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.

Dutch Snykoek

Cinnamon. Ginger. Cloves. Nutmeg. The smell wafting through the house is intensely satisfying.
When we were kids we'd call it snake cake.
Straight out of the oven and lathered in butter--divinity to the taste buds.
Its a simply delicious spiced loaf cake called Snykoek from the Netherlands, otherwise known as Ontbijtkoek (Breakfast slice), and one of the only Dutch things we frequently had around the home when I was growing up. My mother is Dutch, but unfortunately speaking the language at home was not something that happened, as my mother was young when she moved here and therefore lost a lot of the language. So I clutch at the few things my mother did bring with her, and this is one. I haven't updated the measurements, but a quick conversion is all you need. It's worth it!

SNYKOEK

1 1/2 lb. plain flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2-1 pint milk
1 1/2 level tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves

1 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the milk until you get a smooth consistency, mix until well combined. Pour into three lined and greased loaf tins. Bake at 180C until cooked through. Serve warm with butter.

NOTES: There are 2 cups to a pint.

Easter Hot Cross Bun

I doubt that our neighbours cook very much. "What are you burning now?" has resounded angrily from one particular house more than once. I often hear them talking of buying pizza or KFC for dinner, and the kids protesting because they're sick of it. No matter--each to their own. But how nice it is to come home to a delicious aroma issuing down from the kitchen through the garden! I love walking down the street and on occasion coming across some delightful baker's house issuing strong smells of hot vanilla muffins or a great BBQ on a summer afternoon. Unfortunately its not something you come across all that often. Imagine how great the villages a hundred years or so would have smelled! Fresh bread baking every morning from every house! Ahhhhhh bliss.
I don't think much beats the scent of freshly baked bread. My brother used to bake bread and it was simply to die for when it came out of the oven, with a slathering of butter--it was all too good. I have the best memories of his bread, and I shall soon bribe him for the recipe and perhaps a cooking class on how to get it so incredibly delicious and irresistible.
In the mean time, I try a few things when I have the time to try and replicate that fresh bread smell. Here's a great one for Easter morning...its great toasted with butter too!

GIANT RUSTIC HOT-CROSS BUN

yum!

200lm milk
1 tsp caster sugar
7g sachet dry yeast
400g SR Flour
2tsp ground cinnemon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
50g brown sugar
175g mixed dried fruit
50g butter, melted, cooled
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tbs plain flour
2 tbs caster sugar, extra

Heat the milk in a saucepan over a medium heat until lukewarm. Combine the caster sugar, yeast and 100g flour with the warm milk in a bowl and stir until smooth. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place for 25 minutes.
Grease a 18cm springform pan.
In a large bowl, sift together cinnamon, nutmeg, remaining flour and salt. Stir in the brown sugar and dried fruit, then add the yeast mixture, egg and cooled melted butter. Bring the mixture together with your hands, kneading for 2-3 minutes until combined. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead thoroughly for 5-6 minutes or until you have a smooth dough. Shape the dough into a round and place in the pan. Set it in a warm place, covered with a clean tea towel, for 1 1/2 hours. The dough should ride to just above the rim of the pan.
Preheat the oven to 200C.
For the cross decoration, combine the plain flour with 2 tablespoons of cold water and stir into a paste. Pipe a cross onto the uncooked bun just before placing in the oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes until cooked through. Cool slightly in pan before turning onto a wire rack to cool. For the glaze, combine the extra caster sugar with2 tablespoons of water in a saucepan and boil until the sugar dissolves. brush onto the cooling bun. Serve warm with butter. Any remaining bun can be toasted the next day.

adapted from taste.com