Banoffee Gingerbread Cake

Yes. We're in Love, Actually... with this cake!

Done in 4 hours

Serves 8-10

Dish by Chris Cahill

Ingredients

For the Cake:

425gFlour

285gDark Brown Sugar

1.5 TspBaking Soda

3 TspGround Ginger

3 TspGround Cinnamon

3 TspGrated Ginger

1/4 TspGround Cloves

227gButtermilk

113gButter (Melted)

113gVegetable Oil

57mlCoffee

1 TspVanilla Extract

113gMolasses

2Large Eggs

1Banana

Carnation Caramel Filling

For the Buttercream:

500gButter

1000gGolden Icing Sugar

1 TbspCaramel

You really can't go wrong with this cake...soft gingerbread sponge layers with a Dulce de Leche and brûléed Banana filling. It'll make you feel things, trust us! Chris has decorated his like actual Downing Street (simpler designs are acceptable, too!)

Method

For the Sponge:

Preheat your oven to 335°F (170°C). Bring your buttermilk, eggs, and coffee to room temp. Measure out all of your ingredients by weight.

In a large bowl, add your molasses, oil, coffee, vanilla, melted butter, eggs, freshly grated ginger, and buttermilk. Whisk everything together to break up the egg yolks and combine, and then set it aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, add the AP flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, powdered ginger, salt, and baking soda.

While mixing on low, add in your wet ingredient mixture and mix it until it’s just combined. Mix with a spatula to make sure there are no pockets of flour.

Prepare and grease three 6″ cake pans.

Divide the batter equally into your greased cake pans.

Bake at 170°C for 35-40 minutes.

Remove your cakes from the oven once the tops are set and a toothpick comes out clean. Let your cakes rest in the pans for 10-15 minutes or until the pans are just barely warm.

Flip the cakes out onto a cooling rack.

For the Buttercream:

Add your room temperature butter to a mixing bowl and beat until light and silky.

Gradually add the icing sugar and mix on low until everything is incorporated.

Finally add your caramel and beat on high for a couple of minutes.

For the Filling:

Slice up your banana and lie them on a baking tray.

Sprinkle over sugar, then using a chef's blow torch, brulee the surface of your banana slices.

To stack the Cake:

Stack your cake by first piping a ring of caramel buttercream to create a dam. Fill the center with a layer of caramel and then place your banana slices on top.

Pipe another ring of buttercream and place the next sponge on top. Repeat until fully stacked and chill. For neater layers, chill also between each sponge layer placement.

Cover your cake in a layer of your buttercream and decorate how you see fit!