Monkey Business Perhaps?

Last week whilst having breakfast in Cranked in Leederville I spotted upon their menu a breakfast item called monkey business. The description was something like 'Toasted banana bread with raspberries and almonds served with a ricotta, yogurt and vanilla topping.

Just add raspberries and I'm in!! What was delivered to be was two huge slices if you could call them that they were so thick, that looked heavy but were utterly delicious. The ricotta topping freshened up the already moist, fruit and nutty bread. There was too much for just me, this is the type of bread to share with a friend.

I have been thinking about this bread ever since and so have tried to amend a recipe to produce something similar. I used a Simple Banana Cake recipe from Stephanie Alexander's 'The Cooks Companion'.

The Recipe - Banana Cake with Raspberry and Almonds
125g softened unsalted butter
11/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe banana
few drops of pure vanilla extract
250g plain flour
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/2 cup of butter milk or 1/2 cup milk with 1 tsp lemon juice
1 hand dessicated coconut
1-2 hands frozen raspberries
1-2 hand toasted almonds

The Method

1. Butter and flour a 22cm square cake tin (I used a loaf tin), then line the base with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs banana and sugar.
3. Sift the dry ingredients and add to the mixture, alternating with buttermilk.
4. Stir in the toasted almonds, coconut and raspberries until just combines.
5. Spoon into a tin and bake for 1 hour or until a fine skewer  inserted comes out clean.