When life hands you mushy bananas...

... You make banana bread. 

And not just any banana bread...

Banana & Strawberry Loaf

150g Softened butter (plus a little extra melted to grease tin)

2/3 Cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 Vanilla bean

2 Eggs, Lightly whisked

3 Mashed over ripe bananas

2 Cups self raising flour

1 Cup chopped strawberries

Preheat oven to 180C. Brush loaf tin with melted butter to grease. Line base and two opposite sides with baking paper. 

Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Slice the vanilla bean down the centre and scrape the seeds into mix using a knife. 

Add eggs and banana into the sugar/butter and mix until somewhat smooth (I like mine slightly chunky, sort of the consistency of porridge)

Sift flour into wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in strawberries. 

Pour into prepared loaf tin and bake at 180C for approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean (My oven is really temperamental so it may take less time)

Leave to cool in tin for 5 minutes and then lift onto a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into slices to serve. 

We have one sick little monster here today who absolutely loved this "nana cake". Here's hoping for a bright eyed boy in the morning. 

Sugar and Strikes and all things nice

There has been a lot of foreheads with worry lines in my home lately - an unsettled newborn, a stubborn 3 year old who refuses to be toilet trained and bills, bills bills. By Thursday we all needed to get out of the house and blow off some steam, Unfortunately our first plans were abandoned due to the rain so instead we decided to take Leo bowling for the first time.

Leo can be a little wary of the strangest things (Don't even mention face paint) but he LOVED bowling. I scored a miserable little 40 - terrible considering I worked in a bowling alley!

My little monster has the most amazing imagination and absolutely loves cooking and making things with me. Before having our baby girl, we had the time to do these things anytime we wanted to. Nowadays, its a little more difficult so it was really important to me that we came up with one big crafty/cooking/fun thing to do each week together, just me and my favourite little man.

This week he wanted to make shape cookies! Alas, Any cookie cutters I own are packed up and I have no idea where they are. So we settled on making circle sugar cookies and icing them! I am still trying to find the perfect sugar cookie recipe. This time around I adapted Nigella's recipe:

Easy Sugar Cookies (This made about 20 big circles)

85g Unsalted Butter
1/2 cup Caster Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/3 cups Self Raising Flour

Easy Icing

90mls Boiling Water
2 cups Icing Sugar
Gel food dye

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C

Cream the softened butter and the caster sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Sift the self raising flour and add to the mix slowly until a dough is formed. Form into a disk and cover with cling wrap. Refrigerate for 45mins to an hour.

When the dough feels firm enough, roll out to about 1/2 cm in thickness, using more flour so it doesn't stick to the surface or the roller (In my case I use any cylindrical object I can put my hands on.) Cut out shapes and place on trays lined with baking paper. Bake for 10-12mins until the edges are turning a light golden. Let cool on trays slightly and then transfer them to wire racks to completely cool before Icing.

To make the icing, In a bowl add the boiling water slowly to your icing sugar whilst mixing with a spoon. Split into smaller bowls and colour as you wish! Shucks, We even added sprinkles!