Glace Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread

As they say "Life Has A Funny Way Of Working Out". I definitely believe this is true, especially when it comes to friendship and my group of friends. Most of us actually met at Brownies back in the early 2000's, unfortunately being the eldest in the group, I left for Guides and lost contact with them. Fast forward to 2013, after having moved on to Secondary School and needing to repeat the year, I found myself reunited with my Brownie pack. Along with a couple of others, we quickly bonded and became the best of friends.
Today, although living far away from each other, we're always there for one another and still do our best to keep in contact. Despite our conflicting schedules, we always try to meet up , even if it is only once or twice a year for catchup and a slice or three of Alice's Banana Bread.

Ingredients

Cake batter

• 140g butter, plus extra for greasing
• 140g of caster sugar
• 2 large beaten eggs
• 140g of self-raising flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 teaspoons of Vanilla extract
• 3 overly ripe bananas (see "tips" section if your banana's aren't fully ripe)
• 250g of good quality dark chocolate (at least 70%)
  

Glace icing

• 75g of icing sugar
• 4-5 teaspoons of warm water
• 1 teaspoon of Vanilla extract

Method

Prep

• Preheat a fan assisted oven to 180°c degrees.
• Grease a loaf tin and line the base and sides with parchment paper.

Cake

• In a large bowl, mix together the butter and the sugar for a good 5 minutes, or until it has turned pale and resembles cream.
• In a separate bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until spreadable, whisk in the beaten eggs and add in the Vanilla extract.
• Sift and mix 1/4 of the flour and baking powder into the sugar and butter mixture, followed by 1/4 of the banana mixture.
• Repeat, alternating between the sifted flour and banana mixture, insuring that it is all well combined.
• Break and finely chop up the chocolate before lightly dusting it with 1 tablespoon of flour.
• Carefully fold the chocolate into the mixture.
• Pour the mixture into the loaf tin.
• Bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until a knife / skewer comes out clean.
• Once baked, let it cool  in the tin for at least 15 minutes.

Glace Icing

• Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add in the vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of warm water.
• Start mixing with a spoon and add another teaspoon of water.
• Continue mixing and adding more water (1 teaspoon at a time) until the icing coats the back of the spoon.
• Once the desired consistency is achieved, set aside.

Assembling

• Remove the cake the from the tin.
• With the use of a fork, place holes across the top of the cake.
• Take the glace icing and drizzle 1/2 of it over the warm cake.
• Wait a couple of minutes for the icing to set, and pour over the remaining half.

Wait for it to cool completely or serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, enjoy :)

Tips :
This recipe is pretty versatile, you can use anything from chocolate, walnuts, almonds, sultanas, cranberries, to dried mixed fruit.

Fancy making Banana Bread but don't have ripe bananas ? Not a problem, speed up the process in the oven !

Oven process ;

- Preheat a fan assisted oven to 150°c degrees.
- Simply place unpeeled bananas on a lined baking tray.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until their peel turns black.
- Remove from the oven and let them cool.

Perfectly ripped bananas you can use in cakes, smoothies, icecream or as compotes.