Banana Caramel Cake..... with Cream Cheese

We hv a sickies in our household and he went to work this morning! Whats with men and doctors.. why cant they just go and see a doctor when they're sick... blaaahhh

Anyway, I have been dying to bake this cake.. especially after reading many rave reviews about it. Unfortunately its not a straight forward kinda of recipe.. it has a few steps and if ur used to baking or who bakes everyday.. err like me hehehe.. its not such a big deal.. all u hv to do is to follow the recipe closely and voila.. u will get one moist.. soft.. full of flavor kinda banana bread...



Now this banana bread has a combination of cream cheese, banana and caramel in the batter.. so if u hv a very ripe bananas sitting in ur kitchen, why not gv this recipe a try.. its worth the effort cos this one is not your usual banana bread/cake recipe!

Ingredients:
For the caramel
60g castor sugar
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp hot water
2 tbsp fresh cream

For the cake
180g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
90g cream cheese, at room temperature
115g caster sugar
3 eggs, separated
1 1/2 bananas, cut into thickness of 0.5cm (i used 3 to add to batter n 1 for topping)
30g cream cheese, cut into small cubes

Method:
To prepare caramel
1) Cook sugar and water in a saucepan. When the syrup turn into amber color, remove from heat immediately.
2) Stir in hot water, follow by cream. Set aside.

To prepare cake batter
1) Preheat the oven to 180 deg C. Grease a 18X8cm rectangular baking pan, line with baking paper.
2) Using an electric mixer, whip butter, cream cheese and 75g of sugar until the mixture turns pale and fluffy.
3) Continue whipping the mixture, add in egg yolks one by one. With each addition, whip until the batter just combine.
4) In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until foamy. Continue to whisk and at the same time, add remaining 40g of sugar in 5 batches. Whip the egg white until stiff peak forms.

5) Using a rubber spatula, stir in 1/3 of egg white into cream cheese mixture from Step (3). Sift flour and baking powder over the batter, stir until combine.
6) Fold remaining egg white in 2 addtions, stir quickly and scraping down the bottom of the bowl, making sure that the batter is well combined.
7) Lastly, stir in banana pieces and caramel. Scrape the batter into the baking pan, then scatter with cream cheese cubes.
8) Bake in pre-heated oven for 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake turns out clean. (I baked mine at 175C for 50mins)

Source: Recipe from ちっちゃなチーズケーキのレシピブック