Jo's Kitchen

This is Jo.

Jo doesn’t work for LOVE, but for the last six and a half years she's provided all the love and support her husband needs. He works for LOVE, so in a way, Jo does too. Jo’s also a great cook. Jo likes Jamie (who she once met when she was really drunk at a party), Jo likes Nigel, Jo likes Nigella, Jo likes Bill, and Jo sort of likes Gordon. (She met him once too, but wasn’t drunk and didn’t know what to say to him.)

In the interests of sharing Jo’s love, kindness and culinary genius, we’re experimenting with giving her her very own recipe section on our blog. These aren’t Jo’s own recipes, we must stress, just what she’d recommend from her wealth of cookbook knowledge. We’re calling this section “Jo’s Kitchen” for the simple reason that her name’s Jo and it’s a Kitchen-related blog.

We decided there was no better way to start Jo’s Kitchen than with the recipe for her (ok, it’s Bill Granger’s) infamous chocolate and banana cake that periodically turns up at LOVE. It’s superb, and we’d recommend serving it with plenty of tea at about half past three in the afternoon. Definitely no later than four pm.

You will need:
250g PLAIN FLOUR
250g CASTER SUGAR
125g BUTTER
2x EGGS
2x TEASPOONS BAKING POWDER
1x TEASPOON VANILLA ESSENCE
100-175g CHOCOLATE CHIPS (depending on how fat you are)
3-4x RIPE BANANAS (depending on size)
1x EMPTY STOMACH

Soften butter & mix with sugar. Lightly beat eggs and add. Now add the mashed bananas, chocolate chips and vanilla essence. Sieve the flour & baking powder into a separate bowl, then mix with the banana mixture. Don't over mix it though, or your cake will be tough. Pour mixture into a greased & floured loaf tin & cook for one hour at 180oC/ gas mark 4. Leave for ten minutes then turn out onto a wire rack. Stuff into face as required.

As a token of appreciation for all the hard work and advice Russell’s given us setting up the blog, Jo’ll be making a special C&B cake for him, and November 22nd (when Russell’s next up in Manchester) will become LOVE’s official Chocolate and Banana cake day. Providing he doesn’t have some unfortunately chocolate, banana or cake allergy. In which case we’ll have to have a rethink…