My Favorite(!) Banana Cake

 

Banana cake is probably the one food thing that encompasses most of my food memories as a kid. For one, my mother was a cake decorator so when it came to birthday time the cake sky was the limit and my choice was always banana, and for two, my Grandma who recently passed away, my Nannie, made my world's greatest banana bread and it always cured whatever ailed me.  Banana is also my husband's favorite flavor.

Banana cake is a big deal at our house.

I could tell you that this is a fourth generation banana cake recipe but it's not.  While I love my grandmother's bread and my mom's version of cake, this is my personal favorite.  As I've talked about before with pies, cobblers, and crumbles, when it comes to fruit desserts I like to keep the fruit the star flavor, adding as few spices and taste additions as possible.  I want to taste the banana, not the cinnamon that's in most recipes.  This version is very much banana and very much cake.

 

Banana Nut Cake

Recipe by Glenna Anderson Muse

Inspired by a recipe found in Springfield's Junior League Cookbook:  Sassafrass

Cake:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk 

2 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup mashed ripe banana

2 cups flour

4 Tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp baking soda

Filling:

5 oz.  almond paste

8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter

2 cups powdered sugar

2-4 Tbsp milk

1.  Preheat oven to 320 degrees convection or 350 regular.

2.  Prepare three 8-inch round cake pans with baker's joy cooking spray and lining with parchment or waxed paper.

3. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix well.

4.  Mix rest of liquid ingredients, including banana, together. Sift flour, baking soda, and cornstarch together.

5.  With mixer running on medium low, incorporate dry and wet ingredients, alternating them, in 2-3 batches.  Mix for 1 additional minute.

6. Divide evenly into cake pans and bake for 20 minutes or until pinch test shows spongey texture.

For more info on baking correctly, see my post:  Seven Professional Secrets to Baking a Great Cake

Cook's Notes:   A few notes about the recipe. The vinegar in the milk is to make what my mother called "sour milk" or a substitute for buttermilk.  The acid in the vinegar or buttermilk is what reacts with the baking soda to leaven.  The cornstarch sifted in with the all purpose flour lightens it up to form, basically, homemade cake flour, creating a lighter cake texture. Also try to keep the total mixing time to under five minutes.  You want to thoroughly mix the ingredients and incorporate air, but you don't want to mix so long that the flour proteins form long elastic strands chemically which will make the cake texture more chewy and bread-like.

Filling:

Cream together almond paste and butter until smooth. Alternating, add in powdered sugar and milk until a thick buttercream texture is achieved. You may need a little more milk.

Assembly: Level the cakes if needed and then stack with filling in between and also use filling, thinned a bit with milk, as a crumb coating if desired.  Finish with either buttercream of choice or marshmallow fondant.

   

Notice how the cake has pulled away from the sides? That didn't happen until AFTER I'd had the layer out of the oven for five minutes.  Even though standard cake instructions say cake is done when the layers pull away from the sides, it's actually a bit overbaked.  Go by the pinch test where the samll divot in the center shows a sponge-like texture just before the edges pull away.  This cake is browner than the cakes I've shown before but that's because of the banana.

 

Close-up of the internal texture to know when it's done.

 

Notice how level the layer is?  I've already tested my oven with an oven thermometer so that I know the temperature indicated is correct.  So all I had to do before stacking the layers was to run a serrated knife in criss cross fashion across the tops of the layers to mar the slick surfaces so the layers wouldn't slide once I filled it with the almond paste filling.

 

 

Once my cake was crumb-coated, I chose to decorate it with , a festive ribbon, and a dusting of powdered sugar to look "Christmas-sy".

Comments

[megan]

Your cake is beautiful! I love when cakes are decorated with ribbon. And someday soon, I'll try that MM fondant!

[MyKitchenInHalfCups]

Who knew a banana cake could really be . . .
BANANA CAKE! That is really beautiful!

[Auntie M]

You'll have to make her send you a sample to truly appreciate how it pleases your palate even more than your eye - as beautiful as it is, it tasted even better!

[Kenneth]

I agree with auntie M, Glenna need to send every one a sample. It was a very good cake. I took three big pieces home.

[Colleen]

MmmmMMmmmmm sounds good :o)

Auntie M you get all the good stuff, lol.

[Glenna Muse]

Megan--go for it! It's really yummy. I don't like regular fondant and I like MM fondant. It's softer and has more flavor.

Tanna--Thank you!

Auntie--LOL! That's very sweet. Thank you.

Kenneth--I remember that! An I ate the last of it. That's a huge compliment from you. Let's face it. We burned out on cake when mom was baking all the time. It's not as much of a treat when you get leftovers all the time so I really appreciate your compliment!

Colleen--Hmmmmm...seems to me there's gonna be a whole lotta birthdays at your house in May...and I have shipped before to my friend Sherry...

[husband]

And thats why I didn't get any of it. It sure was purtty tho.

[Glenna Muse]

Ha! You had your chance!

[Anne @ Pink Galoshes]

What a pretty looking cake, and the recipe sounds delicious too. I can't wait to try this out.

[Glenna Muse]

Thanks Ann!

[Dana]

I love how you put the extra pictures in to see how you do it. I love banana cake too, I haven't been able to recreate my grandma though.

[Linds]

Hey Glenna,

That cake looks amazing and I love your cake pans. Makes things a little more interesting. I love banana but my other half can't stand them. I'm not sure I can justify making a whole banana cake for myself! ;)

I hope you had a good christmas and new year. I'm feeling a lot better and getting back on track with the blog. Hope 2009 brings you good luck, health and happiness.

Linds x

[courtney]

You really took Banana acake up a level or two. Its one of my favorite cakes too.

[Deborah Dowd]

This cake makes me wish I wasn't on a diet! What a lucky family you have!!

[Glenna Muse]

Thanks Dana. I try to because sometimes especially baking is something I've been doing since I was a kid so I take it for granted but not everyone bakes a lot.

Linds--Thanks!!! I hear you. I have that problem too with other things--that's what dinner parties were made for, right? Take care!

Courtney--Yay! Another banana cake lover (and thanks).

Deborah--Oh I hear you. I won't be making one again soon!!!!

[Jenny]

Thanks so much for this recipe, I've branched out making some cakes for friends recently and I made this for a friend with the addition of chocolate chips.

I knew I could trust your recipe and you didnt let me down!

[Amy Nguyen]

Hi! This recipe looks delicious! I am thinking of trying this recipe and covering it in fondant. Is this cake fluffy or dense?

[Glenna]

Amy, so sorry to be late answering. It holds up beautifully for fondant--the cake in the pic is covered in fondant and then dusted with powdered sugar.