These cakes came about because Lindt sent me a batch of their dark chocolate to try and because I had some bananas that desperately needed using up.

I didn’t want to make just another banana bread, I wanted to make something a bit special, but pretty simple to create. I’ve also wanted to decorate one of my bakes with edible flowers for a while, but I was waiting for the right opportunity. The flowers I tried to grow myself were a big failure, so I bought some violas, herbs and pansies and put them in the wooden planters that my boyfriend built for me.

At around the time I planned to make these cakes, my St Honore piping nozzle arrived as well. Everything had aligned into place and these cakes had to be made.

The rich chocolate banana bread is topped with a spiced rum chantilly cream, a chocolate curl and an edible viola. I made the banana bread the day before in a baking tray and left it overnight to cool and become really fudgy. It also made it much easier to cut. This recipe made 12 cakes in total after I trimmed it and cut them down to approximately 3.75cm in size. I know that sounds pretty specific, but the thing I love about patisserie is its uniformity, so I may have had my ruler out in the kitchen for this one.

The chocolate strips were made by spreading tempered chocolate onto food grade acetate, then using a cake comb, scrape the chocolate so that you create strips, the acetate is then put into a mould or bowl and left to set, to create the curved effect. My chocolate decorations need a bit of work, but it’s something I’m going to persevere with, so don’t be too surprised if you see a lot more chocolate decorations on the blog.

This banana bread recipe is inspired by the one on Supergolden Bakes, which looks delicious if you feel like trying her recipe, that butterscotch sauce looks amazing. If you have lots of bananas that need using up, you can try some of these other amazing recipes, Nutella Crust Banana Bread from Vikalinka, or how about a Chocolate and Peanut Butter Banana Bread from Domestic Gothess.

CHOCOLATE BANANA BREAD Patisserie Makes Perfect This is a twist on the classic banana bread, topped with spiced rum chantilly cream, edible flowers and a chocolate strip. You will need a St Honore piping nozzle to create this recipe. Print Recipe Pin Recipe Prep Time 40 mins Cook Time 25 mins Total Time 1 hr 5 mins Course Cake Servings 12 Ingredients For the cake:

100 g 70% Cocoa Chocolate chopped

150 g Unsalted Butter diced

200 g Ripe Bananas 3 small

175 g Light Brown Sugar

60 ml Milk

2 Large Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

125 g Self-Raising Flour

2 tbsp Cocoa Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

Chantilly Cream

400 ml Whipping Cream

4 Tbsp Icing Sugar sifted

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

1.5 Tsp Morgan's Spiced Rum Instructions Preheat the oven to 170C Fan. Grease and line a baking tray or roasting tin.

Put the chopped chocolate and unsalted butter in a large bowl. Set the bowl over a pot of barely simmering water and allow the chocolate and butter to melt slowly. Stir with a wooden spoon until smooth and set aside.

Blitz the bananas, sugar, milk, eggs and vanilla paste in a food processor or mini chopper until smooth. Stir the purée into the chocolate until fully combined.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt over the bowl of the banana chocolate mix and then stir it in with a whisk, mixing gently until you have a glossy batter.

Transfer the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean and cake is risen and firm on top. Cool on a wire rack.

When the cake is cool, you can wrap it in clingfilm and finish the rest of the cake the next day.

Trim the edges of the cake and cut it into 12 fingers, mine were approximately 3.75cm by 11cm.

Make the Chantilly cream by whipping the cream until it's firm, add the rum, vanilla and icing sugar and then whip it further until it's stiff enough to pipe.

Put the cream in a piping bag with a St Honore tip and pipe a wavy ribbon on top of the cut cake. Decorate the cakes with violas and chocolate strips, or slices of banana or grated chocolate.

Thanks for reading.

Angela

I’ve added this to #FoodieFriDIY and Fabulous Foodie Fridays.