Vegan Banana, Raisin, Sultana and Walnut Cake with Banana, Cocoa Dusted Almonds, Salted Caramel and Vanilla Frosting

It was my mum’s birthday and I wanted to make something a little different. I normally bake chocolate cakes, vanilla sponge cakes, carrot cakes or even coconut cakes but I was feeling a bit adventurous. You know those days when you can’t help yourself but take a risk 😀

I came across this wonderful vegan banana cake recipe here: https://www.egglesscooking.com/best-moist-banana-cake-recipe/

I normally find all my cake recipes on this blog and the cakes turn out simply wonderful. All the cakes I bake are eggless and hence the blog above is a godsend.

If I’m honest, I really don’t like bananas in my food. I don’t mind eating them as a fruit, but when I hear about banana icecream, banana yoghurt, banana smoothie or banana bread, it makes me gag a little.

I’ve slowly started incorporating banana in my smoothies and just a little bit makes them really taste wonderful. So I took the big risk and baked this banana cake.

The vegan banana cake recipe above uses avocado oil but I opted for sunflower oil as I don’t have avocado oil. I have tried substituting with olive oil before but I find that olive oil is too strong and its taste overpowers the cake. Sunflower oil is a bit more neutral.

The banana cake recipe also uses pecans but I decided to go for walnuts because banana and walnuts taste great together. Also, I didn’t have pecans 😀

I used my own vanilla frosting recipe and decided to top the vegan banana cake with banana slices, cocoa dusted almonds (which I had bought from Harrods), walnuts and salted caramel (which I made for the first time).

The vegan banana cake recipe suggested 2/3 cup of granulated sugar and the cake tasted perfect if you’re hosting a party. Personally, I don’t like anything that’s too sweet. I prefer it to be slightly less sweet. The bananas I used were quite ripe and also added to the sweetness. So I would suggest using slightly less than 2/3 cup of granulated sugar if you don’t have much of a sweet tooth AND your bananas are very ripe and sweet. If you are using unripe bananas, then you’ll need the sugar.

I’ve read that when baking, the riper the bananas, the better. So prepare in advance!

I also added raisins, sultanas and walnuts into the mix for a nice fruit and nut mix.

Finally, I used very little vanilla frosting because as I said, I don’t like anything that’s too sweet. You have the cake, the frosting, the toppings and additionally salted caramel, which is all a bit much for my liking. I used just a small layer of vanilla frosting. You can add more if you like.

Vegan Banana & Walnut Cake Topped with Vanilla Frosting, Walnuts, Banana slices, Cocoa Dusted Almonds & Salted Caramel Recipe

Vegan Banana & Walnut Cake

1 and 1/2 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2/3 cup granulated sugar (slightly less if you are using very ripe bananas)
1/2 cup sunflower oil (any oil of your choice)
1 and 1/2 cups mashed banana (turned out to be 2 ripe bananas)
3/4 cup yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-4 chopped walnuts
5-6 sultanas
5-6 raisins

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Sifting it through a sieve would help mix it well.

Mix the oil, sugar, mashed banana, yoghurt, vanilla extract in another bowl.

Add the flour mix into the oil mix. Add 2 tbspns of water and mix well. I normally fold the ingredients into each other with a spoon rather than mixing.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease your baking pan with oil/butter and dust a little bit of flour over this. Throw away any excess flour that doesn’t stick to the oil/butter coating.

Add the walnuts, sultanas and raisins to the cake mix bowl and fold them into the mix.

Pour this mix into your baking pan. I used a round pan 12cm in diameter and 9cm in depth.

Place the pan in your oven and bake for 35 – 40 minutes. Mine was perfectly done in 35 minutes. I use a fork to poke the cake and if nothing sticks on the cake, then I know it’s done.

Please note everyone’s ovens are different and may bake differently. It also depends on your pan. A wider flatter pan may require a shorter cooking time.

Vanilla Frosting (Not Vegan)

One tsp of butter
1/2 cup of white icing sugar
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

Add all ingredients into a bowl and mix well with a spoon until the sugar has mixed into the butter to form frosting. Add more butter or sugar as desired.

Use a knife to spread this vanilla frosting on the cake. I only spread it on the top of the cake.

Top vegan banana and walnut cake with toppings

Next, I chopped up another banana (not too ripe) into round slices and added this on the cake.

I also added whole walnuts (3-4 pieces) on top of the slices.

I then added the cocoa dusted almonds.

Use your imagination to arrange these on the cake. This is the fun bit!

Salted Caramel (Not Vegan)

As I was making this for the first time, I only wanted to make a small amount enough for drizzling on top and for dripping on the sides of the cake.

Most salted caramel recipes use cream but I didn’t have this. I came across this recipe: https://www.crazyforcrust.com/5-minute-salted-caramel-sauce/

It used milk which was perfect.

I edited the quantities to make about 2 tbspns of salted caramel. Here are my measurements:

Ingredients:

1 tsp of butter
2 tbsps of milk
1/4 cup demerara brown sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

As per the recipe:

I heated up the butter in a pan.
When the butter melted, I added sugar and milk and kept mixing.
The entire mixture started bubbling after a few minutes.
As the per the recipe, when the mixture started BOILING (not simmering), I set the clock to 2 minutes.
Within about 1.5 minutes, I noticed the mixture turning brown into salted caramel.
When the 2 minutes were up, I took the salted caramel off the flame.
I added the salt and vanilla and mixed it into the sugar mixture.

It was like magic. It turned out so well and tasted so yummy!

You must use this while it’s still hot to get the caramel to drizzle or drip. It takes only a few seconds for the salted caramel to harden like rock!

I found re-heating it on a slow flame melted it and I worked with very hot salted caramel, I almost got burnt a few times.

Be very careful when using this and always prepare it last when you’re about to top the cake with the caramel so you minimize heating.

I drizzled the salted caramel over the toppings haphazardly and dripped some around the sides of the cake.

The dripping didn’t work as well as I wanted to because I was working with the caramel for the first time. I believe it takes some practice and also I needed to use the salted caramel as soon as I made it.

You’ll see from the pictures the dripping on the sides of the cake looks a bit messy but you’ll forgive me this time 🙂

Vegan Banana & Walnut Cake Topped with Vanilla Frosting, Walnuts, Banana slices, Cocoa Dusted Almonds & Salted Caramel Recipe

Honestly, I could not be more proud of the result.

I know my cake looks a bit messy, I’m not a professional cake maker but it really did taste absolutely delicious. And this is coming from someone who isn’t a fan of bananas in food.

I was really really happy with the result. The combination of the banana with the walnuts, raisins, sultanas, salted caramel and vanilla icing couldn’t have been more perfect.

My brother complimented it and said it tasted really good. Normally, he is such a critic and will always “have a suggestion on how to make it better.”

Finally, I would urge you to eat this cake as soon as possible. The fresher, the better. I had left the cake out for a while and it started becoming wet – probably because of the ripeness of the bananas.

I had to refrigerate the cake. But I find that refrigeration normally makes a cake denser and not as light as when it is first baked. Hence, consume as soon as possible.

This vegan banana cake lasted for three days until we devoured it all.

I hope you make it and do let me know how it turns out. I’m sure you’ll love it 🙂