There was once a cake I enjoyed time and again, back in the day in Jakarta, and if memory serves me well, it was at least 5 times that this wonderful cake made its way into our many family celebrations. 5? Just 5? Actually, 5 is a lot ... considering the sheer number of home bakeries and commercial bakeries we would get our cakes from. And believe me when I say we were spoilt for choice.



Now what I'm talking about is the Chocolate Banana cake from Awfully Chocolate. This cake was so good ... but dang! so am I ... who managed to recreate it for G's birthday a few years back. Rich and dark chocolate cake layers sandwiched with a creamy chocolate vla filling, with smooth and sweet sliced bananas in it. Yummy!



If I previously said he's nuts about nuts, he's also bananas for bananas. And after a long spell, it's about time! So for the nth time, we used our favorite Devil's Food Cake recipe. And where we previously used buttercream or custard to sandwich the layers together, I upped it with creme mousseline, not 'just because', but the laws of physics demanded it. We needed a butter based concoction sturdy enough to hold up our three massive layers of deep dark chocolatey goodness.



The client's brief was: chocolate cake, and decorate it as simply as it could possibly be. Client being the husband. LOL. Chocolate cake ... check! Simple ... check! It will be an antithesis of the extravagance last week.

3. Arrange the sliced bananas on this layer, 1/2 an inch from the edge of the cake, overlapping, working your way into the center.
4. Scoop half of the creme mousseline on to the bananas, taking care not to undo the amazing design you painstakingly made.
5. Another layer of cake.
6. Repeat with more bananas and more creme mousseline.
7. The most level of them all ... cake, that is, goes on the top.

8. Poke 3 skewers in it, if you must, to keep it from sliding all over the place. Told ya the cake was going to be tall!
9. Refrigerate for an hour or so. Skip this step if you're in a hurry. I just like to set the filling a bit more before icing the cake.

10. Frost with the Italian buttercream.
11. Refrigerate for an hour or so. Please do not skip this one, unless your guests are knocking on the door. If I have space, I chuck the cake in the freezer, no kidding. Only to set the buttercream. After all, a warm ganache is going on it.

12. Check that the ganache is of pouring consistency.
If too cold, place in a warm bath, submerging up to half the container, stirring until you're happy with the drip. If too warm, place in the freezer, checking every minute.
13. Haul this big cake carefully on top of a cooling rack, which is sitting on top of a parchment lined baking sheet. Why? Because you want to be able to pour all that expensive chocolate back into a jar where you can enjoy it in the near future. What better option than collecting it on top of a parchment?

14. Pour the ganache on top of the cake, covering the sides completely (or not).
15. See all that on the bottom? Have it with your ice cream tomorrow.

16. If you can haul this whole setup back into the fridge, do so. Otherwise, let dry in a cool place until it sets a bit.
17. Stick the biggest and most beautiful lily you can buy on it, unless you are an amazing sugar crafter and can produce it from scratch.
18. Line the bottom with the leaves and restrain yourself with the decor. The client wanted simple, remember?

In our home, it is Belle who designated herself as the Breakfast Queen. Rather, Breakfast Princess. She's the one whipping up pancakes, waffles and loves to make crepes. And like all cooks, really loves to see her siblings lining up behind her, patiently waiting to be called when the next crepe is done.



Belle has been wanting to make this layered 'cake' for some time but usually has to fight to keep her crepes untouched. This time, she was successful. Maybe because the siblings weren't around to be tempted with the delightful aroma of her crepes coming out of the pan. So today, she collected enough of them to pile up into her crepe cake.



This recipe is adapted from one from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook. Deb has amazing recipes that just work! Thank you, Deb! We put some more oomph to it by adding sliced bananas between the layers. It made for an extremely delectable and amazing dessert with layers of flavour. The soft crepes with the bananas ... yum! Then there was that silky hazelnut cream and the rich chocolate ganache. Everything came together with the crunch of the hazelnuts. It was a feast for the palate!

Crepes:
9 tbsp unsalted butter (for both crepes and pastry cream)
2-1/3 cups whole milk
6 large eggs
1-1/2 cups flour
pinch of salt
1/2 cup sugar
Cooking spray for skillet

Hazelnut Pastry Cream:
1-1/3 cups hazelnuts (for both pastry cream and topping)
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tsp Frangelico
1/4 tsp salt
3-1/3 cups whole milk
7 tbsp sugar
5 large egg yolks
5 tbsp cornstarch
Butter from crepes above

3 bananas

Chocolate Ganache:
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp heavy cream
1 tbsp Frangelico

Directions:
Make browned butter:
1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, then reduce the heat.
2. Stir regularly and scrape anything that sticks to the bottom.
3. When the butter smells nutty and is brown, pour it into a bowl and set aside to cool.

Make crepe batter:
4. In a bowl, add 6 tbsp of the butter, milk, eggs, flour, salt, and sugar and whisk until combined.
5. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for one hour.

Prep hazelnuts:
6. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and bake the hazelnuts on a baking sheet.
7. Toast for 5 minutes, roll, and toast for another 5 minutes.
8. Take the baking sheet out of the oven and place on a tea towel.
9. Remove the skins from the hazelnuts by rubbing them together (whilst in the towel) after they've cooled enough to hold.

Make Hazelnut Pastry Cream:
10. Grind 1 cup of the hazelnuts in a food processor with the confectioners' sugar, Frangelico, and salt until small clumps form, taking care to not over process, lest it turn into a nut butter.
11. Place this mixture in a saucepan with milk and sugar over medium-high heat. Simmer while stirring frequently.
12. Whisk yolks with cornstarch in a bowl until smooth. Slowly add the milk mixture from the saucepan into the yolk, whisking regularly. A spoonful at a time, so the eggs do not cook.
13. After about half a cup has been whisked in, reverse the process. Now slowly stir the warmed egg yolk into the saucepan, whisking regularly until they combine and start to boil.
14. Cook for 2 minutes. The mixture should start to get thicker.
15. Remove from heat. Stir in the rest of the browned butter.
16. Place the mixture in a bowl and press a plastic wrap on top.
17. Refrigerate for a couple hours until it has set.

Make the crepes:
18. Put a pan on medium-high heat, and butter it.
19. Add 1/4 cup of batter and tilt the pan around so that it coats the the bottom of the pan evenly.
20. When the bottom of the crepe is golden brown and the top of the crepe has set, flip and cook on the either side.
21. When it's cooked, place on a plate with paper-towel covering it so that they will not stick to each other.

Assembling the layers:
22. Slice the bananas as thin as you can.
23. On a cake stand, lay a crepe and spread pastry cream and place a few banana slices.
24. You don't have to place bananas on all layers, just every third or so, making sure you are filling up the 'hollow' spaces, so the cake rises up evenly.
25. Repeat until all layers are in place.
26. Rest this in the refrigerator.

Make the ganache:
27. Add chocolate to a bowl.
28. In a saucepan, simmer cream with liqueur and pour it over a heatproof bowl of chocolate and let it sit for one minute, melting the chocolate underneath.
29. Stir until the mixture is smooth and of pouring consistency. If needed, liquefy with a little warm cream.

Finally:
30. Take the crepe cake out of the fridge and pour the ganache over it.
31. To get the ganache on the side of the cake, gently ease the ganache off the sides with a spatula.
32. Sprinkle the last of the hazelnuts.
33. Place the crepe cake back into the refrigerator to let the ganache set.

Then wait for all to finish with dinner before unveiling this beautiful creation. Revel in the ooohs and aaahs and sit back and let the complements pour in.