APPLE AND CINNAMON CAKE

I had been meaning to make this cake ever since I first spotted it on Lynn Hill's website here. I had in fact already tasted it, when a friend made it for our cake club meeting last October.  Sadly the cake club as such no longer exists.  It's been replaced by a "cake and bake" club that, more often than not, meets at lunchtime instead of mid afternoon.  This means that there are more savoury bakes, quiches and the like, because it's at lunchtime, (even salad, soup and sandwiches have made an appearance) as people think that lunch is not lunch unless you have something other than just cake.

It depends on your perspective I suppose!!

Anyway, this cake (diets notwithstanding) was baked because we were having visitors and a cup of tea in the afternoon just doesn't seem right unless there is a cake to go with it.  (Sounds like a good excuse to me!)  As usual I made it in a 23cm round tin rather than the square tin in the original recipe.

Like all of Lynn's recipes, it's straightforward to make and works perfectly.  After all, what else would you expect from the lady whose brainchild was the Clandestine Cake Club, a brilliant idea that ended up with thousands of members all around the world.  Sadly it is no more and I still miss it.  However, I urge you to check out the website and browse all the lovely recipes.

This was an excellent cake, just the right amount of moistness and spice.  The drizzled warmed golden syrup on top is a trick I might try on other cakes.  Our visitors loved it, had second helpings and jumped at the offer of a slice to take home.  Mind you, they thought it could stand more spice and suggested adding some ginger.  Judge for yourself if you make it.  I was concerned that I had sprinkled too much ground cinnamon over the cake before drizzling the icing on top, and that it might taste a bit "soapy", but in fact it was just right.

It's one of the few cakes I have made that have been gone in less than 24 hours.  Here's my adaptation of it.

Ingredients

For the cake

1 dessert apple (or eating apple as my mum used to say!)

180g spreadable butter (I used Country Life Spreadable)

180g soft dark brown sugar

3 eggs

200g self raising flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tblsp golden syrup

For the topping

3 tblsp golden syrup

1-2 tsp ground cinnamon

4 tblsp icing sugar 

1 tsp preboiled water (you could use lemon juice)

Method

Grease and line the base of a 23cm round springform cake tin.  Preheat the oven to 180C / 160 fan.

Peel the apple, cut out the core and chop into 1cm dice.  Put the chopped apple into a small bowl and cover with cold water.  This will prevent the apple from going brown.  Set aside.

Put the butter and sugar into a large bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer until lighter and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, along with a little of the flour and beat in.

Fold in the flour and cinnamon, mixing until well combined.

Drain the apple and tip onto a tray lined with baking paper.  Place another sheet of paper on top and pat the apple pieces dry.  Add to the mixture with the golden syrup and stir well to combine.

Tip the mixture into the tin and level the top.  Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown and done.

While the cake is cooking, put the 3 tblsp golden syrup for the topping into a small saucepan and heat gently until melted and very runny.

When the cake is done, remove from the oven and prick all over with a skewer.  Pour on the melted golden syrup and brush over with a pastry brush.

Cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.  

When completely cool, dust with ground cinnamon.

Make a water icing using the icing sugar (sieved) and water (or lemon juice) and drizzle it decoratively over the cake.

Cuts into 10-12 slices.

PUMPKIN, APPLE AND WALNUT SPICE CAKE

 

I made this cake for our latest cake and bake club meeting where the theme was "autumn".

 

It's a variation on a favourite recipe that uses tinned pumpkin purée.  You can see that recipe here.  I replaced some of the pumpkin with grated eating apple and some of the vegetable oil with walnut oil.

 

I used my "fleur de lys" Nordic Ware Bundt pan and the cake release recipe I posted recently.  The cake slipped out of the tin perfectly and in fact I could even tell that it was completely loose on picking it up and before turning it upside down.  It's such a relief when the cake doesn't stick.

 

 

 

This was my last meeting as club organiser and I was delighted that most of the bakes on the table were cakes (not quiches) just like the old days.  My cake looked good without the maple syrup glaze I had planned to drizzle over it.  The tin makes a fairly plain cake look gorgeous and I thought it best not to detract from the design with any kind of icing.  It tasted good too and was sweet enough without any added icing sugar.  If anything I would add a little more spice next time, maybe a teaspoonful of ginger or mixed spice.

 

 

It had a nice texture, moist and soft without falling apart when cut.

 

 

Ingredients

 

200g plain flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
250g soft brown sugar
50g walnuts, roughly chopped
3 eggs
100ml sunflower oil
90ml walnut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
300g pumpkin purée from a tin
1 large eating apple, peeled and grated

Method

Grease and flour a large Bundt tin, or use cake release paste.  Preheat the oven to 175˚C / 155˚ fan. 

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, salt, spices, baking powder and bicarb.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs lightly then add the oils, vanilla, sugar, pumpkin and apple.  Mix well then add the dry ingredients and the nuts.  Mix well to combine then pour carefully into the prepared tin.

Tap the tin on the worktop a few times to release any trapped air bubbles then bake for 40 minutes or until done.  Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out to cool completely.

Dust with icing sugar or drizzle with a simple water icing when cold.

Cuts into 12-16 slices.

BLUEBERRY, MINT AND LEMON CAKE

We have friends who are completely baffled why we live (half of the year) in France.  They have the impression that, away from the towns, the place is deserted.  Dead as a dodo.  They recall holidays where they have driven round from village to village for hours and barely seen a soul.  All houses appear shut up and empty, almost like in a ghost town.

Well, dear readers, trust me when I say, you could not be further from the truth.  Behind those shuttered windows and doors lie the real France, the goings on are way beyond your imagination and experience.....read on...…...

 

 

We are at the tail end of a heat wave.  Yesterday we were in the middle of three days of "canicule" (the French word for heatwave) and believe me, it is flippin' hot.  Yesterday the temperature was expected to reach 40C by teatime and it was hardly the ideal weather to hold a cake club meeting!

 

And sure enough, if you had driven around the village of Boussay in Touraine yesterday afternoon, you would have found the place deserted, all windows and doors shuttered against the heat and yet......an awful lot of cars parked along a certain street outside a certain house opposite the château and the sound of laughter and the clinking of glasses coming from within.  Yes, it was a cake club meeting.  Undaunted by the weather the members rose to the occasion and baked an amazing selection of cakes and bakes to the theme of "herbs".

 

 

And so I come to my blueberry, lemon and mint cake.  I saw the recipe as a loaf cake on the Delicious Magazine website and also on a blog where the writer had baked it as a Bundt cake instead of a loaf.  That was more my kind of thing so I decided to go for it.

 

It was lovely.  A nice texture which held up well (with no buttercream to melt in the heat).  I thought it had the right amount of mint but if I make it again (which I probably will) I would use double the lemons (use two instead of one) and use halve the quantity of blueberries.  In spite of adding the fruit in thirds most of the blueberries sank to the bottom of the tin which meant they were bizarrely at the top of my Bundt cake.

 

I thought it looked much better without the drizzle which was rather like mint sauce and put a kind of green sludgy finish on it but....I doubt that anyone expects glamour from this kind of cake and it did have the effect of giving the cake just the right mintyness.  I decorated mine with mint leaves, viola flowers and the rather weird looking flowers from our garden mint.  Definitely one to be made again.  You can see the recipe I used here and here for the Bundt version.

 

Ingredients

 

115g very soft butter

25g freshly picked mint leaves

250g blueberries (try 150g next time)

finely grated zest and juice of 1 large lemon (try 2 lemons next time)

250g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

2 large eggs, beaten

120ml whole milk

25g desiccated coconut

 

For the glaze

 

100g granulated sugar

 

Method

 

 

Rinse and dry the blueberries and put into a bowl.  Finely chop about a quarter of the mint leaves to yield roughly 1 tblsp.  Add to the blueberries with one tsp of the lemon juice.  Stir together and set aside.

 

Preheat the oven to 180C / 160 fan / gas mk4.  Butter a 900g loaf tin or a Bundt tin.

 

Using an electric hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (this will take longer than usual due to the high proportion of sugar).  Beat in the lemon zest then the eggs, one at a time, adding a little flour with the second egg.

 

Beat in the milk then fold in the flour. baking powder and coconut.

 

Spoon one third of the mixture into the tin followed by one third of the blueberries.  Repeat twice, ending with a layer of blueberries.  Bake for 60-70 minutes until done.

 

While the cake is cooking make the glaze by putting the rest of the mint leaves and 2 tblsp of the granulated sugar into a mini processor or pestle and mortar and process until a paste is formed.  Stir in the lemon juice and set aside.

 

When the cake is cooked leave in the tin for ten minutes then turn out if using a Bundt tin, leave in the tin if using a loaf tin.

 

Press the mint mixture through a fine sieve or tea strainer into a bowl or jug and stir in the remaining granulated sugar.  Pour the liquid over the cake and leave to cool completely.

 

If you like you can add a further drizzle of icing made with icing sugar and lemon juice.  Decorate as desired.

 

Cuts into 10-12 slices. 

 

FRESH OR FROZEN FRUIT CAKE

 

 

The theme of our recent cake and bake club meeting was "on trend or vintage" and when I was wondering what to make I remembered this recipe for "frozen fruit cake".  It appeared some time ago in the blog written by Mary-Anne Boermans, a previous GBBO contestant, called "Time to cook online".

Mary-Anne has a passion for old recipes and this one apparently dates back to the 1930's.  The beauty of it is that you can use virtually any fruit at all, fresh, tinned or frozen, making it very versatile and friendly and exactly my cup of tea.

 

 

The cake mixture is made using the rubbed in method.  Half of it is spread over the bottom of the tin, then the fruit is mixed into the other half before spreading the mixture on top.  The idea is that this prevents all of the fruit from sinking to the bottom during cooking and it worked!

 

 

The cake had a firmish texture, ideal as a traybake for picnics etc.  I put fresh fruit in mine, using up what I had in the fridge, so it was a mixture of strawberries, cherries and blueberries.  It's not a show stopper or a great party cake but a good way of using up mixed fruit from the fruit bowl or freezer.  Nice with a cup of tea in the afternoon.   Thinking about it, there were not really "showstopper cakes" around in the 1930's.  Between the wars most people would have been thrilled and grateful to have any kind of cake on the tea table and you certainly would not have seen the glamorous cakes we get nowadays, not in ordinary households anyway.  You can see the recipe here. and it cuts into about 12 pieces.

 

 Cake and Bake club meeting June 2019.

 

CCC club meeting February 2016.  

 

The cake club has evolved into something I'm not too sure about.  We used to have a very successful branch of the Clandestine Cake Club in the Loire Valley, attracting lots of people and beautiful cakes at every meeting.  When the CCC folded the members decided they would like to continue with meetings but change to a "cake and bake" club (although most people still refer to it as "cake club"). 

At the last meeting there were only four cakes on the table, three of which were baked by us - me, Nick and my brother who was staying with us on holiday. 

Amongst other things on the table there were three almost identical quiches, rock buns, biscuits and a chilled dessert.  All well made and very tasty but......for me there is nothing quite like the sight of a table full of gorgeous cakes.  The two pictures above serve to illustrate what I mean.

Cakes are special, a treat, a challenge to bake and beautiful to look at.  There is a sense of joy and achievement when you have baked a gorgeous cake and bring it out for everyone to feast their eyes on and taste a slice.  I'm not sure you can say the same about a quiche, even a very nice quiche.  In my mind the club was not started so that people could bring the everyday things they bake for tea.

Hey ho.  You can read more about it here.

 

GINGER PRUNE CAKE

 

Nick made this cake for our most recent cake club meeting and it proved to be very popular.

 

 

 

The brief was one's own personal angle on Easter and as Nick is very much a fan of ginger cake he decided to make one in an angular tin, decorated with a few mini eggs.

 

 

The tin was a purchase from Ikea a few years back and I don't think they have it in stock any more.  It's an excellent tin, makes an ordinary cake look a bit more interesting and I have found that it works for any recipe that uses either a 2lb loaf tin or a 20cm round tin.  Because of the shape it's particularly good for cakes that you don't want to ice or decorate to make them look tempting. 

 

Not that this cake was by any means ordinary - not at all.  The recipe comes from the Whitworths website and uses their crystallised fiery ginger, of which we happened to have a packet in the cupboard.  The prunes are Agen prunes, gloriously sticky things from the south of France and nothing like the dried poor relations often masquerading as prunes elsewhere.  (Other really nice prunes are of course available.)  One of the items where you definitely get what you pay for is prunes.

 

 

 

There are plenty of people who have an aversion to prunes - or see them as a bit of a joke - their medicinal and constitutional properties being the foundation for many a jest about old folks' homes, school dinners and more.  However, I think you would be hard pressed to identify that the deliciously sticky fruitiness of this cake comes from the humble (or holy) prune, it just tastes strongly of ginger with a fruity texture and flavour.  A great hit and one I shall be making again. 

(The original recipe seems to have been removed from the Whitworths website.)

 

I have baked other lovely things with prunes so if you're a fan you could look at Chocolate Prune Cake, Prune and Brandy Clafoutis and Prune and Apple Layer Cake.

 

Ingredients

25g crystallised ginger, finely chopped

70g good quality prunes

150g golden syrup

50g black treacle

110g dark brown soft sugar

150g unsalted butter

8g ground ginger

2g ground mixed spice

2 eggs

2 tlsp semi skimmed milk

120g self raising flour

 

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 C / 140 fan / gas mk 3.  Grease and line an 18cm round tin.  (Or grease with cake release paste if using a fancy tin.)

Purée the prunes in a food processor (or chop them very finely) then transfer to a large saucepan.

Add the golden syrup, treacle, sugar and butter to the pan and stir together on low heat until evenly combined.

Remove from the heat.

Stir in the ground ginger, mixed spice and chopped ginger.

Lightly beat the eggs and milk together and stir into the pan to form a smooth batter.

Sift over the flour and fold into the batter.  Transfer to the prepared tin.

Bake for about 1 hour until springy to the touch. 

Remove from the oven and cool in the tin.

Dust with icing sugar before serving.

 

Cuts into 10-12 slices.

 

APPLE AND LEMON CAKE and a rather good discovery.

This is one of Mary Berry's most recent recipes, appearing in her latest TV series, the book that goes with it and in several places on the internet, one of which you can see here.  I was dying to have a go at making it but was so busy with other stuff that I had to put it on the back burner, so to speak, until I had the time.

Come Easter time I finally got around to it. I decided to fill and top the cake with a lemon buttercream,  and to decorate with some fruity mini eggs and triangles of a newly discovered find in a French supermarket; a chocolate bar called Blond.

 

 

As it turned out it this chocolate tastes absolutely like Caramac.  A Caramac bar was a real treat when I was a little girl and its unique caramel flavour is to die for.  I haven't seen it in the shops for years although to be fair, I haven't been looking - the confectionary aisle of any supermarket is out of bounds, being far too dangerous.  

 

 

I was not too chuffed when I took the cakes out of the oven as they didn't look very enticing.  A good slathering with lemon buttercream improved matters!

 

 

It had an excellent, even crumb and was nice and moist, as it was bound to be with the grated apple in it.  I shall certainly be making this one again very soon although I think next time just a filling of lemon curd and a dusting of icing sugar might be enough without the buttercream, just like an apple Victoria sponge, which is what it is really.

Ingredients

225g baking spread, straight from the fridge

225g caster sugar

225g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 large eggs, beaten

2 dessert apples, such as granny smith or golden delicious, peeled, cored and grated

For the buttercream

1 lemon, zest only

100g butter, softened

200g icing sugar

a splash of milk

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C / 160 Fan / gas mk 4.  Butter and line the bases of two 20cm sponge tins.

Put all the cake ingredients except for the grated apple into a large bowl and beat with an electric hand held whisk until well combined.  Fold in the grated apple.

Divide the mixture between the two tins, level the top and bake for 25-30 minutes.  Cool in the tins.

To make the buttercream, sift the icing sugar into a large bowl to make sure there are no lumps.  Beat in the butter until smooth and then beat in the lemon zest.  Add a splash of milk if needed if the mixture is too stiff.

When the cakes are cold, release from the tins and sandwich together with half of the buttercream, spreading the rest on the top.

Decorate as you prefer!

Cuts into 8-10 slices.

APPLE, CARROT AND WALNUT LOAF

Nick made this cake for our last cake club.  The recipe comes from a lovely little book called “Cooking with apples and pears” by Laura Washburn.

It’s a lightly spiced loaf cake with, as you would imagine, apples, carrots and walnuts.  Nick followed the recipe to the letter as usual, apart from adding a few extra chopped walnuts scattered on the top before baking and an apricot glaze, for extra glam.  Both the apples and the walnuts were windfalls.  Fresh walnuts are so wonderful, tender and sweet and nothing like the dry and bitter ones often available to buy.

It was delicious in the way that a no nonsense date and walnut loaf is delicious – homely and not too sweet and therefore sometimes preferred spread with a little butter.  I liked it plain. 

There was a good chunk of cake left over after the meeting and as we were heading back to the UK a couple of days later, I put it in the freezer.  Three weeks later we returned to France so out of the freezer it came and then it really came into its own – toasted and buttered.  Absolutely delicious and definitely a cake I will be making myself again – unless I can get Nick to do it for me!

Ingredients

250g plain flour

150g light muscovado sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp allspice

100ml apple juice

75g unsalted butter, melted

2 lge eggs, beaten

1 large cooking apple, peeled, cored and grated

100g carrots, grated

65g walnuts, coarsely chopped

a few extra chopped walnuts for the topping (optional)

1 tblsp apricot jam to glaze (optional)

Method

Line a 2lb / 900g loaf tin with baking paper or use a paper liner.  Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan / gas mk 4.

Put the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix together.

Put the apple juice, melted butter and eggs into another bowl and mix together.  Add this to the dry mixture and mix to combine.

Squeeze as much moisture as possible out of the carrots and apples then add to the mixture with the walnuts and stir until just combined.

Transfer to the tin, level the top and add the extra chopped walnuts if you are using them.  Bake for 1-1¼ hours.

Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.  Warm the apricot jam in a small pan and brush over the cake to glaze it if you like.

Cuts into 8-10 slices and will keep well in an airtight tin for 4-5 days.

POACHED PEAR AND GINGER CAKE

I made this cake for the cake club meeting in October.  The theme was “autumn” and for me that always means ginger - and lots of it.  My mum had a very small repertoire of cakes and her ginger cake was my favourite.  The recipe probably came from her ancient, battered copy of the Be-Ro book and I remember the joy of coming home from school to the smell of a ginger cake in the oven.

For this cake club meeting I was hoping to do much better than the last two where my offerings were, sadly, disappointing to say the least.  This is the risk you take when you use a recipe for the first time – you have no idea how it’s going to turn out until it’s done.  This time I was keen to prove (if only to myself) that I can make a good cake and I chose a recipe that I had had my eye on for a long time, just waiting for the right occasion to make it.  It comes from a book called “tea with Bea”.

We like pears poached in red wine, cooking them for hours so that they become ruby red all the way through.  For this recipe you poach them just until they are tender which means the wine has coloured just the outer part of the pears, making them look very pretty when they’re sliced.

The cake was not difficult to make but had more steps than I can usually be bothered with.  The recipe suggests baking one 23cm cake and cutting it into three layers.  I’m not fond of cutting a cake into layers once it’s done – it’s far too nerve wracking for my liking.  And all the three layer cakes I have made have ended up a bit wonky, unwieldly and hard to slice.  So I decided to make two 23cm cakes and sandwich them together.  Consequently I amended the original recipe to allow for the reduced amount of filling required, also for the ingredients I had available.

I have to say it looked fabulous and was well worth the effort.  You can read about the rest of the bakes at the meeting here.

Ingredients

For the ginger cake

250ml Guinness

250g black treacle

1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

280g plain flour

1½ tsp baking powder

3 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground allspice

¼ tsp grated nutmeg

¼ tsp ground cardamom

¼ tsp ground cloves

3 eggs

100g caster sugar

100g soft dark brown sugar

3 balls of preserved ginger

200ml sunflower oil

For the poached pears

4 firm pears, peeled

½ bottle Merlot or other red wine

350ml water (approx)

350g caster sugar

zest of 1 orange

1 star anise

1 vanilla pod, split

1 clove

1 cinnamon stick

2 crushed cardamom pods

For the cream cheese icing

70g unsalted butter

95g icing sugar

1 tblsp golden syrup

300g cream cheese (full fat)

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 tblsp apricot or ginger preserve to glaze

chopped crystallised ginger to decorate.

Method

The first task is to poach the pears and this can be done the day before if that helps.

Put all the ingredients except for the pears into a large saucepan, bring to the boil and when the sugar has dissolved add the pears.  Put a circle of baking parchment on top, weighted down with a plate or saucer, and simmer for about 30 minutes until the pears are tender.

Remove the pears and allow to cool.

To make the cake, first put the Guinness and treacle into a tall saucepan and bring to the boil over high heat.  Remove from the heat and add the bicarb – which will make the liquid fizz and bubble up, hence the need for a tall pan.  Set aside to cool completely – which takes quite some time.

Preheat the oven to 170° C / 150° fan / gas mk 5.  Butter two 23cm round springform tins and line the bases with baking paper.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and spices.

In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sugars and chopped ginger, beat in the oil, add the Guinness liquid and combine thoroughly.

Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Divide between the two prepared tins and bake for about 40 minutes or until done.  After a few minutes remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the cream cheese icing, using an electric whisk beat the butter, icing sugar and golden syrup together until light and fluffy.  Add the cream cheese and vanilla and beat well.

To assemble the cake, cut the pears in half, remove the cores and cut each half into four wedges.

Put one cake on a plate or cake stand and spread thickly with the cream cheese icing.  Arrange half of the pear wedges on top and add the second cake. 

Brush the top of the cake with the warmed apricot or ginger preserve and arrange the remaining pear wedges over it.  Decorate with the chunks of crystallised ginger.

Cuts into 8-10 slices.  Keep in the fridge.

A TALE OF TWO COCONUT CAKES and a reminder that you should never judge a cake by its icing.

I am a fan of coconut in cakes and for our July Cake Club meeting where the theme was “flowers” I decided to make a coconut and rose cake.  Decorated with fresh roses and sitting on one of my favourite cake stands on the table, it looked very pretty but when I took a bite of the first slice it turned out to be an embarrassing disappointment.  There was rose water in the cake and the icing but you could hardly taste it and the cake itself was very dry.
Goodness only knows what I did wrong but you can see the recipe here.**  I was so miffed that it turned out so badly that I’m half tempted to revisit the recipe and try again, maybe with a little tweak or two but in reality it will probably never happen.  Unless of course I just take a simple, reliable, coconut cake recipe and add some rose water…..hmmmm………

Anyway, in sharp contrast this rather ordinary looking cake turned out to be absolutely gorgeous!  It’s a coconut and banana cake and I found the recipe on the Guardian website here.**

Included in the recipe are instructions for a Malibu drizzle and/or a Malibu and coconut buttercream filling.  The first time I made the cake unexpected guests turned up and the cake got cut without its drizzle.  It was delicious.
The second time I made the cake was for a charity event and I gave it away, complete with the drizzle, so didn’t get the chance to taste the difference.  I imagine it would have been lovely but I’ll have to make it a third time to confirm!  That will be no hardship of course, although there are very few cakes that I make more than once…….so many cakes, so little time.  I’m not sure I would bother with the buttercream but you never know – I might even have to make the cake a fourth time to decide if it really needs it or not!
Which just goes to show that a gorgeous looking cake can disappoint but an ordinary one can be delightful.  Never judge a cake by its icing!

*Having made the cake again, this time with its Malibu drizzle icing, I can confirm that it does make a difference.  I found the quantity of icing in the original a bit too much so have amended it in the ingredients given here.
I'm not sure that I could be tempted to add the Malibu buttercream as well - maybe if I made it as a round cake……..

**Both of these recipes have now been removed from the internet.

Banana and coconut cake
Ingredients
170g caster sugar
170g softened butter or baking spread
170g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 medium ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
100g desiccated coconut
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the drizzle
1-2 tblsp Malibu (or you could use fresh lime juice)
100g icing sugar
Method
Butter and line a 2lb loaf tin (I used a paper liner).  Preheat the oven to 160° C / 140° fan / gas mk3.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time with a spoonful of the flour and a spoonful of banana.
Sift in the remaining flour, add the coconut and banana and mix well to combine.
Pour into the prepared tin and level the top.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until done.  Leave in the tin for ten minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool.
While the cake is cooling, make the drizzle by mixing together the Malibu and sifted icing sugar.  Make holes in the cake with a skewer and while it is still warm pour the icing over the cake so that some sinks in and some dribbles down the sides.
(Refer to the recipe in the link if you wish to fill the cake with the coconut buttercream.)

Cuts into 10-12 slices.