Though it rarely makes my resume these days, I’m a qualified barista. I honed my skills for 2.5 years in a tiny Gloria Jeans kiosk. It was a great job. You met plenty of people, developed some pretty useful skills and there was a nearly endless supply of caffeine, especially when the boss wasn’t looking.

I really do have Gloria Jeans to thank for my first forays into baking that extended outside of butter cake and cupcakes. Every morning as I stacked the pastry cabinet full of banana bread, cheesecakes and puddings my culinary curiosities were awakened. Often, when it came time to refresh the cabinet and get rid of old stock I’d sample a small piece of the stale cake just to get my head around a new flavour. It was here I discovered my love for banana bread and perfected the recipe, where sticky date pudding became my go to restaurant dessert and where I finally understood why a tiny melting moment biscuit cost upwards of 2 dollars.

I’ve been making this recipe ever since then, often because I couldn’t justify the exorbitant price tags. Last year my friends even got these as an edible Christmas present. Nowadays I love the simplicity of it. It’s quick, requires such few ingredients and goes perfectly with tea. If you’re not lucky enough to have fresh summer passionfruit, even tinned pulp will work. Just taste as you go as the tinned variety already has added sugar. This recipe also works well with a gluten free flour blend, I tend to prefer a blend that’s more rice/potato flour  based.

To see the full recipe click here