Banana and mocha frangipane cake with browned butter Swiss meringue buttercream
A rich and moist banana cake swirled with mocha frangipane and layered with browned butter Swiss meringue buttercream and a cheat's mocha mousse.
The banana cake is made moist with the mashed bananas and the addition of almond meal. The cake stays moist with the use of oil.
A spruced-up classic, made for the mother's birthday.
The mother asked for something with almond meal (again - likely because we have a bunch of the stuff and I haven't made macarons in a while.....), and we had ripened bananas just sitting on the benchtop, so I decided to create this.
Look at those browned butter speckles.....
Not only is this cake super moist (and stays super moist! Even after being refrigerated! What a dream!), but it also bakes pretty flat (so long as you remember to cool it upside down), so you don't get as much 'wastage' from levelling the cakes.
I say 'wastage' in inverted commas because I definitely eat cake tops and they are definitely not wasted in this here house (they are also definitely the best parts of the cake sue me).
I also say 'pretty flat' because it doesn't bake ~perfectly~ flat, so a little will still have to be trimmed off. Cooling cakes upside down is not a failsafe against domed cakes - due to how moist this cake it, it's quite...... malleable and thus flattens pretty well when cooled upside down.
Those brown splotches in the cake is the frangipane
Make sure you keep your buttercream nice and cool!!!
Do you see how the buttercream inside the cake is a darker colour than the outer layer? That's not intentional. That happened because it was a HOT day and it was quite literally melting as I was assembling the cake. The outer layer was applied the next day.
Depending on how much buttercream you like between the layers and on the outside, you may not have enough left to pipe on the top. I had some extra browned butter that I beat into the bit of buttercream I had left. I also beat in a bit of icing sugar mixture (icing sugar would also work just fine) for stability.
However, you are likely to have leftover ganache, so you can also whip that up slightly (don't go too far, otherwise it will get clumpy) to pipe on top.
I used Swiss meringue buttercream, simply because I wanted to try it out, but you can use Italian meringue buttercream (I have a recipe for that in my 'Christmas speculoos cake' post!) or American buttercream (just beat the butter with icing sugar) if you'd prefer.
Decorated with extra buttercream, banana chips, silver cachous, and what I believe to be yoghurt covered raisins
Feel free to increase the amount of spice and/ or coffee to your liking. The amounts I have provided here are for a very mildly spiced cake and very light coffee flavour, since coffee is quite strong and I didn't want it overpowering the browned butter flavour.
Try to use as little water as possible when dissolving the instant coffee. The less liquid used, the less the texture and consistency will be changed.
For the coffee in the mousse you don't need to worry about this since you will be dissolving the coffee in the cream. Just make sure you dissolve it in the cream already in the recipe and not in extra cream so that you keep the chocolate to cream ratio.
Feel free to decrease the quantities for a smaller cake diameter or less layers - I know this is a HEFTY boi.
Recipe
For the banana and mocha frangipane cake
Makes two 20cm round cakes
INGREDIENTS:
For the frangipane:
- 100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 75g brown OR castor sugar
- 2 eggs
- 16g (2tbsp) plain flour
- 12g (2tbsp) cocoa powder
- 150g almond meal
- 2-3g (2-3tsp) instant coffee, dissolved in just enough hot water
For the cake:
- Roughly 930g (5-6 large bananas, 3c) mashed banana
- 1c light flavoured oil
- 420g brown sugar
- 2tsp vanilla
- 6 eggs
- 260g almond meal
- 225g self-raising flour
- 2 1/2tsp cinnamon OR 1 1/2tsp cinnamon and 1tsp mixed spice
- 1tsp baking powder
METHOD:
First make the frangipane:
1. Cream together the butter and sugar until well combined. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure the first is well incorporated before adding the second.
2. Sift in the flour and cocoa powder and add in the almond meal. Beat together gently until combined. Beat in the dissolved coffee.
Set aside.
Now make the cake:
3. Preheat your oven to 180°C. Line and grease two 20cm round cake pans. Set aside.
4. Place the mashed bananas into a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the oil, sugar, vanilla, and eggs and beat until fully combined.
5. Sift the flour, spices, and baking powder directly into the bowl. Add the almond meal. Mix gently until fully combined.
6. Pour a quarter (1/4) of the batter into one of the prepared pans. Dollop or pipe half (1/2) of the frangipane mixture on top and swirl with a knife. Pour another quarter (1/4) of the cake batter on top. Repeat in the other pan.
7. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and turn out to cool upside down on a cooling rack until fully cooled.
For the browned butter Swiss meringue buttercream
INGREDIENTS:
- 500g unsalted butter, plus a separate 200g at room temperature
- 8 egg whites
- 400g sugar (I used 250g castor sugar and 150g brown sugar)
METHOD:
First brown the butter:
1. Chop the 500g of butter into even cubes and place in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally to ensure butter melts evenly.
2. Once butter has melted, leave to gently bubble away until you start to see the milk solids (the white specks) settle at the bottom. Stir gently to ensure they cook evenly.
3. Once you see those milk solids start to brown and smell a warm, nutty aroma, remove the pan from the heat and pour it into a heatproof bowl (make sure to include the milk solids!) to cool until it has solidified but is still soft and malleable - this is important as browned butter crumbles much more easily than non-browned butter.
4. Weigh out the browned butter and add the extra butter until it altogether weighs 600g (you may not need to use the whole 200g). Set aside.
Then make the meringue:
5. Place the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or a large heatproof bowl and hand whisk to roughly combine. Place the bowl over a pot of boiling water or a double boiler, ensuring the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl.
6. Gently hand whisk the egg whites and sugar over the heat until it feels hot and no longer gritty or grainy when you rub it between your fingers OR until it reaches 71°C.
7. Remove from the heat and place the bowl back onto your stand mixer or onto your benchtop. Start beating on a low to medium-low speed with the whisk attachment or with your hand-mixer. When making meringue, the lower speed ensures the bubbles are smaller and more compact. Keep beating until you have reached soft peaks, then increase speed to medium to medium-high until stiff peaks form. This step may take a while. Feel free to give your mixer a rest from time to time.
Now put the two together:
8. Swap to the paddle attachment. With the mixer running on a medium-low speed, spoon in the butter, roughly a tablespoon at a time. Ensure the butter is fully combined before adding the next tablespoon. You want to make sure that the browned butter especially is soft and even as cold browned butter crumbles more easily and you may get small chunks of butter in your buttercream. After adding all the butter, beat until it is thick and smooth. If it looks broken or loose, just keep beating it! It will come together eventually. It's like an emulsification. If it's still not coming together, place it in the fridge for 5-10 minutes then take it out and beat it again.
Set aside.
*If you're setting it aside in the fridge, make sure you allow it to come to room temperature then give it another beat until smooth before using.
For the cheat's mocha mousse
INGREDIENTS:
- 60g (1/4c) cream, plus a separate 300g (1 1/4c) of cream chilled
- 2-3g (2-3tsp) instant coffee, to taste
- 170g dark chocolate (or milk chocolate if you prefer), chopped or broken into chunks
METHOD:
First make the ganache:
1. Heat over low heat a couple of tablespoons of the 60g of cream in a saucepan with the instant coffee and stir until the coffee has dissolved.
2. Add the rest of the 60g of cream and the chocolate in and stir continuously until the chocolate has melted and ganache is smooth and shiny. Set aside to cool slightly. You want it cool but not cold enough for it to have started solidifying.
Then whip the cream:
3. Place the 300g of chilled cream into a bowl and beat with a stand mixer or hand mixer on a medium to medium-high speed until soft peaks. Lower the speed and beat to stiff peaks.
Now put them together:
4. Gently fold roughly a quarter of the whipped cream into the ganache to loosen it up. Then, gently fold in the rest of the cream.
For the ganache
INGREDIENTS:
- 240g cream
- 240g dark chocolate (or milk chocolate if you prefer), chopped or broken into chunks
METHOD:
1. Place the cream and chocolate in a saucepan over a medium-low heat and stir continuously until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth and shiny.
Set aside to cool.
To assemble the cake
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 batch banana and mocha frangipane cake (two 20cm cakes)
- 1 batch browned butter swiss meringue buttercream
- 1 batch cheat's mocha mousse
- 1 batch ganache
- Silver cachous (optional)
- Banana chips (optional)
- Any other decorative pieces (optional)
METHOD:
1. Slice off the tops of the cakes to level them if necessary. Then, slice the cakes in half to get 4 layers.
2. On your desired serving plate, cake stand, or cake board, place a bottom cake layer.
3. Spread on your desired amount of buttercream (or roughly 2/3c first if you're unsure. You can always add more if it doesn't seem like enough) evenly.
4. Then, transfer some buttercream into a piping bag and pipe a dam around the edge to hold the mousse it. Dollop roughly a third (1/3) of the mousse onto the cake and spread it out evenly.
5. Place a top cake layer on top of your first layer and repeat steps 3 and 4.
6. Repeat step 5.
7. For the final layer (which should be a bottom cake layer), flip it upside down, so that the bottom of the cake is snow at the top, and place it on top. Spread a very thin, even layer of buttercream around the top and sides of the cake to seal in the crumbs. Place the cake in the fridge to chill until the buttercream feels firm to the touch.
8. Remove the cake from the fridge and evenly spread on a final coat of buttercream. Return to the fridge to chill until firm.
9. Gently heat up the ganache until it is your desired consistency. You can test this by dripping some down the side of a bowl or a plate held upright. If it drips just slightly faster or longer than you'd like, you're probably ready (because the cake is likely to be colder than your plate or bowl).
10. Remove the cake from the fridge. Transfer some ganache into a piping bag or syringe and pipe drips along the edge of the cake. You can do this by holding the tip of the piping tool a little above the edge of the cake and squeezing or pushing the ganache out over that spot. You will see the ganache gather at that spot and drip down the side. Repeat the process around the whole cake. You can add more ganache for a longer drip, or less ganache for a shorter drip. I like to ensure I have a variety of shorter and longer drips.
11. If desired, whip up any leftover buttercream or ganache and pipe it onto the cake. Decorate with cachous, banana chips, and any other pieces if desired.
That's it!
Store covered in the fridge.
Enjoy!
