Banana custard cake

Gosh has the silly season been busy (despite a quite average weather to say the least!). Then I decided my house needed a good top to bottom clean which took me a whole week so I've been quite busy but it doesn't mean I was cooking and baking as well. Anyway, let's move on to the important part: the food!!!
My husband had an afternoon tea at work on the Friday before Christmas and his section needed to bring cakes. I thought "I don't want to do the predictable chocolate cake", I want to make something summery but naughty at the same time... After all it was 2 days before Christmas. So I came up with this recipe. The cake is still the moist yellow cake from Bakerella that I love making and this is very easy and delicious. You can find the recipe here: http://www.bakerella.com/finally-i-found-it/.
To this wonderfully moist cake I added some homemade banana custard (inspired from the custard tart recipe on page 214 of the iconic Edmonds cookbook) which goes like that: 
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup of milk
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 2 bananas cut in very small pieces

In a saucepan, whisk together eggs, milk and sugar. Cook, stirring often until almost boiling. Remove from the stove and add the banana pieces. Stir to mix the bananas. Pour into in bowl and cover with glad wrap touching the top of the custard to avoid a skin to form.

For the meringue I used a 7 minute frosting from a book called: cupcakes by Elinor Klivans. Here is the recipe:
- 1 1/4 cups of sugar
- 1/3 cup of water
- 3 large egg whites
- 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla exctract
- 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract ( I have not used this one)

Put the sugar, water, egg whites and cream of tartar in a heatproof bowl or the top of a double boiler with at least a 2- quart capacity and beat with a handheld electric mixer on high speed until opaque, white and foamy, about 1 minute.

Put the bowl over, but not touching, a saucepan of barely simmering water. The top container should sit firmly over the pan of hot water; be sure to keep the cord of the electric mixer away from the burner. Beat on high speed until the frosting forms a soft peak that stands straight up if you stop the beaters and lift them up, about 7 minutes.
The frosting should register 160 Degree C on a thermometer.

Remove the container of frosting from the water, add the vanilla and almonds extracts, and continue beating for 2 minutes to further thicken the frosting.

Assembly:

Level your 3 yellow cakes to make sure you don't end up with the tower of Pisa and also to keep the custard between the cakes (otherwise you might have a landslide).

Select the more levelled cake to go on the top. I generally turn it around and put the bottom of one of the cakes as the top of the finished cake (the bottoms are always flat).

Put your first cake on the plate you are planning on serving the cake on (since it is quite a tall cake it can be tricky to move it). Pour half of the custard, spread stopping about 1/2 cm from the edge of the cake.

Place the second cake on top and repeat with custard.

Place the third cake over.

Pour 3/4 of the frosting over the cake and with a off set spatula spread to the side and smooth. Pour the rest of the frosting on top and decorate as you wish. I added some untoasted shredded coconut on the sides of mine and some banana chips at the top.

 

Happy baking everyone :)