B-Caraïbe

6 March 2005

I didn’t plan to make this cake because I’m not mad about bananas, but I had all the ingredients in hand when I saw the recipe and that was just after I saw the Big G’s banana maple upside down cake on Santos’s site – so that was good enough reason to try out!

The recipe is from a book called Le Goût Authentique Retrouvé – written by a Japanese patissier Hidemi Sugino, whose shop in Tokyo has been very popular since its opening two years ago (it’s called ‘Idemi’ without the H – like French/Italian/Spanish – I guess he was used to hearing his name that way when he was a patissier in France).

I’ve never had any of his desserts, but I quite liked his book as his modern approach to the combination of ingredients as well as the presentation seemed really interesting. He named this cake ‘B-Caraïbe’ (bananas of Caribbean), it’s made with three layers of cream (from the top: vanilla, banana and orange infused chocolate) sandwiched with almond sponge. Freeze the finished cake for a while, and brush some melted chocolate on top. Maybe I could use riper bananas next time, but generally all the flavours work well together.
 

Food - Sweet        18 comments    Permalink

  • I’m not mad about banana either, but this one looks really pretty. At one point in the history I picked up this book at a bookstore and flipped it through but promptly put it back, as I thought it would make another "picture book" for me. :P Got to try his shop in Tokyo one of these days, though....

    Posted by chika | 7 March 2005 #
  • hi keiko! this is beautiful, and just my luck, i cannot speak nor read japanese which saves me at least a million calories in tried dessert recipes :-) when i made the banana upside down cake, julie and i discussed the idea of making banana desserts with tropical bananas, which are rather unlike the typical ones found in america and europe. the delicacy of this (and the name) suggests that the smaller varieties found on tropical islands would be a wonderful addition. the brushed chocolate is a gorgeous effect, i’d like to try that some time.

    Posted by santos. | 7 March 2005 #
  • Wow Keiko, that looks so gorgeous I’d have trouble destroying it by taking a bite. Now I have to look for the book (is it only in Japanese?) and Idemi the shop as well. Hope it’s not too far from where I live.

    Posted by Lynn | 8 March 2005 #
  • I am actually mad about bananas...but more for the miniature chinese sweet/dwarf bananas or I think also known as apple bananas? and WOW! That photo above there just pulled me out of my influenza funk at this very moment.

    The description sounds simple enough to do, and I like the idea to brush melted chocolate on top. Thanks for making my morning!!!!!!

    Posted by rowena | 8 March 2005 #
  • Keiko, you have to promise me that on the next "Does My Blog Look Good in This?" you will participate, okay? Your pictures are sooo amazing maybe I’ll ask you to give me photography lessons. I guess I do have to get a decent camera first, don’t I? :)

    Posted by celiaK | 8 March 2005 #
  • Yes, I agree with Celia! I’m sure if Keiko had entered something into this last one, all of us would already know who won, no matter when the results came out. ;-)

    Posted by Moira | 8 March 2005 #
  • Hi Chika - I ordered a few more books (including Katsuhiko Kawada’s) with this one, so they’ll keep me out of trouble for a while :) I don’t think his recipes are too complicated (although I wouldn’t say easy), I’ve made some from this book and all of them were pretty good.

    Hi Santos - I must try with those ones next time. Thanks for inspiring me to try this recipe (otherwise I wouldn’t have done it, I’m sure).

    Hi Lynn - I think this book is only in Japanese. I found the address of his shop:
    Hidemi Sugino
    3-6-17 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku
    tel: 03-3538-6780

    I’m not sure if you could walk there with Libby ;) but when you try, please let me know what you think!

    Hi Rowena - Oh, you’re bananas about bananas :) I remember I had bananas during tennis matches (yes, I was playing tennis when I was young), apparently they give you energy quickly! I hope you are feeling better soon, take care.

    Hi Celia & Moira - Thank you for your compliments, I really enjoy taking photos but I still don’t know much about it and have loads more to learn!

    Posted by | 9 March 2005 #
  • Keiko, the cake looks absolutely amazing and I would love to taste it :-)

    Posted by Dagmar | 9 March 2005 #
  • Hi Dagmar - I hope one day us food bloggers from Europe (or North Europe...?) will have a chance to meet up! I’m sure I’ll be talking about cats rather than food, if I see you though...

    Posted by keiko | 9 March 2005 #
  • keiko- you know, i dont like bananas (unless its a muffin or in my morning cereal) but your photo actually makes it look appetizing! all of your photos are simply amazing. everything looks so scrumptious!

    Posted by tanvi | 10 March 2005 #
  • Hi Tanvi - Thank you for visiting, like you, I wasn’t sure about it either until I actually tasted the end result, but it was delicious!

    Posted by keiko | 12 March 2005 #
  • Keiko, it’s so nice of you to look up the address of the store. Now I have no excuse not to visit. Will take the subway though ;o)

    Posted by Lynn | 13 March 2005 #
  • Keiko, I’m in distress, is there an English translation of Hidemi Sugino’s Le Gout Authentique Retrouve? I bought it fromJapan, but to my dismay it was in Japanese! Help! Jeremy

    Posted by Jeremy Shapiro | 6 June 2006 #
  • Hi Jeremy - this book is only available in Japanese! He has another book called Dessert Book which has brief English translation along with the Japanese text - I don’t have it but have seen it - it has simpler dessert type recipes as opposed to Le Gout -, which mainly has cake recipes. Hope that helps.

    Posted by keiko | 19 July 2006 #
  • Hello Keiko,

    Beautiful dessert I was wondering about your glazing technique..it looks like clear galze with chocolate sauce…am I worng? How did you get such an interesting pattern?

    Posted by Bobby | 29 August 2007 #
  • Hi Bobby – thank you for your note and I’m sorry it’s taken so long to get back to you. I brushed melted chocolate on top (the cake was frozen previously so easy to brush), then finished with glaze.

    Posted by keiko | 21 January 2008 #
  • How can I get the recipes of these magnifcent desserts….let me know asap, thanks

    Posted by Samantha | 16 July 2009 #
  • Hi Samantha – the recipe is from one of my Japanese books and it’s published only in Japanese at the moment.

    Posted by keiko | 14 August 2009 #

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