Apple & banana cake with caramel cream cheese frosting

I adapted one of my favourite fruit cakes – my pineapple and banana cake – to make this apple and banana rendition. I wanted to make a cake that would work perfectly with a delicious caramel frosting, and since both apples and bananas totally rock with caramel, I have a  winner.

I was invited by Nestle to create a recipe using one of their culinary milk products and I literally adore their ready-made caramel treat, so immediately opted for that. I am old enough to remember the days – admittedly I was very young – when this product was not available in South Africa, and my mom would have to boil a tin of condensed milk for two hours to create it. Thankfully we don’t need to do that anymore. We simply pull open a tin and voila we have instant caramel or dulce de leche ready to add to our dessert.

The possibilities to create delectable sweet treats with this caramel are seemingly endless. What would we do without it in a peppermint crisp pudding, a crepe with bananas, or dolloped into a 45-second chocolate pudding?

When it comes to sharing, for me, the ultimate dessert is a cake. It’s cake that started my lifelong passion for baking, and it’s cake that I turn to when I want to spoil family or friends on special occasions. Cake is quite simply an expression of love.

Writing this blog for the last 4 years has given me the most amazing opportunity to share my love of cooking and baking with so many more people. It has been a deeply rewarding experience for me, and I love connecting with people from all over with world through a shared love of food.

You might not be able to physically taste what I make, but I hope that I can inspire you to jump into your kitchen and get busy.

I made this cake with love and I’m sharing it with you with love. Thank you for stopping by to visit. xx

* Cooks notes ~ I grated the apple in this recipe which makes the cake super moist. It is important though that you squeeze out as much of the juice as you can. You could spread a thin layer of caramel under the frosting layer in the middle of the cake if you wanted to intensify the flavour of it.

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Apple and banana cake with caramel cream cheese frosting

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Print Recipe

Prep Time:20 minutes mins

Cook Time:1 hour hr

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar or white – 350g
• 1 cup of sunflower oil
• 2 cups of cake flour – 280g
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda / baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 cups of of grated apple juice squeezed out
• 1/1/2 cups lightly mashed banana about 4 small- medium
• 3/4 of a cup walnuts chopped – plus extra for decoration
• frosting
• 100 g muscavado sugar
• 100 g butter
• 80 g Nestle Caramel Treat
• 230 g cream cheese

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180C/350 F
• Grease and line two 22cm round cake tins, or one large bundt tin.
• In an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until light an fluffy (about 4 minutes)
• Add the oil and continue to beat.
• Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda into the mixture and briefly mix to incorporate. Remove from the mixer and fold in the chopped fruit and nuts.
• Divide the batter evenly between the two tins and bake for about an hour until firm and when a sharp knife is inserted into the middle it comes out clean.*tip* if the top of the cake is getting too dark but it is not yet baked through, loosely cover it with a piece of tin foil.
• Allow the cake to cool on a rack before removing it from the tin.
• To make the frosting– beat the sugar, butter and caramel until pale and fluffy. Add the cream cheese and continue beating until the mixture is smooth and the sugar granules have worked out.
• Spread a thick layer between the two cooled cakes and sandwich them together. Cover the top, or, the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting and decorate with a few extra chopped nuts.

Servings: 12

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