With its tropical notes and its subtle harissa heat, this cake serves up a big slice of holiday flavour, topped with a creamy icing. Don’t be scared of the harissa – the flavour mellows in the cooking
Ingreadient
- for the tin butter
- 150g soft light brown sugar
- 2 medium eggs
- 1 ½ bananas, mashed
- 75ml sunflower oil
- 55ml olive oil
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 2 ½ tsp rose harissa
- 150g self-raising flour
- ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 3⁄4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3⁄4 tsp ground ginger
- 55g pecans, finely chopped
- 150g tinned pineapple, finely chopped, juice from the tin reserved
- 100g butter, softened
- 125g icing sugar
- from the tin pineapple juice, 1 tbsp
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp rose harissa
- to decorate chopped pecans
Direction
- Butter a 900g loaf tin and line the base with a strip of baking paper. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.
- Use an electric mixer to beat together the sugar and eggs until light and fluffy. Add the bananas, oils, vanilla and harissa. Beat to combine, then sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, folding it all together with a metal spoon. Sprinkle in a pinch of salt, and add the pecans, pineapple and 2 tbsp of juice, reserving the rest for the icing. Mix together until it forms a thick but runny batter that is easy to pour – add a little more pineapple juice if it gets too stiff.
- Pour into the tin and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. The cooking time can vary depending on the liquid content of the fruit – if it needs longer, cover the top with foil to stop it burning. Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the icing, beat the butter and sugar together in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the pineapple juice, cinnamon and harissa, and beat again to combine. Spread over the cooled cake, sprinkle with pecans and serve.
