Tuesday 24 February 2015

Inge's Banana Hazelnut Cake

My parents have a lovely German neighbour called Inge.  She is just the perfect German grandma, and she comes to my Monday morning knitting group regularly, and makes me feel homesick talking about the typically German foods she enjoys.  She spoils my kids rotten and often has little bits and bobs for them, knits them lovely warm socks when she has odds and ends of sock wool to use up, and chats to them in a way they really enjoy.  One day we popped in to my parents' flat when they weren't there and her door was ajar with an amazing scent of baking wafting out.  As we were leaving, we couldn't resist knocking to say hello, and to enjoy the smell a bit more.  She was delighted to see us, as she'd baked a bundt type cake for her family and with the little bit of cake mix that hadn't fitted in her tin, she had made 3 little cakes for us!

I have to say the 2 bites of cake I got from the 3 kids just transported me to my childhood, and I just HAD to have the recipe.

I was delighted to be presented with the recipe, scanned from Inge's recipe scrapbook, clearly clipped from a magazine and lovingly kept.  All in German, but that's not a problem for me.  Anyway, I baked this recipe in heart shapes for Valentine's Day. It was delicious, and I wanted to share as it is easy, and slightly different.  We don't tend to use a lot of hazelnuts in the UK, and they are such a Germanic flavour.  So here we are:

Inge's Banana Hazelnut Cake

180g Butter
3 eggs, beaten
220g sugar
1 packet (about 5g) vanilla sugar
3 bananas
150g ground hazelnuts
300g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Method:

Soften the butter in a bowl and slowly add the beaten eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar.  Mash the bananas with a fork and add to the mixture along with the hazelnuts.
Sieve the flour and baking powder into the mixture and fold in.
Pour the batter into a greased ring tin, any excess can be made into small cakes.
Bake in a preheated oven 190 degrees  for 40 minutes for smaller cakes and an hour for the larger cake.