favorites // caramel mousse banana cake with salted caramel espresso sauce

There are some things that are just unwaveringly delicious – the combination of coffee and caramel, caramel and banana… this banana bread recipe specifically.

I’m a huge huge fan of @majachocolat on Instagram who creates the most tantalizing desserts that represent, in my opinion, the optimum balance between simplicity and complexity. A while back she posted a picture of this cake and I became obsessed with recreating the look of it. I don’t think I’ve had ever seen mousse cakes in that form before! So I took my favorite banana bread recipe from the Flour Bakery cookbook, which I’ve made maybe 3 times already (I rarely repeat recipes so it’s a big deal), and scoured the Internet for a caramel mousse recipe to go with. Surprisingly perhaps, I had a really hard time finding a suitable one and eventually settled for this recipe. For the topping, I took a regular salted caramel sauce recipe, made just a quarter of the quantity stated with the addition of 1/4 teaspoon of instant espresso powder.

Somehow the density of the banana bread and airiness of the mousse didn’t work together too harmoniously (I think the mousse wasn’t rich enough – probably needed white chocolate) which was such a bummer. Just the sauce with the banana bread would have been perfect. So. I’ll leave the cake recipe below because I strongly recommend that, and the links to the other components can be found in the previous paragraph for those who are curious. Happy baking Xx

Flour’s Famous Banana Bread

makes a 9 inch loaf

Ingredients:

210 grams all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

230 grams sugar

2 eggs

120 ml canola oil

3 1/2 very ripe medium bananas, peeled and mashed (about 340 grams)

2 tablespoons crème fraîche or sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup walnut halves, toasted and chopped

Instructions: Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Slowly drizzle in the oil. Add the bananas, crème fraîche/sour cream and vanilla and mix until just combined. Fold in the flour mixture and nuts until thoroughly combined.

Transfer batter into the pan and bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Let cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before removing the cake from the pan to finish cooling.