Eat your bananas!
They’re healthy–fiber rich, low in calories, and high in potassium which helps regulate blood pressure.The animo acid tryptophan and vitamin B6 in bananas just might elevate your mood, too. Who doesn’t need that right now?
This little cake pushes all the right buttons. It is moist and flavorful with ripe bananas in the batter. It is served with a whipped cream and peanut butter frosting that is to die for. It works as a breakfast cake or as a dessert…or, dangerously, as a snacking cake throughout the day. (I just went into my kitchen and grabbed a piece of the cake to be extra sure it’s a snacking cake. Yep. It’s a snacking cake, but I may just go in again and make double sure. I’m doing it for Blue Cayenne’s accuracy. Really.)
You might be surprised to see white vinegar used in this recipe. Long ago, bakers learned that the addition of vinegar to baked goods helped them rise and kept the baked goods fluffy and moist. Apparently, the vinegar reacts with the baking soda in a recipe to produce carbon dioxide, a gas that enhances the rise. Who knew?
Here is the recipe:
Save RecipeIngredients
- 3/4 C. ripe bananas (about 2 ripe bananas-mashed)
- 2 T. white vinegar
- 6 T. unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1 C. sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
- 3/4 t. baking soda
- 1/4 t. salt
- 3/4 C. whole milk
- 1 C. heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 C. powdered sugar
- 3 T. creamy peanut butter
- chopped peanuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. (That is a correct temperature. This cake bakes at a low temperature.) Prepare a springform pan by lightly greasing it and lining the bottom with parchment paper.
- Mash bananas and combine them with vinegar in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of a large mixer. You should have a pale-colored mixture after about 2 minutes of mixing. Add egg and vanilla extract to the butter mixture. Mix to combine. Add half the flour, the baking soda and salt to the mixture and stir to combine. Mix in half the milk. Repeat with remaining flour, baking soda, salt and milk. Mix the ingredients to combine but be careful not to overmix.Fold in the banana mixture and pour the batter into your prepared springform pan.
- Bake the cake in a preheated 275 degree F. oven for about 1 hour. Your cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting.
- To make the whipped cream frosting, combine the whipping cream and powdered sugar and whip until soft peaks form. Add the peanut butter and mix just to combine. (Cook's Note: The first time I made this recipe the peanut butter made the frosting curdle. It tasted fine but was subpar visually. So, in subsequent bakes, I whipped the cream and the powdered sugar separately and then carefully and slowly added peanut butter to taste. That worked fine. To be fair, I'm working with a peanut butter that is not a name brand. It was the only creamy peanut butter I could find at the beginning of the lockdown.)
This recipe is adapted from one that appears on The Wood and Spoon blog here.
