Sunday 26 May 2013

Pink Banana Cake!

Tortina di Rabarbaro & Banana
Rhubarb & Banana Breakfast Cake


Oh, I know it is not really pink and that the rhubarb is the only pinkish thing about it- but to look at it, you would never know banana was in my yummy breakfast cake... until you tasted it!
I had prepared the rhubarb last night- it was another "midnight special" as I like to call it, where I put the marinated rhubarb into a hot oven, turn it off, and let it bake in the residual heat overnight... best method ever for rhubarb!

So I really didn't have too much work to do this morning! I just had to decide what to do with my bowl of tender, juicy and delicious rhubarb. A pie seemed like too much work for just one person- and as usual, I was on a quest to avoid fat and sugar. Tadah! Another of my 1 egg wonders- which amazingly turned into a large and satisfying enough little cake to easily serve two. Oh well... or one of ME of course ;-)



So let me quickly recap on the rhubarb. I added a couple of teaspoonfuls of red berry preserves to 5-6 peeled and chopped rhubarb stalks. I then added 1 tablespoon of honey and 1 teaspoon of Stevia, 4-5 tablespoons of water and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. I stirred this together to get everything equally coated, added a little piece of vanilla pod and popped it all into the oven, which I had heated up to maximum temperature for 10-15 minutes beforehand. In it went, for 5 minutes at first to get nice and hot, and then I turned the oven off and went to bed, leaving it to finish baking gently overnight in the remaining heat. In the morning the rhubarb was perfect and the syrup surrounding it just divine! Like I said- my all-time favorite way of preparing rhubarb!

So basically I decided to make and upside-down, upside-down cake today ;-) Meaning that I did put the rhubarb on top rather than the other way around. Funnily enough, as far as I know, it is only upside-down cake that exists... I have never heard of a "right way-up" cake in any case! But I digress!

To make it I cracked 1 egg into a bowl, added 4 tablespoons of yogurt, half of a banana, mashed, 1 tablespoon of baking powder, a teaspoon of baking soda, 2 heaped tablespoons of flour, 1 tablespoon of honey, 1 teaspoon of Stevia, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, a tiny squeeze of lemon and of course that tiny pinch of salt! This all went into a bowl together and got whisked together for 5 minutes until it became a lovely, thick batter. I let is sit for 4-5 minutes, whilst I turned the oven on to 300° and lightly greased a small, deep frying pan... basically because I didn't have a cake tin and also because it's just so much fun to give this kind of thing a kick-start on the stovetop! And then I added the other half of the banana, which I cut into a relatively fine dice and stirred in thoroughly.

So in went the batter and after 3-4 minutes, it began to puff up nicely and to form a firm base. At this point I began to spoon the rhubarb on top, drizzling it lightly with the syrup and getting it nicely and evenly distributed. After 3-4 minutes on the stove top, I popped it into the oven for something like 20-25 minutes, until a wooden skewer came out cleanly with just a couple of crumbs. I let it cool for 10-15 minute, but did serve it warm, with a little additional trickle of  syrup to keep the rhubarb moist and juicy... and I have to say that the mild banana in the cake base tasted wonderful together with the tangy rhubarb- yay! You may well convert the most ardent of rhubarb haters with this one folks! It was pretty incredible!

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