I feel I owe apologies to a lot of people, of late.

Firstly, to my neighbour, who complained to me about my constant ‘loud walking’. (I suppose it didn’t help that a couple of days ago, B and I ran whooping around the coffee table, to celebrate Macheda’s goal in the final minutes of stoppage time during the Man U vs Aston Villa match).

Sorry to my dear friend M for cancelling our lunch date, on account of my cold. An equally heartfelt sorry to my mom for missing out on a lunch with her, due to the same cold.

Sorry also to the lonely packet of figs that had been lying untouched in my fridge for over a week, and sorry to myself, for wasting valuable money buying food I didn’t need. (Situation now rectified, as pictured above)

Finally, apologies to everyone who has been hounding me for the banoffee teacake recipe. I hadn’t really forgotten, honest. Well, maybe a little. I made some bite sized ones recently, which I think are more fun to serve to friends. Definitely didn’t forget the recipe this time, so hopefully all is forgiven!

Mini Banoffee Teacakes :

Caramel :
(This caramel is essentially the filling you get in a caramel slice, but baked without the biscuit base. The total yield is more than you will require for 20 mini banoffee teacakes, but I find the leftover caramel useful for all sorts of things – as a macaron or cake filling, or even spread on toast, if you are that way inclined. You can skip this step and use dulce de leche instead, if you have it.)

40g unsalted butter
50g golden syrup
325g sweetened condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 125’C.

Place all ingredients in a pot. Heat on a medium-low flame, until completely melted and homogenous. Stir gently while heating with a spatula to prevent the mixture from catching. Pour into a baking dish or baking ramekin roughly 12 x 18 x 3cm in size. Bake for 15 – 17 minutes until the caramel mixture sets. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before using. You can make this ahead and store it in the fridge until required.

Teacakes :
(makes 20 mini-muffin-sized cakes; recipe by Tartlette)
67g caster sugar
2 large eggs
56.5g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
58gr sour cream
62.5g plain flour

Preheat the oven to 176’C. Grease mini muffin tin well.

In a stand mixer, whisk together the eggs and sugar until pale and thick, about 2 – 3 minutes. Add the butter and sour cream. Whisk well and then fold in the sifted flour. Divide the mixture evenly between the holes of the muffin tin. The mixture should come up to about 3/4 of the way up each hole. (Tip : Use a measuring tablespoon to scoop the mix)

Bake for 8 – 9 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle of a teacake comes out clean. Allow to cool on wire rack then remove each cake carefully with a small spatula. (Tip : If you do not have a big enough mini muffin tin, you can bake this in batches.)

To assemble :

1 medium banana
200g whipped cream
dark chocolate shavings or curls, to garnish

Slice the banana into thin rounds. Place a slice on each teacake. Fill a piping bag with the caramel. Pipe about 1 teaspoon-worth of caramel on top of the banana. Pipe whipped cream on top and decorate with chocolate shavings.

Remember that crazy thing I said about switching from full-time to casual work? Well, can we just forget that conversation ever happened? What was I thinking? Three weeks into my holiday, and I’m suffering from serious overbake.

No kidding, both my tiny freezer and my (not so tiny) stomach are full of treats, and I’m fast running out of willing friends I can fob excess cake off to. (I think 1 cake a week is a reasonable outgoing rate for cake-fobbing, don’t you? Anything more and I’d be killing my friends softly, with sugar).

So in mid-April, I will be starting a new job, working for a very well respected Chef, at an exciting new location. For the sake of anonymity, I won’t go into the details, except to say that this job could very well manage to achieve that elusive balance between sweet work and sweet life.

Now, did someone say cake? The base of this one, which I’ve made before, comes from Helen’s ridiculously easy recipe. You really must try it. It’s incredibly versatile, and I’m pretty sure it only took me all of five minutes (if that) to put a batch together.

The idea for the topping came via a roundabout way, thanks to a friend, who loves indulging in baking related conversation as much as I do. One day, she dropped by to borrow some cookbooks and with her, I found myself leafing through books I hadn’t touched in awhile. From a book written in two languages I don’t speak or read, some beautiful fig and raspberry tarts caught this fresh pair of eyes. Seeing as it’s fig season at the moment, how can anyone say no?

I think the original had chantilly cream and perhaps a couple of other flavours, but I’ve used marscarpone spiked with kirsch instead. As for the rest of the teacakes I baked… well, those will have to wait for another day. 🙂