Who We Are

Friday, March 14, 2008

Banana(nananana) Cake!

Tail wags, readers. It's me, Stormy. We've had a few requests to share some of Mom's recipes with you. Dave posted the Lemon Oat Bars recipe and Zim explained how Mom makes Baked Empanadas. Now ... what a lot of you pups have been waiting for ... the Banana(nananana) Cake!

Before I start, please understand this is food for bipeds. Not us. But as with most recipes, there will be left-over something that you'll need to help with. Like cheese from the empanadas ... or figuring out what to do with excess bananas!

We in the Ao4 get banana slices every day - here we are at a recent Banana Formation, to get you in the mood:

Daily Banana Formation
Starting with Dad and going clockwise: Dad, Dave, me, Zim and Am in the top left

Without further ado... here's the recipe!

Banana Layer Cake
By the Ao4

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 c. plus 1 Tbs. buttermilk*
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup chopped pecans

*Mom never has buttermilk. Here's what you can do if you don't, either. For the amount above, take 1/4 cup of milk and add a hefty 1/4 Tablespoon of lemon juice. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream butter; gradually add sugar, beating well. Add egg YOLKS, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Leave the whites sitting in a bowl on the counter. Dissolve soda in buttermilk; add to creamed mixture alternately with the flour, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in bananas (Mom doesn't really mash hers; she just has the mixer going and cuts chunks into the bowl as it goes around) and the pecans. In a separate bowl, beat room temperature egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold into batter.
Pour batter into 2 greased and floured (Mom uses the spray kind) 9" round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans, move to cooling racks and let cool completely.

To make frosting, beat together the following:
8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick butter (4 Tbs)
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Once the cake has cooled, place first layer on plate - upside down from how you baked it. You know ... so the rounded top is on the plate. Either spread some of the frosting on that layer ... or ... spread a thin layer of melted semi-sweet chocolate on it, then top with sliced bananas. Your choice. Then top that with the other layer - right side up. Your cake will look best this way! Frost with the remaining frosting. Make it look pretty. Mom says if you mess it up, to sprinkle chopped pecans all over it and no one will ever know.
Store covered in the magic cold box.

I hope your bipeds will enjoy this. It's a great way to use up over-ripe bananas - which is another thing you can help with! Remember to take them nice, pups!


Tail wags and bon appétit!
Storms

14 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:35 AM

    WOOO STORMS!! This recipe looks EASY! I will ask mom to make it for me this weekend and show you my bananananana formation, ha roooo!
    Hugs,
    Sitka

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  2. Woo! That sounds wonderfully yummy! Mom says she's glad you added the part about the buttermilk becasue we never have that either. I can smell those bananannanas now!
    ECHO

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  3. YUM!

    I thought my mom's banana(nananana) muffins were good THIS looks inkhredible!

    We even have lemon juice remaining from the lemon oat bars -

    My mom is drooling over the frosting - she's made hers like that and it is SOOO good she says - it is also good with peanut butter creamed and not the cream cheese -

    Hugz&'nanananaKhysses,
    Khyra

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  4. Boy oh boy does that ever sound yummy! Mom is making rice pudding today. Maybe we can get her to make this recipe or the lemon one tomorrow!

    Love ya lots,
    Maggie and Mitch

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  5. This looks so yummy! I have a bunch of bananas past their prime over there, so thanks for the new recipe. "They" don't even have buttermilk here, but we have lots of lemons!

    Belly rubs from us!
    Tia & Family

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  6. Zim and Storms,
    Greetings from Dominica, where there are bananas EVERYWHERE! I can't wait to get home and try your recipes. In the meantime, we are absolutely loving Dominican food, which is a little bit Creole and a whole lot tropical.

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  7. So you don't ever get to eat banana cake? That doesn't seem fair. I think that I will not allow my mom to make the cake because I would rather just eat the bananas myself!

    Steve

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  8. Mom said the smell of banananananas makes her want to ralph, but she still buys them for us. She actually likes bananananana bread and junk, jut not regular banananannas. she is wacky!

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  10. Mmm, sounds good! Humom says next time there are ripe binas (that what she calls em) she'll make it Love your Banana Formation - ours usually just looks like Jack sitting there waiting....I have the bipeds trained to deliver my treats to me on my fluffy bed. Ha!

    W000w & a-rooos
    Star & Jackananaroo

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  11. YUMMO! Banana cake rocks!
    Mum had just read about your lemon oat bars a few days ago and then yesterday at her school bazaar one of the American mums had baked a whole batch of them so mum snapped up a few. They didn't even make it home with her as she said they tasted so good. Now we definately have to get her to make them at home so we can sample them and the banana cake too!
    Licks
    Jazz and Dixie

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  12. Sounds super yummy!!!! We'll have to claw mom into trying it!

    WOo woo, KA

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  13. Do woo have a photo of the cake....we were so looking forward to seeing it!

    Prince & Summer

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  14. Are you guys in that formation lots? We have one like that too.

    I'm the one out on point. But Lucy does a kind of float position.

    She moves over beside me sometimes when she thinks the action isn't coming her way fast enough.

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