Salted Caramel Banana Cake

I love bananas and you can guarantee by the end of the week there are normally a few speckled bananas left in the fruit bowl so a banana cake is now a weekly occurrence in my house. I'm a chuck it in a bowl and see how it turns out kind of girl and this cake is a triumph to such a process. 2 layers of lovely light, moist cinnamon and banana sponge (I chucked in some fudge and chocolate chips for good measure) held together with a rich buttery salted caramel frosting topped with banana chips to give it that extra crunch finished with a swirl of salted caramel sauce, perfection.

Banana Cake

170g Butter

170g Light brown sugar

2 mashed bananas

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

3 eggs

Chocolate and fudge chips (amount of your choice)

1. Preheat the oven to 180c and grease and line 2 x 20cm cake tin
2. Cream together the butter and light brown sugar
3. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and split the mixture into the two prepared cake tins
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes until when a skewer inserted it comes out clean

Salted Caramel Sauce

250g light brown sugar

150ml double cream

140g butter

1/2 tsp salt

1. Make the salted caramel sauce while the cake bakes
2. Heat the brown sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and cream in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved . Let it bubble for a few minutes and leave to cool completely
3. Beat the butter until smooth, pour in the cooled cream mixture and let cool

Salted Caramel Frosting

670g shifted icing sugar

210g soft butter

70ml milk

30ml homemade salted caramel sauce

1. Using a hand held electric whisk gradually mix the icing sugar and butter together on a low speed until no large lumps of butter are present
2. Gradually add the milk while mixing on a slow speed. Add the chilled caramel sauce and mix throughly
3. To finish spread the two cakes with the frosting and place on top of each other. Position the dried banana pieces on top of the frosting and drizzle salted caramel sauce over the top