I will always have a soft spot for Antigua! My husband and I spent our honeymoon there and we had a wonderful time!
When Betfair asked me to create a recipe using one of the countries competing in the Commonwealth Games as inspiration, I am embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know who these countries were. When I saw Antigua on the list I knew that this was the one!
I tried to think of all of the things that reminded me of Antigua. The obvious thing was Rum but as Rum left me a little worse for wear after a sunset cruise and I wanted Bob to be able to taste our creation I thought that it would be better not to include this. Cherries and pineapples reminded me of the amazing cocktails served at our hotel. The glasses were always decorated with cherries and fresh pineapple and the cocktails were delicious! Another thing that I loved about Antigua was their banana bread! We had some of this when we were out at sea on an adventure day.
I decided to make a basic sponge cake and add all these wonderful ingredients to it. I toyed with the idea of adding them to a ginger cake but I thought that might be too much. Mixing a coconut cake, a banana cake and a cherry/pineapple cake was a risk in itself. Adding a ginger cake as well might push it over the edge.
Bob and I went shopping for ingredients. I wanted to use crystalised pineapple but they only had the chewy pineapple that is still in rings. I managed to find an island mix which contained pineapple, papaya, apricot and raisins so I thought I would use this instead.
Ingredients
3 Large Eggs (at room temperature)
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Butter (at room temperature)
6oz Self Raising Flour
½ teaspoon Baking Powder
3 teaspoons Milk
2 tablespoon boiled water
2 bananas
4oz coconut
4oz (100g) dried fruit
4oz cherries
Method
1) Preheat the oven to 175°C
2) Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
3) Beat in the eggs gradually, to avoid the mixture curdling.
4) Sieve together the flour and the baking powder and gently fold it into the mixure.
5) Stir in the milk and then the boiling water.
6) Mash the bananas and fold them into the mixture.
7) Stir in the coconut, cherries and dried fruit.
8) Spoon the mixture into an 8” cake tin, greased and lined.
9) Bake for approximately 1 hour, until a skewer comes out clean.
The cake smelt delicious and I couldn’t wait to try it! It tasted like holidays.
I was glad that I used the island mix as the raisins added a lovely texture to the cake. I wasn’t keen on the papaya though so the next time I make this I will substitute the 100g of island mix for 100g of raisins and then add 50g of crystalised pineapple.
Also, next time I would like to be sitting on a beach in Antigua and drinking a cocktail whilst I eat it!
Disclaimer: I was supplied with a food shopping voucher to cover the costs of my creation
Antigua sounds amazing, and the cake looks lovely!