Banana-na Cake

Nana's a prolific banana cake baker. Every time I stayed at nana's she'd always have one sitting on the bench to be taken home to Auckland. Most of the time it made it back intact, but once or twice we'd get hungry on the way home and eat a slice. Work lunches that next week were the best! I delved through Nana's recipes positive I'd come up with at least one banana cake recipe, but on my first pass I came up empty handed. Then... success! I'd put a pile of recipes aside in my 'to try' pile and 'Bella's Favourite Banana Cake' was among them.
Our hopeless oven did cause a few problems, with the cake taking 1hr 15 rather than 45 minutes to cook. I was a bit worried about the result, but it turned out perfectly! It was a high, moist cake that wasn't 'soggy' in the middle or on the bottom.
I had a few limes left over from dinner the night before (mmm Frangelico and lime on ice), so made a tart lime icing with the zest and juice of two limes.

Delish!

Birthday High Tea at The Observatory

The Oliver sisters are on a quest to sample every High Tea offering in Sydney. This month it was the turn of The Observatory Hotel's Globe Bar. We even had an occasion this time - Lee's 24th birthday - so we ordered champagne... a glass each of Moet Rose. Mmmm.

We'd been looking forward to High Tea at The Observatory for a long time, and they didn't disappoint. We started with mini sandwiches - cucumber & mayo, salmon & mayo, egg and wholegrain mustard and cheddar & tomato.

Next up were the scones, and thank God they weren't anything like the solid hockey pucks we had at the Stamford Circular Quay! Creamy, soft and still warm from the oven, we covered them with lashings of double cream and strawberry conserve (with real chunks of strawberry). The conserve was so tasty Amy took to it with her spoon and finished the bowl... classy!

Saving the sweets till last, we were very excited about the mini creme brulee, chocolate mousse with gold leaf, mini fruit tart, almond florentine and mixed berry cake. The almond florentine was crunchy with a rich toffee centre and definitely my highlight, followed closely by the creme brulee.

Being the good sister, I sent the sisters home with a birthday cake (not that they needed anything else to eat), this time a carrot cake with lime cream cheese icing. The recipe was a combination of two I found online - on taste.com.au and the other on epicurious.com

Unfortunately it wouldn't all fit in the container, so I did manage a small taste test. The verdict? Moist, crunchy from the walnuts, the sharp tang of the lime icing... delish!