You're Never Too Old for a Birthday Cake

You're never too old for a decorated birthday cake!

Like so many New Zealand children, I have vivid memories of leafing through the Women's Weekly birthday cake book as my birthday approached to select my masterpiece for the year (or rather my Mum's masterpiece).  I'm pretty sure with three girls Mum made it right the way through the book several times.

With Sander's birthday on the weekend I decided to have a go at creating my own 'masterpiece', and as he is obsessed with golf (he was playing when I was deciding what to bake), the '29th Tee' seemed appropriate.

The banana cake itself was delicious - very moist from the bananas and yoghurt, with a surprise chocolate chip and walnut layer in the middle.  I think my putter-making skills need a bit of work though!

Sander's 29th Tee birthday cake

Click here for the recipe at Epicurious but here is my version with a few substitutions:

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 C all-purpose white flour
• 1/2 C whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 113g unsalted butter, softened, plus 2 tablespoons, melted and cooled
• 2/3 C light brown sugar
• 1/3 C dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
• 2/3 cup natural unsweetened yogurt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2/3 C cocoa nibs
• 1 cup walnuts , toasted , cooled, and coarsely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C with rack in middle. Butter a round cake pan.
2. Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. Beat together softened butter  and 3/4 cup sugar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in eggs 1 at a time until blended. Beat in bananas, yogurt, and vanilla (mixture will look curdled).
4. By hand (or with mixer on low speed), add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated.
5. Toss together chocolate, nuts, cinnamon, melted butter, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl. Spread half of banana batter in cake pan and sprinkle with half of chocolate mixture. Spread remaining batter evenly over filling and sprinkle remaining chocolate mixture on top.
6. Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean (start checking at 30 minutes), 35 to 40 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 30 minutes, then turn out onto rack and cool completely, right side up.

To make the green coconut:

1. Pour dessicated coconut into a ziplock bag or plastic Tupperware container
2. Add a few drops of green food colouring and shake to distribute
3. Continue adding food colouring a few drops at a time until the coconut is green enough

To make the icing:

1. Melt about 50g of butter in a small bowl
2. Add some lemon zest (about 1/4t - more if you like) and given the lemon a squeeze
3. Slowly add sifted icing sugar, mixing, until the icing is firm
4. Add more lemon juice/zest/icing sugar to taste
5. Spread icing on cooled cake with a hot knife and sprinkle coconut on top

Enjoy!