Banana Raspberry Bread with Lime Cream Cheese Icing

When a dash of love is added to cooking, it is instantly transformed into something infinitely more palatable. I think real cooking is love-it's giving. When I say real cooking, I mean throwing a wad of 2 minute noodles into boiling water doesn't count. It must involve some effort, some portion of your time, some giving--as all love does require.
Just think about it-when you cook, you cook for friends, family, yourself. Often it's performed because you have to, because there are rumbling tummies and tiny (or big) wailing mouths. But even when it's done through necessity, it is done because you love those people. Some people cook for themselves, preparing amazing dishes, for the love of food. Others cook for the love of money, and so forth, but basically, good  food and love revolve around each other.
When I was studying teaching at University before I met my husband, I lived with two other girls in a quaint little townhouse on the skirts of Melbourne. We all fended or ourselves food wise, never cooking for anyone but ourselves as we all had varied schedules. We were three very different people, all living different lives, and looking back on how we ate doesn't surprise me. One held a part time job, and basically lived off 2 minute noodles, ice cream and those cream and jam filled sweet buns. The other was a student like myself and it was toast and bought sushi for her. I lived off 8 cups of coffee a day and various blends of pasta and jarred sauce. Ugh!
None of us loved food enough to bother to make any effort. We had no one to cook for and didn't even love ourselves enough to at least make an effort to eat healthily.
It was only when I met my husband that I started taking an interest in food, especially as he was a big fan of everything I made. It was such an encouraging thing that it became an addiction, and I couldn't keep my mind off food and what I was going to make for him the next time he visited. Well, I married that man, and I also simultaneously married my food addiction. Now I actually eat. And I actually get hungry. And I limit myself to one coffee a day, just to kick start me in the morning. Jarred pasta sauces are not off limits, but used sparingly, only for those wild and woolly days, where you get to the end of the day looking like you were just thrown out of a hurricane and the kids are literally ripping the hair out of your head. I love my family too much to do that to them regularly-but sometimes, necessity calls for quick and fuss free!
Well, this banana raspberry bread with lime and cream cheese icing is certainly made with love, time and thought. I love how all these flavours come together to make for a delightful treat for the senses-the sweet moistness of the banana, the slight tart accents of raspberry, the creaminess of the cream cheese icing with a zingy hint of lime zest.We couldn't get enough of this delicious cake! The icing really was what took it up several notches, and I almost wish I had made more icing! If you're a big fan of cream cheese icing, you could double the icing recipe and cover the whole top of the bread. You will not regret it!

BANANA RASPBERRY BREAD WITH LIME CREAM CHEESE ICING (A Lick the Spoon Original)

6 tbsp butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
2 eggs
4 mashed bananas
1 cup Self Raising flour
1/4 level tsp bicarb. soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
50g cream cheese, room temperature
1 tbsp lime juice
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 tsp lime zest, finely grated

Preheat the oven at 180C. Line a loaf pan with baking paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl, beat the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg gradually, beating well between additions. Add the mashed banana and beat again.  Add the flour, bicarb soda and salt and stir through until well combined. Lastly fold in the raspberries.
Bake in the oven for 1 1/4 hours until nicely browned on top. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes or so before gently removing and placing on a wire rack.
To make the icing, beat the cream cheese, lime juice, icing sugar and zest together in a small bowl until smooth. You may add a little more icing sugar if you prefer the consistency to be thicker, or a little more lime juice if you find it too thick.
Pipe or spread over the top of the cooled bread before serving.

Makes one loaf.

Best Ever Banana Bread

When I was a kid and heard the phrase "no flies on him", I just presumed the person spoken about had good personal hygiene and didn't smell like a garbage can. It's interesting that people frequently associate bad smells with flies, and I suppose flies generally are attracted to the grosser things in life. That's why I was a bit surprised that when my house filled with the heavenly aroma of this banana bread baking in all its golden glory, flies flocked to the fly wire over the windows, trying to find a way inside. The whole house was filled with the most delicous banana and cinnamon smells as that banana loaf cooked away.
Its by far the best banana bread recipe I've ever tried. It's golden on the outside, the crust sweet and slightly crunchy on the outer. The bread itself and moist and giving, the perfect texture and is well balanced in flavours--the banana-ey goodness, the spice of the cinnamon, the sweeter outer crust. Its glorious served warm with a slathering of butter--or even made decadent with the addition of cream cheese icing. I myself decorated the top with fresh banana slices before it went into the oven, and it came out looking like cafe style banana bread. It got thumbs up from all family members...I wonder if it would have got such high reviews if my husband had known that I used his shirt as a backdrop in the photos? Ha!

BEST EVER BANANA BREAD (Adapted from All Recipes)

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
4 over ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1 1/2 cups Self raising flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 extra banana for decorating, optional

Preheat your oven to 190C. Greae and line a loaf tin.
In a large bowl, place the butter and the sugars and beat with an electric mixer until light in colour. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between additions. Add the mashed banana and vanilla and mix until combined. In a cup, mix the milk with the bicarb soda, and add the flour and this mixture alternately to the main bowl, mixing until just combined. Add the cinnamon are stir through the batter.
Pour into the lined and greased loaf tin. Place slices of the extra banana on the top of the batter, and place in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the cake springs back when touched in the centre. Cool before removing from the tin.

NOTES: I doubled this recipe and got a hightop loaf and 12 good sized muffins.

Banana Cinnamon Puddings with Butterscotch Sauce

My kids are what I call faze-eaters or gorge-feeders. My daughter has a bird-like, grazing appetite, and my son is a heavy snacker and eats small main meals. But when they discover something new, they gorge themselves on it like they cannot get enough. I don't mind this when it's a healthy thing, and it always is, or I wouldn't let them do it. For the duration of a week it was strawberries. Now they wont look at them. For two weeks it was bananas. Now they wont touch them. It's been beans, chickpeas, pasta, mandarins and yogurt. The banana faze left me with tonnes of bananas I had to cut up and freeze, hence this recipe perked my curiosity and made me feel I could get a little condensing done from the freezer.
And who doesn't love that banana cinnamon and butterscotch combination? Its like a match made it heaven, and its also made with greek yogurt which makes it light and airy with a bit of a tang. Scrumptious!

BANANA CINNAMON PUDDINGS WITH BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE (From Taste)

100g butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup self raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup mashed banana
2/3 cup greek yogurt

Sauce:
1/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup cream
25g butter, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add one egg at a time and beat thoroughly between each addition. Add the flour and cinnamon and mix until combined. Fold in the mashed banana and yogurt. Divide between 6 greased ramekins or 6 greased Texas muffin tins.
Cook for 30-35 minutes or until the tops are golden and a skewer comes out clean.
To make the sauce, place the brown sugar, cream and butter in a small saucepan. Heat on low, stirring for 3 minutes or until the butter melts. Increase the heat and bring to the boil. Lower the heat again and continue cooking for a few more minutes until the mixture thickens. Pour over warm puddings to serve.

SERVES 6.

Banana Cinnamon Puddings with Butterscotch Sauce

Banana Muffins with Cinnamon Walnuts and Brown Butter Icing

It's a banana muffin. But it's sporting a gorgeous and scrumptious topping of sticky cinnamon-brown sugar walnuts, browned butter icing and a swirl of caramel sauce. When you sink your teeth into this delectable muffin you can feel the smoothness of the icing, the stickiness of the caramel, the firm yet soft crunch of the walnut and the moistness of the banana cake. It's a perfect combo of flavour and textures with just the right amount of sweetness.
For those who are counting calories or are fussy, feel free to leave off the caramel or the icing, or both. You will definitely want to keep the walnuts, and they're good for you, as is the cinnamon the are coated in. They also make a delicious snack on their own. But I warn you, they are highly addictive!
In the recipe I followed for the walnuts, they are not supposed to stay sticky (I must have made an error with the temperatures--my candy thermometer is out perhaps?) They are supposed to dry out and are like candied walnuts. Either way they will be delicious atop this lovely banana muffin!I think the walnuts on their own would make a very pretty Christmas gift, tied up in a clear cellophane bag with some red ribbon. That is, if they don't stay as sticky as mine turned out! Keep and eye on your candy thermometer and you'll be fine.

BANANA MUFFINS WITH STICKY CINNAMON WALNUTS & BROWN BUTTER ICING  
(A Lick the Spoon Original with walnuts adapted from Eat Good 4 Life)

Muffins:

1 1/4 cup Self Raising flour
1/4 level tsp. bicarbonated soda
1/2 level tsp salt
85g butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
4 bananas, mashed

Walnuts:
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
150g walnuts

Icing:
1/4 cup butter
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup thickened cream

To make the muffins, sift flour, bicarb soda and salt together in a bowl. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale. Add the beaten egg a little at a time, beating after a each addition until well combined. Add the mashed banana and beat again.  Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined. pour mixture into muffin trays or paper liners. Bake at 180C for about 1 hour or until firm on the surface and golden brown.

Meanwhile, to make the sticky cinnamon walnuts, place brown sugar, milk, cinnamon and salt in a small saucepan. Place on medium heat and whisk until the mixture comes to the boil.
Boil the mixture on a lower heat until it reaches 115C on the candy thermometer. Remove from heat and stir through the vanilla, then the walnuts.
Spoon onto baking paper and separate any clumps. Let to cool.

To make the icing, place the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. When melted, reduce the heat and swirl the butter in small circular motions. The melted butter should foam and begin to turn amber. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, place the other ingredients. When the butter has cooled, add to the icing mixture and beat into a thick icing.

To assemble, remove the cooled muffins from the pan and add a dollop of icing to each. Top with sticky walnuts and serve with caramel topping or sauce, if desired.

NOTES:

Rich Banana Ice Cream

I know I've said it before, but one of the perks of living in a sub tropical climate is the abundance of delicious fruit. Bananas, mango, papaya, and many more simply thrive up here in Queensland, so there's almost always one of the three in the house. The smell of mangoes is especially divine, and I add that delightful fruit to my next batch of ice cream. If you haven't noticed, we're having a bit of an ice cream marathon in this house. Don't worry, the baked goods will be back in full force soon, with the winter weather on the way. Not that it will stop me from indulging in a little ice cream here and there, but I must say I am looking forward to the house being cool enough to be able to have the oven on without discomfort! Bring on the fresh bread, cakes and pies! I am sure they will take my addiction off ice cream momentarily.
However, I think we've hit upon another favourite ice cream recipe in this house. My husband and I think it's on a par with the last batch of  Creamy Chocolate Ice Cream we made, which I never thought any other ice cream would compare to in richness, texture and flavour.
I was a little skeptical to be honest, and so you can imagine my surprise when I tasted this rich, creamy smooth banana ice cream...it is decadent! Who ever thought banana could be so good? I must apologise about the pictures though. The severe melting is due to being called away while photographing, and ending up with it all looking a little softer than it should. Melted or not, it's delicious!

RICH BANANA ICE CREAM (adapted from Mistral Igloo Ice Cream maker manual)

3 medium bananas, ripe and mashed
1 egg white
1/2 cup caster sugar
250ml cream
pinch of salt
1 tsp lemon juice

Beat the egg white until light and fluffy. Add a little of the sugar at the end of the mixing process. In a medium bowl, mash bananas. Add the remaining sugar, cream, salt and lemon juice and mix to combine. Gently fold in the egg white mixture. Refrigerate overnight, before placing in the canister to churn and freeze.

Makes about 800ml, depending on banana size