Banana bread for school lunches

I don't know what it is about this time of year that makes me want to reinvent. Maybe it's the impending springtime rebirth, or perhaps it is a feeling of wanting to shake off the cobwebs, but this week I want to make a concerted effort to vary what goes into the kids lunchboxes.
One of the pages I follow on Facebook is Weelicious. It is a great site for promoting healthy and adventurous eating for kids, but it is very aspirational and as an Irishwoman, it is hard not to be a little cynical about the slightly smug tone of the posts! I know I am being absolutely unfair, but I put it down to jealousy (on my behalf of course) Anyhow, to get back to the point, every other day, she posts a picture of the contents of her children's lunchboxes and lists them; mango, mung beans, raw beetroot, cottage cheese surprise.... I jest, but it is fairly close. I do read the entries and think that on the whole, the prep time for the lunchboxes are altogether achievable, it is just the variety of ingredients that may be beyond my local SuperValu!
So, in my smuggest tone of voice, I am going to now sell you the virtues of banana bread in your child's lunchbox. It is sweet, nutritious and more importantly a change from the usual limp ham sandwich and crunchy jam-and-no-butter offering that usually inhabits the tupperware treasure chest!

This recipe is from The Kitchen Wizard, my first cookery book and the inspiration for the name of my business. It is a gem of a recipe and easy enough for kids to cook it.

Banana bread

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas mashed

2 eggs beaten

25g melted butter

1 t vanilla essence

225g plain flour

175g sugar

1 t baking powder

1 t salt

50g roughly chopped pecans `(optional)

Preheat the oven to 180c and grease and flour a loaf tin

In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas into a pulp, it’s ok for it to be a little lumpy. Add in the beaten eggs, melted butter and vanilla essence. Stir to combine.

In another bowl, stir together the dry ingredients until just combined. It is important not to overmix as it will become tough. Add in the nuts at this stage.

Pour into the loaf tin and put into the oven for an hour. Check if it is cooked after 50 mins by piercing with a skewer, it is cooked if it comes out clean.

This keeps really well covered in tin foil and is yummy spread with butter and served with a hot cup of tea.
Enjoy!

Red velvet cupcakes

So, it's Valentines day, and I was looking for something festive to bring along on Saturday to Giddy pottery studios, where Declan and I were going to paint each other a Valentine's gift.
I had been looking for an excuse to try this red velvet cake mixture and the marshmallow meringue frosting, and this was just the ticket. There are many many recipes around for this cake, all very similar. Red velvet cake is an American phenomenon. The red colour is a result of the acid reaction between the buttermilk, vinegar and cocoa, but most modern recipes add red food colouring or the juice from beets to help it along.
The frosting is often a cream cheese recipe, but this one is marshmallowy, sticky and resembling the original American boiled frosting.

I rolled out some ready to roll icing and cut it into hearts to decorate, but this entirely optional, rose petals would be also gorgeous.

Red velvet cupcakes

First seperate 3 eggs and set the yolks aside while you beat the whites until they form stiff peaks. Leave them to one side.

In another bowl sift 250g plain flour with 50g cocoa powder, 25g cornflour, 1tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt.

In a measuring jug pour 250ml buttermilk and add 2 Tbsp red food colouring and stir well. Make sure to protect your clothes as the food colouring can destroy everything.

In a freestanding mixer or with a hand held mixer, beat together 150g soft butter and 300g of caster sugar until light and fluffy. Next add the 3 egg yolks one at a time, (or if they have all broken up, a bit at a time) and 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

Now, alternately add the dry and wet ingredients that you have to one side, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.

Into this mixture, fold the beaten egg whites and leave to one side while you make up the magic bit of this recipe.

In a small bowl, mix 1 tsp of bicarb of soda and 1 tsp of white vinegar. They will fizz up and you quickly add the fizzing mix into the cake mixture, fold together and then divide between 2 20cm tins or into cupcake liners

Bake at 180c for 10-15 mins for the cupcakes and 25 mins for the sandwich cakes.

Take out and leave to cool completely.

Frosting

In a stainless steel bowl combine 2 egg whites, 250g caster sugar, 50g golden syrup, pinch of salt, 1/4 tsp bextarter, 2 Tbsp water and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Place the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and beat with an electric mixer until the mixture forms soft peaks.
Take off the heat and beat for a few minutes until stiff.

Pipe the mixture or spread onto the cakes, fairly quickly before it starts to thicken too much to work with.

The actual cake mix is red when you break into it, perfect for a Valentines day treat!