This little Christmas cake is shaped like a Christmas tree and uses banana bread as its base. To me, it’s pretty much the perfect cake for your Christmas breakfast, coffee or even as a light dessert. It looks extremely spectacular, but is actually very easy to make, not too heavy or too sweet and tastes amazing. It’s such a crowd-pleaser too; both kids and adults love it.
This Christmas tree cake is a variation on the number cake I baked for James’ first birthday, because that little cake turned out to be a big success. The base of banana bread is sugar free (the only sweetness comes from the bananas) and the cream cheese frosting isn’t too sweet either. I also love the fact that you can make this cake one or even two days ahead, to prevent last-minute stress.
On the pictures, you see a small cake for about 3 persons, like the one mentioned in the recipe. You can also make a slighter bigger cake: use 4 bananas, 4 eggs and 2 cups (or 200 g) of flour, bake the cake a little longer and cut out one large Christmas tree, that you halve horizontally.
makes 1 little christmas cake (3-4 persons)
3 bananas
3 eggs
1½ cup or 150g almond flour
2 tsp baking powder red fruit, for the decorations
extra: greased and lined baking pan (I used a 7.5×11.5 inch or 20x30cm brownie pan)
for the cream cheese frosting:
1/3 cup or 2/3 stick or 75g butter, room temperature
3.5 oz or 100g firm cream cheese
2/3 cup or 75g powdered/icing sugar
extra: mixer + piping bag
Start with the banana bread. Preheat the oven to 375F/180C.
Purée the bananas with a stick blender or fork and mix in the eggs, almond flour and baking powder. Pour this batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the cake is done. Test by inserting a wooden skewer or toothpick: if it comes out clean (without batter), the banana bread is done. Leave to cool completely.
Meanwhile, make the frosting. Using the mixer, whip the butter until creamy and pale. Add the cream cheese and mix until well-blended. Gradually mix in the sugar and mix everything on high until you’ve got a smooth frosting. Scoop into a piping bag and place in the fridge to firm up (preferably) or use straight away.
Cut out two exactly the same sized Christmas trees from the cake.
Pipe little round of frosting on one of the cakes, carefully place the second cake on top and pipe little rounds on the top cake as well. You won’t use all the frosting. Decorate with fresh fruits just before serving.
