Our Food Technology students have been sending in photos of their work, and we just couldn’t go past this incredible banana cake creation by Year 11 student Luci Hope. 

Luci (pictured left with her latest lockdown treats created yesterday) is an incredible baker and cake decorator. If you’d like to see more of her creations, check out her Instagram: bakedbyluci

Hungry yet? Well, here’s your chance to make Luci’s luscious banana cake. Thanks for sharing this Luci – you’ve got one of the luckiest families in lockdown!

CAKE TIN: 20cm OR 3x 12cm cake tins (which I used)

CAKE 

125g butter, softened

¾ cup White sugar

2 eggs

1 – 1 ½ cups or 3-4 mashed ripe bananas

1 tsp baking soda

2 Tbsp hot milk

2 cups standard flour

1 tsp baking powder

ICING

​2 cups icing sugar

115g butter, softened

½ tsp vanilla essence

1–2 Tbsp milk

CARAMEL SAUCE 

½ cup of sugar 

3 tbsp salted butter, cubed, room temperature 

¼ cup of whipped cream, room temperature 

DECORATION

1 sliced banana

¼ cup walnuts 

Chocolate 

Directions for the cake 

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Butter the inside of a 20cm deep round cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Add the mashed banana and mix well.
4. Stir the baking soda into the hot milk and add to the creamed mixture, then sift together the dry ingredients together and fold through the creamed mixture.
5. Scoop the mixture into the prepared tin, level the top, and bake for about 50 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly touched.
6. Leave in tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Directions for the icing 

1. Sift the icing sugar.
2. Cream the butter with half of the icing sugar, the vanilla and the milk. Beat until smooth and then gradually beat in the remaining icing sugar to give a good spreading consistency.

Directions for the caramel sauce 

1. Pour sugar into an even layer in a saucier pan.
2. Heat on medium-high heat, whisking the sugar until melted. The sugar will clump up first, but will eventually completely melt. This will take about 10 minutes.
3. Once the sugar has melted, stop whisking. Cook until the sugar has turned to a little darker amber color to get a deeper caramel flavor, if you like. The change in color will happen quickly, so don’t let it go too long or get too dark or it’ll burn. Remove caramel from the heat.
4. Add butter and whisk until combined. The mixture will bubble up, but keep whisking until all the butter has melted and combined.
5. Slowly pour the heavy cream into the caramel and whisk until incorporated. I find it can help to add just a bit at a time until the caramel starts to thin out, then you can add the rest.

Directions for decorating

1. Add walnuts, banana and chocolate  to the top of the iced cake.
2. Then drizzle caramel sauce over top of the cake.