a certain size.  Don't know why, I don't like using silicone.  I went against my better judgement and got talked into it by the shop assistant and I needed one to make my gluten free bread and it was all they had.  (Still haven't made the bread!). Anyway I think I'll donate it and get myself a tin tin...

I tested the cake and the top half was sloppy and the bottom solid.  I thought "oh no' it's burning on the bottom.  But perservered until the top was the tested properly. So finally I pulled it out and drizzled the drizzle over it and left it to cool completely in the pan.

It didn't look too bad when I turned it out....

The top half was edible....so we nibbled away at that...real cake desperados that we are!

and played and sculpted it....

It looks like a barge or oil tanker, don't you think?  Although this one would sink without a trace.  The bottom half was just a solid slab - reminiscent of the concrete slab out extension is built upon.

So all was not lost completely... we managed to have some fun with it.  I'm wondering whether to try again, but not use the food processor and make it by steps, that is, cream the butter and sugar add an egg and then the rice flour etc etc. That way I can keep an eye on it, oh and use one of my trusted cake tins, not the new fangled silicone. 
so all is not lost when the cake fails too!