Sometimes things don’t go as planned. Yup it happens. And lately its been happening quite a lot.
While more often than not I share recipes that have worked, I have shared my failures on the blog as well. Carrot cake truffles, macaron cake – cases in point. And today I will share another one.
This crepe cake with nutella frosting.
An utter failure and waste of delicious nutella buttercream frosting.
Well……not an utter failure because it still found a way into our stomach. We as a family hardly ever waste food. And so we still ate it. Only difference is we did not relish it.
So this Banana Trifle Pudding is like my go-to, easy, no-fail recipe for a dessert that is a sure shot way to impress company or just yourself. You know, because sometimes you need that reinforcement that you are just awesome.
Its basically a vanilla cake, slathered with a generous serving of spiked up custard, a little jam, toasted walnuts and a layer of bananas, followed by the layers being repeated and then the whole thing topped with whipped cream. Delicious and no frills whipped cream.
The beauty of this dessert is the variations that could follow. You could play with the jam used. Raspberry pairs well with banana, but I have used blueberry crush as well and had amazing results. I have also used the cheap, ration brand of jam which is overtly sweet with an awful texture and I would otherwise not go near but mix it with some orange juice to add a little tang to the jam and its sweetness is reduced and the taste very much acceptable. And in the dessert a welcome ingredient.
Custard is a must, but you could make the pudding more of a banoffee by also using a little dulce de leche or a butterscotch sauce (the dulce de leche, I speak from experience, tastes heavenly). I used the powdered custard, since thats easy and less complicated. In India, there’s a brand Brown & Polson that makes it. I used the package instructions to make a free flowing custard. It was a vanilla flavored custard powder but I added some banana flavoring to it as well, for good measure. But, for true gastro-geeks go ahead make the real thing. But do add some cognac, or rum, or brandy. Because, spiked up is always better. You could also use Baileys. I have done that too. And I have not been disappointed. But then its Baileys, how can anybody be disappointed??
You could add caramelized walnuts, or just plain toasted walnuts, or just plain walnuts for an extra crunch to the dessert. Or if walnuts are not your thing, then I suggest chocolate chips, or chocolate shavings, or forget putting the chocolate in the dessert and eat it instead. I know the last option speaks to you the most. It speaks to me too.
Amidst packing at my parents’ place and cleaning the refrigerator- attempting to use left over sour cream and a batch of blueberries, and flipping through the recipes July’s Indian issue of Good Housekeeping, this moistand flavorful Blueberry and Sour Cream Loaf was made.
When I told a friend of mine that I was posting the recipe for this loaf on the blog today, the question arose what is the difference between a sweet loaf and a cake. While I answered the doubt to the best of my knowledge, I wondered what the web had to say about it and did a quick google search to find the exact difference.
The most obvious difference is the tin used to make the baked good in question. Loaf cakes are always baked in a loaf pan, whereas cakes in other square or round tins. And even though both cakes and loaf cakes share similar ingredients, the ratio of flour, fat, sugar and the mixing methods are different and make a difference in the final product.
While quick breads (like banana bread, scones and muffins) are made by combining the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry ingredients in the other and then mixing the two till just combined with few lumps, cakes are made by creaming the butter and sugar together (or by folding whipped egg whites into flour, sugar, yolks mixture- the chiffon method), lending a finer crumb to cakes. Thus, cakes are generally lighter than loafs and other quick breads. Kind of like the difference between a muffin and a cupcake, a cupcake being a mini cake and a muffin being a type of quick bread.
