MangiaMore: BANANA cake w. chocolate frosting

RER 2011

RER 2011

Bananas, as with most fruits, ripen really quickly and slip through our fingers before we can eat them, jumping from green, to bright yellow, to freckled to brown and smushy before we know it. I know this happens to all of us, and not just to me. We buy too many at the grocery store, forget to take them as snacks or put them on our cereal, and in the blink of an eye, these bananas are taking up counter space and look soft and inedible. But these brown and over ripe bananas are something we can take advantage of (without feeling bad or guilty, they want to be used). In fact, the browner the better—because the browner the banana is, the stronger that banana flavor is.

So what can we do with these bananas we dare not allow touch our lips?  What to do with these deadweights lingering in our kitchens, wreaking havoc to the other fruits in the bowl?

Banana cake, is the answer. These tired old brown bananas can bring sweetness and deliciousness into the world. They are not lost causes.

Here’s how:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease and flower the cake pans.

Smush

2 or 3 over ripe bananas

Cream

1/2 cup (one stick) butter
1 1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Add
2 eggs

Mix In
smushed bananas!

Beat In
1/2 cup buttermilk
a smidge of vanilla extract
a pinch of cinnamon
2 1/2 cup flour

Pour batter into two greased and floured cake pans. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes in an oven preheated at 350 degrees.  Banana batters become really dense and can take a while to cook, but definitely keep an eye on your baking cake. Wait tenish minutes to remove the cakes from their pans, and place them on cooling racks.

For frosting...

This is a recipe for a normal chocolate cocoa frosting:
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup baking cocoa
2 to 3 tablespoons milk

Variations on frosting recipes are always fun and a great way to personalize cakes. Try marshmallow Fluff, or creamcheese, or even different kinds of chocolate.

Frost and then enjoy, heartily....

RER

9.4.12

RER 2011

RER 2011