DATE CARAMEL BANANA SANDWICH CAKE

I’m very thankful to Mother Nature for providing mankind with two of the best things in the world, joint winners with hair straighteners – dates and bananas. Not only do they taste diiiilicious as they are, you can also turn them into whatever the hell you want, from syrup to cakey things to egg substitutes to healthy caramel to generic baking usefulness (!), and all you need, if anything, is a (beloved) blender. High five Mother Nature! The following is a banana and date feast, in the form of a vegan banana cake with date caramel filling. It tastes good, it’s moist and sweet, it could be worse for you, and it looks proper, doesn’t it. Sponsored by Mother Nature.

Notes: This recipe makes two 10 cm/4” mini cakes (which I sandwiched), but you can double the recipe (for the cake, but also caramel filling) and adjust the cooking time to 30-35 minutes if you want to make a bigger one. It means double cake feast.

DATE CARAMEL BANANA SANDWICH CAKE

 

125g (1 cup) wholemeal self-raising flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

75g (heaped 1/3 cup) soft brown sugar

125ml (1/2 cup+1 tablespoon) soya milk or other non-dairy milk

50ml (scant ¼ cup) coconut oil, melted, or other flavourless oil

2 over-ripe small bananas, mashed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Date caramel:

160g (1 cup) dates, pitted

60g (1/4 cup) coconut oil

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and lightly grease your cake tin(s). In a bowl, sift in the flour, add sugar(s), baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and mix well. In a separate bowl, mix together milk, melted coconut oil, mashed bananas (I left a few bigger chunks) and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together until combined. Pour the batter into the tin(s) and bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes, then take out of the tin and leave to cool completely. In the meantime, make the date caramel. Simply blend pitted dates, coconut oil and vanilla extract together until everything is thoroughly combined and has a thick caramel-like consistency. Add a bit of water if the mixture is too thick. Once the cake has completely cooled, spread half the caramel on top of one layer, then place the other on top. Spread the remaining half on top of the cake. If the caramel has solidified a bit, just warm it up and it’ll be easier to spread. Decorate with banana chips if you like, then serve and worship Mother Nature for providing us with bananas and dates, foods of deities.