If I’m baking for a crowd over the bank holiday weekend, choosing something fun and a bit over the top seems the only way to go. Enter the hazelnut banoffee cake. It’s everything you love in the classic dessert: banana, toffee sauce, fluffy whipped cream and shaved chocolate, but with added nuttiness and overall less sickly sweet.

Hazelnut banoffee cake

Prep 10 min
Cook 1 hr
Serves 12-16

For the cake
100g whole blanched hazelnuts
180g dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
200g very ripe bananas (about 2 medium bananas), peeled and mashed
150g unsalted butter, melted
145g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp salt

For the toffee sauce
75g dark brown sugar
30g unsalted butter
100ml double cream
1 big pinch flaky sea salt

For the topping
300ml double cream
100g soured cream
1 tbsp icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla bean paste
1 ripe banana, peeled and sliced
25g dark chocolate, shaved

Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4. Put the hazelnuts in a small baking tray and roast for 10-12 minutes, until fragrant and lightly browned. Remove, leave to cool, then chop 15g nuts and set aside for the topping. Put the remaining hazelnuts in a food processor and pulse until very fine.

Grease and line a 23cm x 33cm tin, leaving enough overhang to help you pull out the cake later. Put the sugar and eggs in a bowl and whip on medium-high for one to two minutes, until the mix looks lighter and fluffier (we’re not taking it to ribbon stage). Fold in the mashed banana followed by the melted butter, then gently stir in the ground hazelnuts, flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt to combine.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Meanwhile, make the toffee sauce. Put all the ingredients in a saucepan, heat gently until everything has melted, then bring to a boil and cook for one minute only. Spoon half the sauce on top of the warm cake, spread it out carefully, then leave to cool completely.

Once cooled, put the cream, soured cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whip to soft peaks. Spoon the cream on top of the cooled cake, then drizzle the remaining toffee sauce all over the top. Decorate with the sliced banana, the reserved chopped hazelnuts and the chocolate shavings, then slice and serve.