Christmas Carb Loading
With my Sticky Ginger, Orange Butterscotch & Brown Butter Cake, Banana Tart Tatin, an Italian Gluten Free Chocolate Cake plus a Pastel de Banano (aka banana bread to you and I).
Hey Friends!
I am pleased to report I am back from Mexico in one piece and praise the lord without a drop of e.coli. To say honeymoon 2.0 was a resounding success is an understatement – I consumed so many tacos, that I’m sure if anyone analysed my body composition it would return the results of me being 87% taco, 5 % guac and 100000% habanero sauce. Am I mad at it? Not one single bit.
We went to a little island called Holbox to start, which sits north of the Yucatan Peninsula. It reminded me of Bali pre expat overload – very chill, very easy going, good food, great beaches…and not a single car. Followed by a swift 2 hour journey down what I can only describe as the worlds bumpiest road (good job I get VERY car sick unless driving) to Mayakoba which is a jungle paradise. I know I’ve only scratched the surface with Mexico but what an incredible place, filled with the most wonderfully kind people, incredible culture and delicious food. Next time we go back I want to check out Merida, Mexico City and Oaxaca but for now, I’m back in dreary old UK ready to churn out some Christmas content for you guys over the next few weeks.
I was going to use my rambling intro to rant about plane etiquette because I saw some mad behaviours on the flight both ways (including bare feet resting on the top of someone else’s seat???!) however my friends, I will have to hit pause on such rant because substack is screaming at me that I have already gone over the email limit. OOP.
Rant on hold. Filthy food coming right up.
We are well in the thick of cosy season which means layers galore so we are loading you up on comforting carbs this week with a sweet treat perfect for any occasion during the upcoming weeks.
First up, let’s get you caught up on the latest Around the World bakes. To start, we head to Ferrara, Italy for their Torta Tenerina. Think of this as the love child of a chocolate brownie and chocolate mousse. Yes, I know they are both two extremes on the texture scale but it’s dense and moist yet surprisingly light, with a melt in the mouth finish. If you are after a showstopper…this ain’t it. But if you are after something that is easy to make, quick to bake and can be finished in a number of ways depending on your mood – this is the one. And if that wasn’t enough to entice you, it’s also gluten free (hurrah!), meaning if you are entertaining guests with certain dietary requirements, this should be at the top of your roster.
Next up, we have something that irked a few of you for featuring on a cake list: Guatemala’s Pastel de Banano, otherwise known as Banana Bread. Listen, I am not going to get into a debate with any of you over why its been included or whether this is a cake or not, I just want you to know that those sad bad bananas you have had sitting on your kitchen worktop deserve a bit of loving. Give them the gift of the ultimate glow up by making this super easy, simple yet effective Banana Bread. This comes low on the fuss and frills but heavy on the yum. Featuring a demerara top for that crispy caramelised finish, it’s a great bake to make if you have a pair of little hands you’re looking to keep entertained for an hour or so.
Continuing with the banana theme, we have my Banana Tarte Tatin with Cinnamon Rum Ice-Cream. This is a recipe from my book One Bake Two Ways - which fyi, is available on Amazon UK for £11.21 on promo at the moment making it a perfect stocking filler for any sweet-toothed fiends and bakers out there! As someone who has expressed their disdain for apples on more than one occasion here, this recipe came about as a delicious alternative to the classic. Ripe, roasted bananas bathed in a pecan and cinnamon caramel, sitting on a flaky homemade rough puff pastry and finished with a scoop of cinnamon rum no churn ice cream. Delightful, decadent and delicious.
Rounding off the menu this week and our main bake of the day is my Sticky Ginger, Orange Butterscotch & Brown Butter Cake. When I tell you that this tastes of nothing but pure comforting joy, I am telling you a lie. Because it is so much more than that. It’s like a spoonful of joy, a dunking of warmth and a dip in a pool of deliciousness all wrapped up in one. 3 layers of sumptuously soft, moist, zingy sponge sandwiched between butterscotch spiked with orange zest and all smothered in a brown butter swiss meringue buttercream. Adorned with delicate piping and topped with sugared fruit for that showstopper finish. If you are looking for something to steal the show. This is ya gal right here.
Kicking things off in this glorious carb laden edition (I know every edition is but for funsies, let’s pretend this is new) is one of the latest Around the World cakes. I am in slight denial that we have reached the point where we are edging closer to single digits on this cake list. Who even am I without cake? What will become of me?? What will be my purpose??? All valid existential questions which plague my daily thoughts. And then on the other hand I am crazily surprised because what do you mean it’s taken me over 2 years to bake 65 odd cakes? How slow have I been? My yearly average is shocking. I thought I had better baking stamina than that. But anyway, we needn’t get caught up in my internal monologue – this confliction of feeling is something I’ll deal with till we reach number 1 (please God this HAS to happen in 2026).
And talking of things slightly odd, this cake was exactly that but for all the best reasons. It has me questioning a lot. You know me by now, I am a lover of everything extra when it comes to baking so when I stumbled across this recipe and saw how simple it was – I didn’t have much hope for it. Sure, I love chocolate but what about all the fancy stuff? What about the additions? What are we drowning it in? Nothing.
The folks in Ferrara, Italy have kept it pretty simple with their Torta Tenerina. So much so, that once baked, you may feel slightly underwhelmed as admittedly, my first reaction was ‘where is the rest of it??’ but turns out, a little goes a long way with this decadently light, sumptuously soft, moreishly moist and ridiculously rich cake.
You know I only ever like being wrong when it comes to food and never has it felt so good. This naturally gluten free cake (which lends to it’s lighter texture) is a bit of filthy yum for most tums. If anyone is after quick, easy yet delicious Christmas recipes to add to your roster for when the chaos kicks off, then this is one I would highly recommend you save.
It comes together in about 20 minutes and bakes in just the same amount of time. Admittedly/annoyingly I overbaked mine a smidge the first time round but it still came out divine (don’t worry, I’ll adjust the timings for you in the method below) so with that sort of margin for error, I’d say this is also a great beginner bake. Whilst I have served mine up with a dollop of slightly sweetened whipped cream (which I would highly recommend for some chocolate respite), you can team a slice with a sharp, tart raspberry coulis, maybe a little drizzle of salted caramel or alongside a spoonful of whipped honeycomb mascarpone (I have a recipe for this in the archive!).
A fair few followers on Instagram have already made this and have loved it. So, what are you waiting for my friend? Come join us in the filth fest.
Recipe Makes: 1 x 23 cm / 9 inch loose bottomed/springform cake tin
Recipe Serves: 8 generous slices or 12 smaller
Y O U – W I L L – N E E D –
200 g Dark Chocolate, chopped
115 g Unsalted Butter, diced
15 g Cocoa Powder, sifted
Pinch of Sea Salt
3 Large Eggs, separated
150 g Caster Sugar
20 g Potato Starch, sifted (can sub for Plain Flour)
10 g Cornflour, sifted
M E T H O D –
Preheat the oven to 160C Fan/180C/350F/gas mark 4 and grease and line the base and sides of a 23 cm / 9 inch loose bottomed or springform tin.
If you have an induction hob, add the chocolate and butter to a pan and place over a medium heat, stirring little and often until melted and smooth. If you have a gas hob, place the chocolate and butter to a glass bowl and sit on top of a pan filled with simmering water. Stirring well to melt.
Once melted, remove from the heat and add the cocoa powder and salt. Use a balloon whisk to mix until smooth. Leave to one side to cool.
Into a stand mixer bowl, add the egg whites and cream of tartar to a stand mixer bowl. Using the whisk attachment, mix on a medium speed until the whites are stiff but not dry. Begin to add the caster sugar to the bowl 1 tbsp at a time, allowing each addition time to combine before adding the next.
Once all the sugar has been added, continue mixing until the meringue has reached stiff peaks – be careful to not over whisk to prevent the protein from breaking down. You will know if this has happened if the texture begins to look crumbly and begins to separate.
When your chocolate is at room temperature, add the egg yolks. Whisk well until smooth – this will begin to thicken but shouldn’t seize. If it does, add the pan back to the heat and warm gently until smooth.
Add the cornflour and potato starch and gently fold through until no flour streaks remain.
Add ¼ of the meringue to the pan and mix well to loosen.
Add the remaining meringue and this time, gently fold through until combined and you are left with an even colour.
Transfer the mix to your lined tin and bake for 20 to 22 minutes – anything more will leave the finished cake slightly dry.
Let the cake set and cool in the pan. Once cool, carefully remove and finish the top with a dusting of cocoa powder before slicing with a hot knife.
Top with slightly sweetened whipped cream to finish.
Now moving onto the latest Around the World, with cake number 15 (!!), we head to Guatemala for the first time for their Pastel de Banano.
With Guatemala as one of the top 3 exporters of bananas, this cake is hugely popular, with families all adding their own tweaks to this simple sumptuous bake. Often left as is, variations include the addition of nuts, a drizzling of chocolate or topped with honey. It’s a great way to help use up any overripe bananas and I just KNOW you have some sitting on your worktop counter right now.
And yes, to answer those of you questioning whether banana bread is a cake and whether it deserves a spot on a cake list. My answer is a resounding yes. Why? Because it’s delicious. And yes, I know it is technically classed as a quick bread however the texture over time has gone from something dense and heavy to lighter and moist – much more akin to a tighter crumbed cake.
Whilst I firmly believe my Glazed Dulce de Leche & Chocolate marbled version will forever reign supreme, this tweaked version of mine is super simple, straight forward and easy to make. If you’re new to baking or want something low on the fuss and frills but heavy on the yum, this one is for you. No fancy pants equipment required, it’s just a little mixy mixy, pour and bake.
It’s moist, tender, dense, heavily spiced, not too sweet, slightly crunchy, incredibly soft and annoyingly moreish.
Recipe Makes: 1 x 2 lb deep loaf tin
Recipe Serves: 8 generous slices
Y O U – W I L L – N E E D –
Batter
200 g Plain Flour, sifted
150 g Soft Light Brown Sugar
100 g Walnuts, chopped
1/2 tsp Baking Powder, sifted
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda, sifted
1 1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
¼ tsp Ground Nutmeg
¼ tsp Sea Salt
300 g Ripe Banana, mashed
100 ml Vegetable Oil
25 ml Sour Cream, room temp
2 Large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
To Finish
1 Large Banana, sliced in half
15 g Demerara Sugar
M E T H O D –
Preheat oven to 160C Fan/180C/360F/gas mark 4 and grease and overline a deep 2 lb loaf tin. Don’t skip the part of overlining the edges, as this will help you remove the loaf once baked.
Into a large bowl, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon, nutmeg and sea salt. Use a balloon whisk to combine.
Into another large bowl, add the bananas. Mash using a potato masher or fork until smooth. Add the veg oil, soured cream, eggs and vanilla bean paste. Use the balloon whisk to mix again until smooth.
Add the flour and mix well until just combined. Add the finely chopped walnuts and lightly fold through before transferring the batter to your lined tin.
Use the back of a spoon to level out the batter before slicing a banana in half lengthways and gently placing on top.
Generously sprinkle over the demerara sugar, covering the banana and batter – this will give your loaf a lovely crunchy caramelised top.
Place into the oven and bake for 60 to 65 minutes until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the top.
Leave to sit in the tin for 5 minutes once baked, before gently removing and wrapping the loaf in clingfilm/saran wrap until cool.
Eat warm, cold, on its own or slathered in choccy.
Next up in this unplanned banana based bonanza is my Banana Tarte Tatin with Cinnamon Rum no-churn Ice Cream.
If you’ve been here for a while, you’ll know I am not a mad fan of apples. I know I do some crazy bad PR for them and do enjoy them when they are smothered, covered and drowned in the 5 C’s (custard, caramel, cinnamon, crumble and cardamom) but that being said, I don’t care for them much in a tarte tatin. But you know what I do love in a tarte tatin?? The flakey, buttery, crispy layers of pastry, the top layer slightly gooey and mushy from the sticky caramel and the pool of melty ice cream on top.
OH BABY. It is spoon-lickingly, lip-smackingly good.
So not wanting to miss out on the delight, I’ve binned the apples and we’re using bananas instead. Once you have made it my way, you’ll soon realise what a game-changing move this is. The bananas caramelize on top, they hold their shape whilst being cooked till tender and soft, the caramel hugs each piece in a velvety smooth sauce and the pecans add a crunchy nuttiness which brings it all together.
Imagine a pecan pie had a baby with a bunch of bananas. This is it. This is the baby.
This is a recipe which is one of my go-to’s when short on time. We are using a rough puff pastry here, so a speedy alternative to a fully laminated pastry dough but when times are SUPER TIGHT, I scrap making the base from scratch and buy a block of ready-made puff pastry from the shops – after all, if it’s good enough for Mary Berry, it’s good enough for us.
I love adding a spoonful of my no churn cinnamon and rum ice cream on top for a ridiculously filthy, adults only dessert. Don’t you fret, I have included the recipe for that here too. Entirely optional but completely delicious, of course. If you want to get your chops on the entire shebang, make sure you make the no churn ice cream the day before – this will need to set overnight or for 6 hours at least to ensure you aren’t serving up boozy (but delicious) slop.
Recipe Makes: 1 Large Oven-proof Pan (ideally cast iron)
Recipe Serves: 6 to 8
Y O U – W I L L – N E E D –
Cinnamon & Rum Ice Cream
1 x 397 g tin Condensed Milk
550 ml Double Cream, fridge temp
25 g Light Brown Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
1 tbsp Ground Cinnamon
2.5 tbsp Coconut Rum, optional
Rough Puff Pastry
250 g Strong Bread Flour, sifted
Pinch of Salt
1.5 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
225 g Unsalted Butter, frozen (VERY important it’s completely frozen through)
110 ml Water, ice cold
½ tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Caramel
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 Vanilla Pod, sliced in half
225 g Caster Sugar
50 g Unsalted Butter, diced & room temp
Tart Filling
2 tbsp Demerera Sugar
4 to 5 Large Bananas, on the riper side of life
75 g Pecans, roughly chopped
M E T H O D –
If you are going for the boozy ice cream, make this first by adding all the ingredients together into a bowl and whisking until medium peak. We don’t want this whisked to a firm consistency as we want the ice cream to be gloriously smooth so once the cream softly holds shape, stop mixing.
Have a little taste of the cream and adjust the sweetness or booziness accordingly before transferring to a freezer proof container.
Cover and pop into the freezer overnight or for at least 6 hours.
The next day, make the pastry. We aren’t going for a full puff so it’s super important before you begin that the butter is frozen through and the water is ice cold.
Place the flour into a large mixing bowl, alongside the salt, vanilla bean and frozen grated butter.
Lightly mix until the butter has just mixed through.
To your ice cold water, add the vinegar and stir. Pour into the flour bowl mixing until a dough forms. We really want to keep the butter as intact as possible – you want to be able to see streaks of unmixed butter throughout the dough so stop mixing once it begins to melt. It doesn’t matter if there are flour streaks in your pastry – these will disappear when we start to work the dough a little later on.
Form the dough into a rough rectangle shape and flatten before wrapping tightly in clingfilm and popping in the freezer for 30 minutes to allow the butter to harden.
Lightly dust the worktop with flour and roll out the dough to a rectangle approx. 40 cm by 20 cm.
Fold the dough into three by folding the bottom third up and the top third on top. This is one fold.
Rotate the dough a quarter turn (i.e 90 degrees) and roll the pastry out again to 40 by 20cm. Fold it into 3 again, making it 2 turns. Wrap the dough tightly in clingfilm before placing in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Remove the pastry and repeat the turning and folding process a further two times, meaning you have folded the dough 4 times in total. Wrap again and chill until needed.
Preheat oven to 160°C Fan/180°C/360°F/gas mark 4.
Into an oven proof pan (ideally a cast iron if you have it), add the sugar, cinnamon stick and vanilla pod for the caramel.
Place over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and turned a caramel colour. As this is a dry caramel, you can move the pan around and gently mix using a clean, dry wooden spoon or spatula to encourage an even melt.
Add the butter and mix well until melted and smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and take out the cinnamon stick.
Scatter half the chopped pecans into the caramel, distributing evenly. Slice the bananas in half lengthways and carefully place flat side down into the caramel to cover the entire base of the pan. Scatter over the remaining chopped pecans.
Remove the pastry dough from the fridge and lightly flour your worktop.
Roll the dough out to a rough circle shape approx. 4mm thick. Gently lift the rolled dough and carefully place on top of the bananas. Press the dough into the nooks and crannies around the outside to minimize any caramel seepage once we turn it out.
Gently pierce a small hole in the middle of the pastry sheet using the end of a sharp knife to prevent the pastry pillowing when baking.
Pop the pan into the oven and bake for 45 minutes or until the top is crisp and golden brown.
Allow the pan to cool slightly once removed from the oven before turning out onto your serving plate. Serve up generous slices topped with a scoop of cinnamon and rum ice cream or drown in custard and enjoy.
And rounding off the carb fest for this week, we finally get to the main bake of the day, my Sticky Ginger, Orange Butterscotch & Brown Butter Cake.
Low and behold my good friends – this is the first of my Christmas showstopper centrepieces. A large cake good to feed a large party but a versatile cake, that can also be transformed into a traybake should you want something a little more low key but all with the same amount of yum. If you do wish to traybake it, timings will need to be increased ever so slightly but it turns something quite fancy into a more relaxed affair which makes it my idea of a perfect post Sunday lunch pud.
I made a very similar version of this cake whilst on Bake Off many moons ago. One judge said it was a little too boozy and the other said it was a little too un-gingery but the only feedback I could see was that they couldn’t stop eating it – and that for me, is the best feedback I think anyone can get. Since then, I’ve tweaked and played around with this to make it the best it can be. Sticky, spicy, warming, sweet, tart, gloriously indulgent with an unexpected hit of zing from the orange…and no booze – making this a decadently delicious family friendly treat.
This truly is an ideal cake for anyone who’s not mad on chocolate (crazy talk, I know but my eyes are on my Mum here) but still wants their sugary tastebuds screaming with joy. I know ginger can be a polarizing flavour to some however I grew up living for and loving wholeheartedly the McVities Jamaica Ginger Cake. If you’re not familiar with this game, think of it as a cheap supermarket loaf cake – so sticky that half the cake would stick to the paper casing and so addictive, I would eat the entire thing like an apple. No airs, no graces. If I was feeling fancy I would drown slices in tinned custard (some habits die hard) and would be convinced life couldn’t get much better than that sweet, sweet moment.
But guess what folks. Life DOES get better. Because why have delicious just contained to a tiny loaf when you can make it into a 3 sponge stacked bonanza??
In what has to be one of my favourite cakes of the year, we have 3 sticky, zingy, warming, sumptuously soft, moreishly moist, deeply flavoured ginger sponges, slathered in a ginger syrup, sandwiched between layers of orange spiked butterscotch and smothered in a brown butter swiss meringue buttercream.
I repeat. A BROWN BUTTER SWISS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM. Holyyyyy moly. All in all, it’s a cosy taste sensation. Separately, everything is sensational. And finally, I want to smother that buttercream onto everything and everyone. I’m already planning on using it again for a chocolate cake because that pairing is going to be otherworldly.
The cake is finished in beautifully delicate piping and adorned with sugared fruit to really take this up a notch on the extra level. It’s dramatic. It’s delicious. It’s extravagant. It’s OTT. And it’s a total must.
Recipe Makes: 3 x 20 cm / 8 inch cake tins
Recipe Serves: A lot – 12 comfortably
