Choc Chip Banana Bread Fondant Fancies

Shhh. don’t tell anyone but we had a non-cake club ‘Cake Club’ recently.
To explain, we had a meeting of all who usually attends the Clandestine Cake Club in Dundee, but this one was ‘off the books’ if you like.

And because of this, we didn’t have to have it at a different venue from where we’ve been before (which gets tricky in Dundee, it’s really not that big!) and we didn’t have to insist on just big cakes. Here's what everyone else brought...

So this was right up my street. I love to make smaller treats, pretty much why Kat at the Baking Explorer and I started up ‘Treat Petite’ for anything other than big cakes, puddings, that sort of thing.
The bake I took along was inspired by a recent trip to Costa. Don’t fall down in shock, we are through and through Starbucks lovers, but on one Sunday we ended up having a bite to eat in Costa.
And there we saw a new range of Fondant Fancies they were doing, in mint choc chop flavor and raspberry ripple. I think it was a summer ice-cream thing.
However, it got me to thinking that I haven’t ever made fondant fancies before. I have seen them being made on the Bake Off, and thought they did look a bit tricky, but now was as good a time as any.
And inspired by the Costa cakes, I decided to plump on a different flavor than the norm, giving my fancies a Cakeyboi twist.

I had some bananas in the freezer, some chocolate chips in the cupboard, so Choc Chip Banana Bread Fondant Fancies it was. The cake it self was a huge slab of banana bread with the chocolate chips and on top of that I laid some white fondant. Chocolate fondant would have been ideal here, but I couldn’t find any.

Instead of buttercream for the dollop on top, I used a piece of chocolate. You could use any sweet that you like. Perhaps a Rolo, or a Malteser for example. I had some Twirl Bites which I used.
Lastly, the icing. This was a simple mix of chocolate, butter, water and icing sugar. It coated the fancies lovely and I also added a bright yellow icing flavoured with banana, to give them that fondant fancy look. They did take a good while to set, so if you are making these for a special occasion do make them at least 24 hours in advance and keep them cool, otherwise they will melt again.

I took the first pics when the icing was still wet and I tried one like this too, The icing, before it went hard, had the consistency of chocolate fudge cake icing which was nice, but a bit messy. You could serve it like this too if you didn’t have loads of time.
Everyone at the cake club adored the taste of banana bread with the chocolate icing. I think I may even try making some different ones nearer to Christmas time.
Here’s how I made them…

Choc Chip Banana Bread Fondant Fancies

Banana bread topped with fondant
and bathed in a chocolate icing

Cuisine: Dessert Category: Fancies Yields: 20 fancies

Prep Time: 1 Day Cook Time: 25 Mins Total Time: 1 Day 25 Mins

 
Ingredients

• 3 medium ripe bananas
• 250 grams granulated sugar
• 125 ml vegetable oil
• 2 medium eggs
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 250 grams plain flour
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 100 grams chocolate chips
• Apricot Jam/Syrup/Agave Nectar or similar
• 1 pack of ready rolled white fondant
• 20 chocolates for top of fancies
• 100 grams plain chocolate
• 25 grams melted butter
• 4 tablespoons water
• 6 tablespoons icing sugar

  Instructions

1. Grease a 9”x13” cake pan and set aside. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. In a bowl sift together the flour, bicarb, salt and cinnamon. Set this aside.
3. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until pulped. Add the sugar and vegetable oil and beat until blended.
4. Add the eggs one at a time and stir in after each addition.
5. Add the vanilla and beat in.
6. Fold the flour mix into the wet mix until no dry ingredients are visible.
7. Fold in the chocolate chips then transfer the batter to the baking pan.
8. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.
9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before transferring to a wire rack.
10. When fully cooled, brush the top of the cake with some warmed jam, or syrup to the top of the cake.
11. Place the fondant on top and smooth over with your hands.
12. Allow this to set up, for a few hours or preferably overnight.
13. With a sharp knife, cut the banana bread slab into 20 squares.
14. Take a chocolate, and melt the bottom slightly with a hot teaspoon. Stick this to the center of each fancy.
15. To make the icing, in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter with the water. Stir in the icing sugar until smooth.
16. Patiently coat each of the fancies with the chocolate icing, using a fork to lift the cake and a spoon to pour and dab on the icing. Place on a wire rack over greaseproof paper to drip.
17. Make simple icing from some water and icing sugar some yellow food colouring (and banana flavouring if you have any).
18. With a spoon drizzle this over the fondant fancies.
19. Allow to set slightly and eat with a fork if still fudgy or wait overnight again until fully set.