Monkey's Favourite Cake

It had been snowing non-stop since morning. The snow will go on for the next 24 hours, and 12 inches of snow is predicted for tomorrow. School may be closed, we are not sure. Will have to wait till tomorrow morning to find out.

Updates from Accuweather read " Dangerous Blizzard to strike Midwest". The wind chill temperature outside in the afternoon was at 9 degree Celsius below zero. On such cold, snowy days, I love the aroma of soup simmering on the stove, or bakes from the oven! So today, the kids will be having the Monkey's Favourite Cake for their after-school snacks!

Adapted from Cook's Library, Cooking for Kids

125g Butter or Margarine

125g Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

125g Self Raising Flour, sifted

2 Bananas, mashed

Icing sugar, for dusting

Filling

50g Ground Almonds

50g Icing Sugar, sifted

1 Small Banana, mashed

1/2 tsp Lemon Juice

• Line and grease two 18cm (7 inch) sandwich tins.
• Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time.
• Add a tablespoon of flour with the second egg.
• Fold in the remaining flour with the mashed bananas.
• Divide the mixture between the prepared tins.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 350F (180C), for 25 minutes, or till the cakes spring back when lightly pressed.
• Turn out the cakes on to a wire rack to cool.
• To make the filling, mix the ground almonds with the icing sugar.
• Add the banana and lemon juice.
• Mix to a smooth paste.
• Sandwich cakes together with the filling and dust with icing sugar.

The kids loved the taste of bananas in the cake and filling!

The cake was not too dense, and was very moist.

I grind some sliced almonds using my coffee beans grinder. I was a little too enthusiastic in my grinding, and some ground almonds "clamped" together at the end of the grinding. Only then I remembered that over-grinding will allow the oil from the almonds to help turn the almonds into almond paste. Had to discard some portion of the "clamped together" ground almond in the end. I omitted the icing sugar, as I find the sweetness of the cake with the filling just right for my taste buds. Instead of using two sandwich tins, I used a round baking tin, and halved the cake horizontally.

This cake is definitely a keeper!

There's only half a cake left in the box for tomorrow ...