A banana pudding that turned into a little more than just a banana cake. It consists of my best basic recipe as well as a crunchy nut caramel, the most delicious dark chocolate mousse, dulce de leche and caramelized nuts. A really, really good combination that unites a spongy base, with salty, crunchy nuts and sweet chocolate and caramel. A really nice way to turn an everyday cake into a festive layer cake. The cake has many processes, but the degree of difficulty for many of the things is low, so most people can participate!

Oreo Banana Pudding

Ingredients:

3 eggs
150 grams of sugar
100 grams of butter
100 grams of flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt
200 grams of ripe bananas
20 grams of oreo crumble

Prep:

Slightly beat the egg and sugar and fluffy in a bowl. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, let it cool slightly and stir it into the eggnog. Mix the dry ingredients together in another bowl and sift them into the batter. Mash the bananas with a fork and fold the mash into the batter. Line the bottom of a springform pan (I used a 20-centimetre one) with baking paper and spread the dough in it. Behind the base for approx. 40 minutes at 175 degrees. It should be well golden – check if necessary by poking a fork or similar – if there is no cake batter on it, it is ready. Let the cake cool while you make the nut caramel.

Nut caramel

Ingredients

130 grams of hazelnuts
70 grams of sugar
1.5 teaspoons of honey
40 ml of cream
45 grams of butter
a bit of salt

Prep:

Start by roasting your hazelnuts in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 200 degrees – take them out of the oven when your kitchen smells wonderfully of hazelnuts. Boil the sugar, honey, cream and butter in a pan until it has a temperature of 120 degrees (be patient – it takes a while). The nuts are freed from the shells, chopped and then turned into the caramel mass. Add a pinch of salt. (If necessary, put plastic wrap around the edge of your springform to get a sharper edge at the end) Pour the nut caramel onto the banana base and refrigerate it again.

Dark chocolate mousse:

Ingredients:

2 sheets of gelatin
200 grams of good, dark chocolate
2 egg yolks
300 ml of whipping cream
¼ teaspoon salt

Prep:

Soak the cottage cheese in a bowl of cold water for at least 10 minutes. Finely chop the chocolate and melt it in a bowl over a water bath. When the chocolate has melted, remove it from the heat. Let it cool down a bit – it is important that it is not too hot. Add the egg yolks a little at a time. The mass will become very firm, but as long as it does not separate, there is no reason to panic (it will separate if the chocolate is too hot and the egg yolks too cold). Now put 1 deciliter of your whipping cream in a pan and heat it to the boiling point. Take the pan off the heat, wring out the water from the cottage cheese and stir it into the hot cream. Now stir the cream into the chocolate mass a little at a time – it must be stirred well so that the mass gathers and becomes smooth, so stir until the mass is completely glossy. Then stir in salt. Whip the last 2 deciliters of whipping cream until light foam. Add the whipped cream to the chocolate mass a little at a time (I always do it in about 4 batches) – you may want to give it a little beat to start with to get it well mixed together, but otherwise, just turn the cream carefully in. Spread the chocolate mousse on top of the nut caramel and refrigerate for at least four hours and preferably overnight. When the cake has been set, take it out of the mould (and remove any plastic wrap). You can now start decorating the cake.

Dulce de leche

1 can of condensed milk

Prep

Peel the label off the can and put it in a large pot of water – the whole can should be covered with water. Bring the water to a boil and let the can boil here for 4 hours – constantly covered with water. When the hours are up, you will have the most delicious caramel. Put the caramel in a piping bag with a star nozzle and squirt small dabs onto the cooled chocolate mousse.

Caramelized hazelnuts

50 grams of sugar
50 grams of hazelnuts (other nuts can also be used)
A bit of salt

Prep:

Carefully melt the sugar in a small saucepan. Coarsely chop the nuts. When the sugar has melted, add the chopped nuts. Stir the mixture well and pour it out onto a cutting board and sprinkle with a little salt. Allow the mass to cool. Chop the mass and decorate your cake as you wish.

The cake can easily keep for a few days, and the banana base just gets spongier after standing for a while!