The Cake Slice: Banana Cake with Praline Filling and White Chocolate Ganache

Hey there, I'm still here! Just in time for The Cake Slice Bakers' monthly mingle. This month we baked a Banana Cake with Praline Filling and White Chocolate Ganache (whew, that's a mouthful) from the book Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes.

This is basically a white cake flavored with banana and spiced with cinnamon. The recipe asked for 2 cups of sugar which I thought will make a very sweet cake. But I wanted to follow the recipe and I was right, it was too sweet for me.

I'm also not a big fan of white chocolate. It tends to be sweeter compared to regular chocolate (is it because it lacks actual cocoa solids?) but like I said I wanted to follow the recipe so I used it anyway. I used some dark chocolate ganache on a couple of the mini cakes as well just because. :)

And the praline filling? My kids do not like nuts in their cakes so that's why you see them all outside the cake. Well, a few made it on top of the cakes. :) The book says this is an unusual way of making praline; the pecans were doused in sugar and deep-fried! The same thing you would do when making kamote-que so it was not too weird for me. :) In fact, this is the part of the cake I liked best, I couldn't stop munching on these!

I haven't done much baking since the holidays so I was looking forward to this. You can tell I had plenty of fun and made four mini cakes (or four mega petits fours) and decorated each differently:

cake #1 simply frosted, with a little spiral action;
cake #2 covered with dark chocolate ganache, cooled then poured with white chocolate ganache and decorated with praline;
cake #3 is like the the previous cake, order of ganache reversed;

and lastly cake #4, my "doodles" cake, dark chocolate was melted and poured into a squeeze bottle, then used to draw squiggly lines onto a baking sheet, let it harden then press onto sides. (I was trying to duplicate the spun sugar on my Dulce de Leche cake but I ran out of chocolate, oops.)

My kids couldn't decide which cake to slice into first. Which one would you pick?

Please be sure to visit my fellow bakers at The Cake Slice Bakers for the recipe and their own creations. I can't wait to check them out myself. I have learned so much from them these past months and they continually keep me inspired.

Leche Flan

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a joyous holiday season. I spent the days prior to Christmas preparing for two celebrations: my family's Noche Buena (also my baby brother's birthday) and D's family's Christmas dinner. Besides making Pancit Palabok for my brother's birthday (noodles signifies long life) and a birthday cake, I made desserts for both dinners and one of them is Leche Flan, a rich, creamy, caramel-ly sweet dessert my family goes crazy for.

Leche Flan is always expected at the dessert buffet at my family's Noche Buena celebration. It's the most requested dessert in my family not only on holidays but on any celebration. It took me several tries years ago and have finally perfected what my family thinks lives up to the Leche Flan we used to have in Manila.

Leche Flan is usually made from fresh carabao milk. I only had this once growing up when I spent summers in our province in Munoz, Nueva Ecija. I was too young, I don't remember how it tasted. In Manila, fresh milk is hard to come by so people relied on canned milk. It is also usually steamed but I find this cooking method results in creating tiny bubbles in the flan; a big no-no in my family, especially my Mom. She will refuse to serve flan that had "bubbled up" and will not eat this herself. Cooking Leche Flan in a bain marie solved this problem.

One more thing, I realized Leche Flan is very similar to a Brazilian dessert Pudim de Leite Condensada as seen in Technicolor Kitchen, one of my favorite Brazilian food blog. Now I know why my in-laws goes crazy for this dessert, too!



Leche Flan

for the caramel sauce:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

for the custard:
12 large egg yolks
1 can condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Make the caramel. Mix sugar and water together in a small saucepan and stir until sugar dissolves. Bring mixture to boil in medium high heat until golden brown in color. Then pour into mold. (I used a ring mold but you can use any oven-proof pan.) Swirl caramel around until it covers the bottom and sides of pan. Set aside to cool.

While caramel cool, bring a pot full of water to boil needed for bain marie.

In a large bowl, stir egg yolks. Add both milk and vanilla extract and stir to combine completely.

Pour mixture through a strainer into the prepared mold. The strainer will catch any egg solids and will create a smoother leche flan.

Place a roasting pan in the oven rack. Place a kitchen towel inside the pan (this will avoid slipping of your flan mold) and place your leche flan-filled mold on it. Pour the hot water in the larger pan halfway up the sides of your mold. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the top is set. You can jiggle your mold to test for this.

Take flan out of bain marie and let cool, about 2 hours. Then chill in refrigerator, at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

To serve, place pan in a larger pan filled with hot water for about a minute. Then invert pan into serving plate. Enjoy!