Caramel Cream Cheese Banana Cake

Do you feel the heat? Haha, you must be wondering what heat am I saying?! To be specific, I mean the heat from the newly released movie Transformer squeal, "Revenge of the Fallen". Went to watch the first Transformer movie last year with my husband. So we decided to go for the squeal as well this time. But goodness me! I cannot even log into the online ticket purchase for the past 2 days?! Yes, it is that HOT here in KL...I bet it's the same all over the world. Well, I still managed to get my tickets for this coming weekend...so will let you know was it worth going down to the cinema to get the tickets personally! Haha!

Anyway, back to today's post. Just baked this really yummy cake. If you have a to-bake-list, please, I mean it, please try this. ;) I actually found this recipe from another fellow blogger, PiggysCookingJournal's Not Your Usual Banana Cake. It's yum-a-licious! However in the process of making this batter, I find it slightly thick and hard to stir the egg whites in, so I added some sour cream and milk to it to lighten the cake. The result is still excellent!

Since I did made changes to the recipe, I shall post my version here for easier reference in future.

Ingredients for Caramel Cream Cheese Banana Cake :
For the caramel
80g caster sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon water
1 1/2 tablespoon hot water
3 tablespoons fresh cream

For the cake
240g self-raising flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
150g unsalted butter, at room temperature
120g cream cheese, at room temperature
150g caster sugar
2 tbsp sour cream
100ml fresh milk
4 eggs, separated
2 bananas, cut into thickness of 0.5cm
40g cream cheese, cut into small cubes

Method:

• To make the caramel sauce, add sugar and water in a small saucepan and cook mixture till sugar melted and changes to amber color. Remove from heat and add hot water, follow by heavy cream. Stir well and set aside.
  
• To make the cake batter, in a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, butter and half of the sugar till light and fluffy.
• Add the 4 egg yolks, one at a time till everything is mixed in. Sift in flour and baking powder into egg mixture, stir till incorporated.
• Add sour cream and milk and mix well.
  
• Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line with parchment a 8" by 5" loaf tin. I made extra to be put in muffin tins.
• In another large mixing bowl, beat egg white till foamy. Add remaining half of the sugar and beat till stiff peaks.
• Gently fold the egg whites into the flour mixture, 1/3 at a time till all is blended.
  
• Add the caramel, banana chunks and cubed cream cheese and stir gently in. Then pour batter into prepared cake pan.
• Bake in the oven for 40 minutes in loaf tin and 20 minutes for muffins till golden brown.
  

Adding the caramel sauce to the cake was a genius idea! Caramel and banana is a superb combination...if you have tasted banana flambe before, you will know what I mean. It's basically banana slices cooked in caramelized sugar & rum, served with cold vanilla ice cream, yummy! And eating this cake really reminds me of that! The texture is light and creamy, makes you crave for seconds!

One trick to mixing the cake is when you add the caramel sauce in, try not to over stir it. Meaning you can still see the evident swirls of the caramel in the batter, that will make really nice patterns and making the caramel taste more distinct. The creamy cream cheese chunks in the cake really blends well with the sweet caramel and banana, balancing the overall taste and sweetness. Overall, I really enjoy this cake, definitely a keeper for me! Now I know what to do when I have those ripe bananas hanging in my kitchen! ;)