Banana, caramel Mars bar cake

Banana and caramel is a flavour combination that transcends cultural divides. In China you will find toffee bananas with a rich caramel toffee. In America you'll find the good ole banana caramel cream pie. In Colombia you'll find platoons calados, stewed-down banana in a caramel syrup.  

So with a banana overripe and a little sweetened condensed milk leftover from my Christmas cheesecake, I went back to tradition and baked this banana and caramel cake. While stopping at banana and caramel would have made a delicious afternoon treat, I had to give it my little twist. I added a Mars bar. Crazy you may say however who doesn't love cutting into a banana cake only to see chunks of chocolate and caramel throughout? 

Ingredients

Cake:

• 125 g butter 
• 3/4 cup caster sugar 
• 1 tsp vanilla essence 
• 1 egg 
• 1 large banana mashed ripe 
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour 
• 3 tablespoons of milk
• 2 tablespoons yoghurt
• 1 king-sized Mars bar chopped up into small pieces

Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon butter level
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk

Method

• preheat oven to 180 fan forced 
• cream butter and sugar until thick and pale in colour
• beat in egg
• beat in yoghurt and milk 
• add mashed banana and combine well
• add in Mars bar pieces
• sift in flour and mix with a spoon until well combined
• pour mixture into a loaf tin
• cook for 25 mins or cooked through and slightly brown
• once cake has cooled make the caramel
• to make the caramel melt butter and add sugar and condensed milk 
• cook on low heat until it thickens and comes away from the sides
• if too thick you can add a teaspoon or two of water - if you do put it back on the heat until incorporated properly
• let it cool just for a few minutes and then drizzle over the cake 
• serve with a dollop of cream or ice-cream

While this sounds like a sweet decedent dessert, the cake itself is not overly sweet so is perfect with a cup of tea at 3.30pm to get you through the afternoon.