Electrolux #splits: Banana Split Sticks

Have you ever come across anyone in your life who has/has had ovarian cancer? If you've lived as long as I have, chances are you might know someone or at least someone related/connected to someone you know. Cancer is a always disease that impacts many lives, sufferers and carers alike and any cause related to cancer research is well worth supporting, don't you think? A case of karma comes back around, you know what I mean?

Well, Foodbuzz has offered us a chance to help the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF) by sponsoring a Top 9 Takeover Challenge, ie. they will donate $50 for every Banana Splits post by a Featured Publisher. The Top 9 posts will be featured on Foodbuzz on 19 July 2010. Btw, if you didn't already know, the OCRF's mission is to fund research to find a method of early detection and ultimately a cure for Ovarian Cancer. If you would like to know more about the OCRF's work, just click here. 

Foodbuzz had also helped Electrolux and Kelly Ripa, an American TV host and actress, raise money for the OCRF by sending two Foodbuzz Featured Publishers to New York and giving them an opportunity to make banana splits with their kids. To find out more about what Electrolux is doing with Kelly Ripa, click here to go to Kelly's website: http://www.kelly-confidential.com/foodbuzz.

So what's the Electrolux Splits Top 9 Takeover theme that we should be blogging about? Get ready for it.... it's to create the ULTIMATE BANANA SPLIT!! 

 

Oh, ohhhh (deflated).... but I didn't have enough good, fresh things in my pantry today and honestly, I felt too sick to go out and get some. So what can a resourceful minx like me do but improvise with what I DO have. Ok, let's go through the checklist: Bananas (check), ice-cream (check), fresh fruits (uncheck), preserved figs (check), frozen raspberries (check), ice-cream lolly sticks (check), brown sugar (check), golden syrup (check), camera (check).

 

Right, I was ready to assemble my version of the Ultimate Banana Split. Hmm..the only bananas I had in the house were these small (very sweet) golden ones and they looked only a little big bigger than cocktail sausages! So a traditional "split" was out of the question as these bananas would just look ridiculous sitting there in the dish. I decided to push an ice-lolly stick through each banana so you could pick it up to chomp on it and yes, use it to pick up some ice-cream and fuits in the process. Practical too, see?

 

Only the first bite, and I'm in love..

Using a short glass, I laced the top edge with raw brown sugar - a bit of golden syrup ensured the crystals stick to the glass. My ice-cream situation was rather dismal as I only had one lonely Moo Icecream Lolly in the freezer. It had to do, and besides it had that creamy vanilla and choc mixture (like a Swiss dairy cow) that I wanted. I chopped that up and spooned it into the bottom of the glass. Then came the fruits, which weren't really "fresh" in the purest sense of the word, but were very fresh when they were at the stage of being frozen or preserved. I opted for raspberries and some juicy figs, sliced thinly. Bang they went in on top of the icecream. Plunged the banana lollies into the whole mix and there..... there's my rather elegant Banana Split dessert! And I didn't even need a spoon to eat this.

 

Btw, for the sceptics reading this, there really is a Moo Icecream by Walls (below). The cover even has a graphic of a white and brown cow on it, just to prove the point! MOOOO.....