Banana and Yoghurt Cake Recipe: What wine to go with it?

I must tell you two secrets. The first is that I am totally incapable of following other people's recipes. The second is that 9 times out of 10 the recipes I find on the internet do not give me the desired result. Here, I have never understood why... so much so that at times I have even wondered if they shoot out random ingredients and if the photos are in line with what was actually cooked. I admit that I was very very frustrated with cakes until I decided to create my own recipe book. How did I do it? I took basic ingredients from famous recipes and experimented with quantities and operations until I got the perfect result. Making my banana and yoghurt cake is very easy and I promise you it will be delicious even if you are not the most skilled in the kitchen. You get a fragrant, fluffy and light cake (it is butter-free) that will keep under the glass bell for a few days. Actually, I can't tell you exactly how many because my husband eats it every time I prepare it within three days! 🤣

Banana and yoghurt cake: my foolproof recipe 😎 🤩

Ingredients:

• 200g peeled banana
• 180g caster sugar
• 150g Flour 0
• 70g Wholemeal flour
• 80g Sunflower seed oil
• 1 pot of banana yoghurt (125g)
• 2 medium whole yellow eggs (110g)
• 8g vanilla baking powder
• 1 pinch of salt

Procedure:

1. Place the two whole eggs with the sugar in a bowl and beat at medium speed with a whisk until the mixture is light and fluffy.
2. Add the sunflower oil one tablespoon at a time. Always wait until the previous spoonful has been absorbed before adding the next one.
3. Add the pot of banana yoghurt.
4. In a separate bowl, weigh and sift the 0 flour and baking powder. Add the wholemeal flour and the pinch of salt.
5. Add to your mixture of eggs, sugar, oil and yoghurt the powders (meaning all dry ingredients, i.e. flour, baking powder and salt) one spoonful at a time.
6. In the meantime, peel the banana and mash it with a fork or pestle and then when the mixture is smooth you can add it and beat it for a few more seconds.
7. Turn on the oven to 180° static and while it is heating up, grease a 22 cm diameter non-stick hinged mould with butter. Pour in the mixture and bake for 40 minutes.
8. Take the cake out of the oven, let it cool for a few minutes before unmoulding it. I recommend starting with the hinge and removing the base instead when the cake is already cold. But you can taste a slice while it's still warm, it's absolutely divine, just go easy with the knife!

Infallible advice:

• Do not substitute ingredients, especially flours: each flour absorbs liquids differently and if you change flours, the cake must be rebalanced.
• Do not use eggs and yoghurt too cold: keep everything out of the fridge at least half an hour before use.
• Be generous with the butter when greasing the cake tin.
• Preheat the oven: never insert the cake before the oven is at temperature.
• Never - and I stress never - open the oven before 40 minutes have passed.
• When you remove the base of the cake tin, help yourself with a knife and run it over it before pulling to make sure that the cake is loose. Turn the cake upside down holding it by the hand and then place it on your cake tin.
• If you have a cake grid available, let the cake dry for half an hour before placing it in the cake tin.
• Never close the cake tin before 2 hours have passed or you risk terrible moisture forming.

Accessories you may need:

(the article will resume shortly, keep scrolling down the page if there is nothing you need!)

Banana and yoghurt cake: what wine to go with it?

I'll be honest, if you want the perfect pairing for this cake forget the wine. 😅 Seriously, it's not like we have to pair wine with everything! The perfect match for banana and yoghurt cake is chocolate in a mug! Oops, I challenge you to try any wine and remain as satisfied as when you touch a slice of this cake in a cup of steaming chocolate. 😍So before I suggest a great combination, I suggest you try making my chocolate in a cup. Purists will tell me that real chocolate is made with water so as not to alter the cocoa's aroma, but I like my chocolate creamy and delicious so I couldn't care less! Oh, if you really don't feel like making it, you can always have a gianduja Ciobar, which is also good... but with my recipe, chocolate in a cup is something else entirely! 😅

.

Chocolate in a cup: my delicious recipe 😋

Ingredients:

• 150 ml fresh whole milk
• 50ml fresh cream
• 20g dark chocolate
• 10g of bitter cocoa
• 10g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon potato starch
• a pinch of salt and a pinch of chilli pepper

Preparation:

1. Just as with béchamel sauce, putting cold milk in is sacrilege! So first bring the milk and cream to the boil in a saucepan with the salt and sugar. If there is cream on the surface, strain through a sieve.
2. In a bowl weigh (and if you are patient, grate) the chocolate, cocoa and potato starch. Add the milk and cream a little at a time, stirring continuously. When you have used up the liquids, pour everything into the saucepan where you boiled the milk and put over low heat.
3. Stir continuously until it reaches the desired consistency.

If you're really a sommelier hustler 😝and you want to pair it with wine at all costs, I warn you that you are not committing a sin! My banana and yoghurt cake is actually delicious even at the end of a meal with the right wine! You just have to be careful to choose an alcoholic and aromatic wine so as not to balance it out. In this cake there is actually no perception of the fatness of butter or a cake with a lot of yolk, but you have a slight greasiness from both the banana and the seed oil. If you have studied the Food and wine pairing graphics you will know that a wine that is sweet but not too sweet, a little more alcoholic and aromatic - perhaps with a light maceration of the skins that has released some tannins - is perfect for this cake.

I paired it with Stramà, an organic wine from overripe grapes that is made from a blend of different vintages for a result that almost echoes a marsala while maintaining the characteristics of a passito wine. It is made from albana, trebbiano and muscatel grapes in Predappio (FC), in an area with splendid hills from which you can see a horizon of layers of red soil, tidy vineyards and - on clear days - even the sea. A very small production of the family winery De Mastro which I recommend you discover on their website by clicking HERE. It has a beautiful, bright amber colour, consistent. The nose releases intense notes of fig, dried fruit and citrus fruits. In the mouth, it has a wonderful balance between sweetness and savouriness supported by a great acid shoulder. More than with 'very sweet' desserts, it goes well with blue cheeses and pâtés. With my banana and yoghurt cake it goes well precisely because it supports the aromaticity, cleanses it and the fresh, savoury vein enhances it to perfection.

If you want to discover more of my recipes click HERE.

Cheers 🍷

Chiara

All my notes on wine and food in one book.