Sugar et al, Author at Sugar et al

Banana Tiramisu Cake

26|01|2025

There are a very few people on this planet who woudn’t have tasted a Tiramisu. But I’m not sure how many people would have tasted it this way. Well, a banana tiramisu cake is the best of both worlds. A moist, delicious banana cake topped with coffee soaked sponge fingers, slathered with a creamy mascarpone frosting and generous dusting of cocoa powder. And believe me, it works like magic!

I find it a genius idea to make an entire layer out of just sponge finger biscuits without the hassle of having to bake. To be honest, I think this technique can be replicated with any cake as the base. I would love to try a chocolate one. If you avoid eggs in your baked goods, an egg free cake would be a perfect base.

If you love cakes with bananas, you will love my Easy Banana Cake with Tahini Frosting or my Banoffee Pie with Nutella Mousse

Banana Tiramisu Cake
Makes an 8 inch round cake

Banana Cake
125 g butter, melted
3/4 cup (150 g)castor/granulated sugar
3/4 cup (165 g) brown sugar
2 large ripe bananas (about 1 and 1/4), mashed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 ml) buttermilk
1 and 1/2 cups (183 g) self-raising flour
1/2 tsp soda bicarbonate

Coffee Layer
2 tsp instant coffee powder
3/4 cup (180 ml )water
1/4 cup (55 g) brown sugar
8-10 sponge finger biscuits

Mascarpone layer
250 g tub mascarpone
1/2 cup (120 ml) thickened cream/ heavy cream
2 tbsp (30 g) castor/granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Cocoa powder, to dust

To make the banana cake : Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease the base and sides of an 8-inch (20-cm) round pan with 3-inch (8-cm) height and line the base with baking paper.

Place the butter, sugars, banana, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl and whisk until well blended and smooth. Add the buttermilk and whisk again. Fold in the self raising flour and bicarbonate soda until just combined. Do not over mix.

Transfer the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven. Run a blunt knife around the edges to loosen but leave aside in the pan for 10 minutes to cool slightly. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Using a skewer, poke holes into the cake.

To make the tiramisu layer– Combine the coffee, water and sugar in a medium saucepan and warm over low heat. Bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.

Use an electric mixer to whisk the mascarpone and cream in a bowl. Add the sugar and vanilla and whisk until soft peaks form.

Dip sponge finger biscuits, 1 at a time, in coffee mixture. Arrange over the cooled banana cake trimming to fit if necessary. Spread the mascarpone mixture over the sponge fingers. Dust with cocoa powder.

Eggless Brownies

17|01|2025

The fudgiest, easiest and most decadent eggless brownies ever. Don’t know if it’s the shortage of eggs in Sydney at the moment or the temptation to create some diet oriented recipes, I’ve been meaning to make these for a long time. After a few failed egg free brownie recipes in the past, I was excited when I took these out of the oven. The texture was a huge tick but then came the wait to taste them. Now I can report back that these eggless brownies are simply divine.

What makes them a hit in my books is that they can be literally put together in one saucepan. No melting chocolate involved. Quick and hassle free! Whether you’re allergic to eggs or love eggs in your baked goods, you will love these irrespective. The secret ingredient for that fudgy finish is condensed milk that keeps the brownies moist and gooey. I’ve added walnuts to them but you can go with any nuts of your choice or even skip them altogether and add chocolate chips/chunks.

The secret to a great brownie is keeping it slighly undercooked. It continues to cook as it cools down in the pan creating that beautiful, fudgy, gooey centre.
If you love egg free recipes, you will love my Eggless Vanilla Cake

Eggless Brownies
Makes 16 medium brownies

1 can (397 g) condensed milk
3/4 cup (170 g) unsalted butter softened
1/2 cup (110 g) brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup (35 g) Dutch processed cocoa
1 cup (125 g) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Lightly grease the base and sides of an 8-inch (20-cm) square pan with 3-inch (8-cm) height. Line the base and sides with baking paper leaving a small overhang for ease of taking the brownies out.

In a medium saucepan under low heat, warm the condensed milk, butter, brown sugar and vanilla until melted and mixture is smooth. Do not boil. Allow to cool to room temperature

Fold in sifted flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. Mix until smooth. Fold in half the chopped walnuts. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining walnuts.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until edges start to pull away slightly and the centre is still a little undercooked. The top should have crinkled. The brownies will continue to set upon cooling.

Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Mini Cakes

2|01|2025

This was meant to be the last post for 2024. Due to some technical issues on the website I coudn’t publish it (my apologies) but on the positive side, it’s the very first post for 2025. These flourless chocolate hazelnut cakes are the most irresistible dessert one can have plus they are are flourless and great for your gluten free guests. I love the taste and texture of hazelnuts but ground almonds or walnuts are amazing too.

We only have red currants available to us for a very short time in December. Most of my New Year’s or rather December is spent back home with family in India. So this year since I had the opportunity to get hold of these gorgeous red currants and the best pairing has to be chocolate.

My Chocolate cream cheese is not too sweet, creamy and works beautifully with these indulgent mini cakes.

I’m tempted to double up the recipe for these flourless chocolate hazelnut cakes into a single individual cake. I think, topped with cream and berries it would make the perfect cake for a chocolate lover. It’s rich so a mini version or a small slice is enough to satisfy those chocolate cravings

Happy New Year to you and your loved ones. Hope 2025 is everything you desire it to be.

If you’re a fan of mini desserts and cakes, you will love these Mini Pistachio Cakes

Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Mini Cakes
Makes 7-8 mini cakes

Chocolate Hazelnut Mini Cakes
100 g unsalted butter, roughly chopped
100 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1 tbsp Dutch processed cocoa powder
2 tbsp water
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup granulated/castor sugar
1 cups hazelnut meal (ground hazlnuts)

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
¼ cup (57 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 oz (115 g) cream cheese, room temperature
1 ½ cups (180 g) powdered sugar
2 tbsp (11 g) Dutch processed cocoa powder

To make the mini cakes : Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (160 derees C for fan forced ovens). Lighly grease the holes of a 6 cavity mold or muffin pan.

In a medium saucepan, over low heat warm the butter, chocolate, cocoa powder and water until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool down.

In a separate bowl beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale and thick (about 4-5 mins). Add the chocolate mixture and hazelnut meal and mix well to combine. In a third bowl, beat the egg whites untl almost stiff peaks form. Fold into the chocolate-egg yolk mixture little at a time so as to keep the mixture light and airy.

Spoon batter into the molds upto three quarters of the mold. These cakes don’t have a great rise and will fall back a bit as they cool. Bake for 30-35 mins or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out with a few moist crumbs. We don’t want to overcook them or they will turn out try.

Allow the cakes to cool in the pan for 10-15 mins, slightly loosen the edges with a blund knife, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled to room temperature, pipe or dollop chocolate cream cheese frosting. Decorate with fresh red currants or raspberries.

To make the Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting : Using a hand mixer or an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and the butter together until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar, ½ cup at a time, beating after each addition until smooth. Add the cocoa powder and beat till well blended.

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

13|12|2024

It’s been a really hot summer right from the beginning and I don’t feel motivated to switch on my oven. If you’re in the northern hemisphere and wondering, in Australia our seasons are exactly oppsite of yours. I was on the look-out for no bake cookies and got the inspiration from Pinterest to create cookies with fillings in them. These chocolate peanut butter cookies are the easiest cookies ever.

These are similar to truffles but a have a lot more texure and very delicious. You simply make a chocolate ganache and fold a combination of biscuit crumbs and nuts through it. Then just shape them and fill. You could experiment with a variety of nuts and fillings example, Biscoff, Nutella, white chocolate, jam and so on. I used melted peanut butter that I sweetened to add to the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies. These are ridiculously addictive and would impress any nut or chocolate lover.

If you love peanut butter, you will love my Banana & Peanut Butter Loaf

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
12-14 Cookies

250 g dark chocolate chopped
150 ml thickened cream/double cream
200 g digestive cookies, roughly broken
75g chopped peanuts
5g cocoa powder
Chopped toasted peanuts for coating
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 tbsp icing sugar

Combine dark chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir with a metal spoon until smooth. Remove bowl from heat. Set aside at room temperature to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, process the digestive biscuits in a food processor until crumbs are formed. Add the chopped peanuts and cocoa powder and mix to combine. Add the dry mixture to the chocolate mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined and forms a dough. place dough in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.

Place chopped toasted peanuts in a shallow plate. Roll the dough between the palm of your hands to shape them into balls. Roll each ball in the plate of toasted peanuts. Using a cookie ring, place the ball in the centre and press in the middle using the back of a spoon to create an indent while giving the cookies a cylinder shape. Alternatively, you could make an indent with your thumb. Place cookies on a baking sheet or plate and refrigerate until firm. About 1-2 hours.

To make the filling, place the peanut butter and icing sugar in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 15-20 seconds or until melted. Stir.

Spoon the filling in the centre of the cookies. Allow to set, about 10 minutes. Enjoy!