Recipe: Mary’s Banana Cake

This recipe evolved as my mom and I made it together.  I had three overripe bananas in my fridge and I wanted to use them up.  She had come over one afternoon in December to say “hello” and offered to help.  Or did I ask her if she wanted to?  Anyway, we got it made.  :-)  I actually started out with a recipe from somewhere else, but I changed it so much that I’ve decided to change the name too.

This makes a heavier cake due to the ingredients, but it makes a very nice snack cake or dessert.  (Truth: My family had it with brunch one morning. [grin]   What's the point in being grown up if you can't decide to have cake for breakfast?)

Mary's Banana Cake

Whisk together in a medium bowl:
1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
1 C. white whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder

Cream together in a large bowl:
1 C. brown sugar
1 C. butter
1/2 C. sour cream
1/4 C. milk
3 eggs

Add dry ingredients to this and mix well.
Beat in:
3 medium bananas, mashed (should make 1 heaping cup)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Stir in:
1 C. chocolate chips
(You may add 1/2 C. of chopped nuts if you wish.)

Line the bottom of a 9x13 cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides well.  Pour in batter and bake at 350F (175C) for 30-40 minutes or till a golden brown color around the edges and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
Completely cool.

Frosting

Whip together till light and fluffy and spread on cake:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 Tbl. butter, softened
1 2/3 C. powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

I did not freeze any of this cake, so I don’t know how it does in the freezer.  I would imagine that it would freeze well as most cakes tend to do, but due to its heavy consistency it would probably be better fully thawed before using.



The color in this picture isn’t very good, but I thought it was interesting to see the swirls of banana in the cake.  It would make a good snack cake without the frosting too, if you prefer.  Yes, I did take out a slice before frosting it because this was an experiment and I wanted to see how it was right away. :-)



We got this enamel plate at an old fashioned “five and dime” store in Fredericksburg, Texas where we went for a little vacation in October.  The enamelware was a bit pricey, so I opted to get one dessert/salad size plate just for this purpose – photographing food for the web page. :-)  Isn’t it pretty?  I love the color!

Banana Brownies

This was originally published in August 2009.  This recipe can be altered a number of ways as the note at the bottom indicates.

Banana Brownies

Mix together:

2/3 C. sugar

1/2 C. flour (all purpose or whole wheat)

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla or almond flavor

2/3 C. mashed, over ripe bananas

1/4 C. cocoa powder

1 egg lightly beaten

Pour into a greased 8x8 inch pan. Bake 20-30 minutes at 350F. Cool 5 minutes and remove from pan to a wire rack to continue cooling.
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With white flour these brownies will be more like cake, but with whole wheat they are heavier like true brownies should be, and healthier like true brownies usually are not. :-) 

There are some great ways to dress up or vary this recipe as well. Sprinkle nuts, chocolate chips, or drained maraschino cherries on top and gently push into the batter in the pan before baking. Once I left out the cocoa powder and added spices instead to make a banana spice cake. To do this measure the spices you want (ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.) into a 1/4 C. measuring cup. Add enough flour to make up the difference and add in place of the cocoa. Be sure to use vanilla extract for this change, and nuts are a nice addition. You could also add some orange zest for an interesting flavor. (I wonder what this variation would taste like made with canned pumpkin instead of the bananas. Hmmmm.) Also you could try using other flour mixtures for a healthier brownie - 1/4 C. oat flour plus 1/4 C. whole wheat, etc. (Not all flours respond the same in recipes, so remember to make appropriate alterations accordingly.)

Random Links for A Cloudy, Rainy Day

My ham and lentil soup.

I haven’t done a link post for awhile, and since I’m a little behind on posts I thought I’d try to put one together today.  It’s a cloudy, dull November day here (though not cold yet), but we had a little rain which is always welcome here these days of drought!  Praise the Lord for every bit we get!

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Mommy’s Kitchen – Here is a neat cooking blog my mom discovered and declared useful.  I haven’t explored it much yet, but it looks like there are a lot of good “home cookin’” recipes here. :-)

Homemade Soup Recipes – Mmmm soooooup, that warm comfort food that makes a cold day seem a little less chilly.

Did someone say chili? A chili for every taste – more or less.

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches at TasteofHome.com – Did I mention that I’m getting hungry?  I think we need to have some grilled cheese sandwiches soon!  Until then they are  grilled cheese sandwishes. ;-)

More Grilled Cheese, Please!

Old Time Cooked Banana Pudding – I never met “banana puddin’” till my family moved to the South (Tennessee, to be exact).  I’ve only ever had the instant mix, pre-fabricated food type banana pudding and I was not impressed (my apologies to my Southern readers).  But, I have to say that this sounds like it would be quite good, plus it sounds like you could or should serve it warm, which seems more appealing to me.  I thought there was probably an old fashioned method for this. (Now if I could only find some good vanilla wafers that didn’t have stuff in them that we don’t like to eat.)

An assortment of Winter Dinners.

Apple pie dish – for a yummy winter treat, serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Four Salads

Do you get hungry for salad in the spring?  I do!  I think our bodies want the fresh green lettuce and veggies as part the clearing out process after winter.  That’s my theory, anyway.  But, I know that the fresh fruits and veggies taste extra good in the spring time, especially when you have homegrown lettuce! :-)
Here are four salads that I especially like.  Three are very simple.  If you sometimes forget or struggle to eat fresh fruit, three of these salads might be some help to you.
Blueberry-Melon Salad
This is a summer salad and probably my favorite.  I love the colors and the fresh berries!

As you can see, it only has three ingredients – leafy green lettuce, blueberries and cantaloupe.  I usually serve it with a sweet-sour dressing, honey-lemon is the best.  (I will try to share some dressing recipes later.)
Festive Banana Melon Salad

This salad is quite pretty.  It isn’t much different from the one above.  It has bananas instead of blueberries, and a maraschino cherry is put on top to decorate it.  This, of course, is optional.  (It’s hard to find maraschino cherries here that don’t have high fructose corn syrup in them.)  I serve this with similar dressings as I do the blueberry one.
Another variation of this is to leave out the bananas and add plain cooked chicken breast.  This then becomes a “main dish” salad.

This was an interesting one, but it was actually quite good.  As you can see I sprinkled some toasted sesame over the top of the sweet-sour dressing.  This would be so refreshing on a late winter day, I think! :-)
Chef Salad

This is one to two servings.

This salad is the not-so-easy one.  But, it is almost an entire meal.  All you need to add is some carbohydrate of some sort – bread, chips, biscuits, etc.  How about croutons?
When I make this I layer it.  Lettuce on the bottom.  Next some mixed veggies – cucumbers, carrots, etc.  Then the “julienned” ham slices and the grated cheese.  On that I sprinkled some black pepper.  The tomatoes (cherry or wedges of a larger one) and quartered boiled eggs look decorative around the edges.  Black olives rings would make a nice addition to the top as well.  If you don’t eat ham, try turkey or roast beef deli meat.  It’s good served with a savory dressing – Ranch, bleu cheese, Russian, Italian, Thousand Island, etc.
By the way, with attention to the ingredients these can all be made gluten free.  :-)  Just use a safe dressing and adjust some things in the Chef Salad.