Roasted Banana & Pecan Bundt Cake with Maple Glaze

Today is National Bundt Cake day! Any baked good with a day dedicated to it is a winner in my books. Mary of the Food Librarian blog loves Bundt cakes so much that she has done a 30 day count-down to today, baking and blogging a different Bundt cake recipe each day! Wow what an undertaking. Incredibly this is also the 3rd year she has done this.

Spurred on by her many delicious looking Bundt cake recipes I wanted to join in the fun and bake my own. I first tasted this cake recipe a couple of weeks back, when it was baked by a coeliac friend of mine for a get-together. It was the moistest, most intensely banana flavoured cake I had ever had. I begged her for the recipe and have been looking for an occasion to bake it ever since. The cake is meant to be baked in a large loaf tin, but I felt sure it would be equally as good baked in a Bundt tin instead.

I think the secret behind this cake is that it uses a lot of bananas which are first roasted in the oven, in their skins, in order to intensify their wonderful banana-iness (if that’s not a word, it should be). I have never encountered this in a recipe before and was a little sceptical about how much flavour this would actually impart to the cake, but the end results speak for themselves. It’s fantastic.

The cake is also studded with a few crushed nuts for added texture and flavour and I also added just a smidgen of mixed spice. The cake is kept extra moist by the use of oil and sour cream in place of butter in the recipe. The cake is quite dense but in a good way, similar to a pound cake rather than feeling heavy and solid.

I love the look of each slice; the speckles of banana make it look so pretty and appealing. As if the cake itself wasn’t delicious enough, it is also topped with a drizzle of maple glaze to add just that extra touch of sweetness. I’m not usually a fan of maple flavoured things, but it really complimented the banana flavour well.

The great thing about Bundt cakes is that they look impressive with very little effort. They are also generally studded with exciting flavours or chunks of chocolate or nuts, relaying on these for flavour rather than mountains of frosting. This was a divine cake and one that the rest of family couldn’t believe was also gluten free. I think its going to be my new ‘go-to’ banana cake recipe. Even if you already have a favourite banana recipe, I urge you to try roasted them for a few minutes first, it really makes a difference!

Mary wants everyone to share her love of Bundt cakes and so is encouraging everyone to bake and blog a Bundt cake recipe from now until 24th November. If you submit a photo to her before this date then she’ll send you a Bundt badge for baking along. Click here for details. This is of course my entry.

Roasted Banana & Pecan Bundt Cake with Maple Glaze
(Recipe adapted from Gluten Free Baking by Phil Vickery)

Ingredients
450g ripe bananas with skin on (about 3½)
150g light soft brown sugar
125ml sunflower oil
1 tsp glycerine (I used golden syrup)
3 eggs
225g gluten free flour (I used Doves flour mix)
½ tsp xanthan gum
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp gluten free baking powder
2 tbsp crème fraiche (I used sour cream)
50g roughly chopped walnuts (I used pecans)
½ tsp mixed spice (My own addition)

Maple Glaze
3 tbsp maple syrup (I only used 2tbsp)
75g icing sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Make a couple of slits in the skins of the bananas and lay them on a baking tray. Bake the bananas, in their skins, for 10 minutes (they will go black). Then remove them from the oven and leave them to cool slightly. Reduce the oven to 180C.
Oil a 9-10inch wide Bundt tin and set to one side.
Whisk the sugar, oil and glycerine together, adding the eggs one by one, until well combined.
Sift over the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, xanthan gum and spice. Peel the skin off the bananas and weigh out 250g of the flesh. Add the mushy banana to the rest of the mix along with the crème fraiche.
Beat everything together until combined and no large chunks of banana remain.
Stir through the chopped nuts and pour the mixture into the prepared Bundt tin.
Bake for 45 minutes until risen, golden brown and a skewer inserted in the top comes out clean.
Allow to cool for 30minutes in the tin before inverting onto a serving plate. It should release from the tin if you give it a firm shake.
Leave to cool completely before icing with the glaze.

Maple Glaze

Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl. Add the maple syrup to the strength you like it, mixing it into the sugar with a small spoon. Add a smidgen of water if you need in order to create a pourable yet thick glaze.
Spoon/drizzle the glaze over the top of the cool cake and leave to set for 20 minutes before serving.