Banana cake with Padre coffee icing

Method

Sift the flour, sugar, salt, spices, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into a mixing bowl and stir to combine well. Add six of the bananas to a food processor, along with the eggs, milk and vanilla extract, and blend until the bananas are mashed. Add the melted butter and process again to mix it in. Slice the remaining three bananas and set aside. Add the banana batter to the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and fold in thoroughly. Add the sliced bananas and crushed walnuts and mix to combine. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Oil and line a large loaf tin with baking paper and add the banana cake batter. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. For the Padre coffee icing, whip the cream cheese and butter together until well combined and well aerated. Add the 40 ml of cold espresso coffee and 3 tablespoons of the ground coffee. Continue to whip, adding the icing mixture gradually, until the mixture is fluffy. If using an electric mixer, use a low speed when adding the ingredients. When the cake has cooled, coat the top of it with about 4 cm of the coffee icing. Garnish with the remaining 1 tablespoon of ground coffee and the toasted walnuts.