Gluten-Free Foodie Friday | Banana Torte with Salted Caramel Mascarpone Frosting
I know. I’ve got some ‘splaining to do. I’ve been MIA for a week and I’m so sorry! All will be revealed soon enough, but I promise it’s been for good reason. And I haven’t stopped thinking of you, even if I had to take a brief break from posting! In fact, I was thinking of you all just a couple of days ago as I was making this little sumpin’ sumpin’ for a lovely visit from English family this week.
My husband’s favourite dessert has always been some form of banana cake, so I really made this one to please him as much as anyone else. But I wanted to satisfy my own love of contrast to enliven the tastebuds. I accomplished that {I think} with the natural sweetness of the bananas juxtaposed against a salty-sweet and creamy mascarpone frosting that one could really eat by the spoonful all by itself.
The cake itself is moist and dense and really more like a flourless torte in many ways, making it rich and delicious.
The frosting? Well, it’s a repeater for sure. In fact, I’m already dreaming up other desserts to make just so I can use this frosting again. Super yum.
Here’s what I did for the cake:
THE INGREDIENTS:
WET
5 mashed ripe bananas
1 c. fat-free Greek yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla
DRY
2 cups almond flour
1 cup tapioca flour
2 cups coconut sugar
3 Tbsp ground chia seeds
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
THE METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. At the same time, mix together all the wet ingredients in a stand mixer, then slowly add the dry ingredients 1 cup at a time until fully combined with the wet mix.
Pour the batter into a greased 9×9 inch brownie pan and bake for 45-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Set aside to cool, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. I chose to trim the outside edges off of the cake for a perfectly clean edge. {Let’s be honest, we also just really wanted to try some of the cake before we served it!}
OK, now for the magical frosting:
THE INGREDIENTS:
4 Tbsp salted butter
4 Tbsp maple syrup
250 g mascarpone cheese
THE METHOD:
We love making homemade salted caramel sauce to pour over ice cream or just to use as a base when plating a fancy dessert. This time, I decided to use it to sweeten and flavour my frosting. It was an experiment, and let’s just say it did not exactly fail. Super simple, super delish. Simply combine the butter and maple syrup in a microwave safe bowl and microwave at 1 minute intervals, stirring in between. Usually at the 2 minute mark {depending on your microwave} you’ll start to get the gorgeous, candy-creating frothing bubbles that tell you you’re headed in the right direction. After the 2 minute mark, stir it and let it rest to see if it cools to the right viscosity. You want it to thickly coat the back of a spoon. If it’s not quite thick enough, try another 30 seconds. If you go too far, you’ll get maple taffy {not the worst mistake ever} and you’ll want to start again. Once you’ve learned the heat levels of your microwave you’ll find this super quick and easy to do.
Let the maple caramel cool in the fridge while you bring the mascarpone to room temperature. Once they are approximately the same temperature, whip them together with your stand mixture to create this gorgeously creamy, salty-sweet finishing touch.
I decided to make another batch of caramel sauce to just drizzle over the top, and to make it more pourable I added in 3-4 Tbsp of cream after the 2 minute mark.
This dessert may look simple in its presentation, but it wakes up the tastebuds and says “Hey there. How you doin’. Yeah, that’s right. I am that good. Take another bite. You know you want to.”
I hope this finds you happy and well and surrounded by the ones you love as you head into your weekend. And I hope you can enjoy something salty-sweet, creamy and delicious as you savour the richness of such good company. After all, it’s really the people we love that make life taste sweetest.
xo
s.
