Christmas banana cream cake with speculaas biscuit base

Ingredients for 8 servings:

• 40 spiced speculatius cookies
• 150 g butter
• 1 packet of vanilla pudding powder
• 400 ml milk
• 150 g butter
• 6 bananas
• 100 g chocolate coating
• 2 tbsp sugar

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Rest time approx. 2 hours; Total time approx. 2 hours 45 minutes

egg-free, no baking

Take about 150 grams of butter out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature. Make a vanilla pudding with 400 ml of milk and about 2 tablespoons of sugar, pour it into a bowl, and place cling film directly on the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming. Crumble about 40 speculatius biscuits. The amount depends on the size of the cake tin and how thick you want the base to be. It’s best to hit the speculatius biscuits directly with a heavy object or place them in a sturdy plastic bag beforehand. Melt about 150 grams of butter and mix or knead the melted butter with the speculatius crumbs. This is best done by hand. The speculatius crumbs should be completely soaked in the butter. If not, simply add a little more butter. The dough may be a bit crumbly at first, as it will only set when the butter cools down. Press the “dough” firmly into the bottom of a round cake pan to cover everything, then refrigerate until the next step. Combine the cooled pudding with the room-temperature butter using a mixer to create a buttercream. The consistency should be creamy; if not, simply add a little more butter. Peel the bananas, cut them in half lengthwise, and spread them on the cake base. Once the cake base is completely covered with bananas, spread the buttercream evenly over the top. Melt the chocolate coating and spread or sprinkle it in lines over the cake. Move the brush back and forth over the cake to ensure that some of the chocolate coating is everywhere and the cream doesn’t melt. It’s best to refrigerate the cake overnight, or at least long enough for the butter in the cream and base to set. This recipe can potentially be made with other cookies, other types of pudding, and other fruits.