Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Baking With Dorie (Rewind): Lots-Of-Ways Banana Cake

I remember making my first banana cake when I was 17, with the recipe I found in my mother's drawer. It was for a family gathering we were having later that night. And guess what? An aunt, Mak Mok who came for the potluck dinner also came with a banana cake!! I remember another aunt, Mak Ngah and a few other older cousins were telling me that mine tasted better than Mak Mok's!! Of course, I know now that they were being very nice and wanted to encourage me to bake...

This recipe is slightly different that the one I made almost 21 years ago (you would've guessed my age by now, right?).

Lots-Of-Ways Banana Cake was the chosen recipe by Grapefruit of BWD in April. I am on a mission to bake of all BWD previous challenges before I joined the group and hope to complete it by the time my turn to chose a recipe comes in August.

The texture of this cake is very soft and delicate, but they were not crumbly. Their softness were more of the melt-in-your-mouth kind of soft. I subsituted coconut milk with sour cream and sweetened shredded coconut with unsweetened dessicated coconut. I would've loved to add chopped walnuts or pecans but ran out of them. I think the the nuts would definitely add a nice crunch to the soft cake.

I made a one-layer cake and baked it in a 7-inch round cake pan, instead of the 9-inch recommended, just so I could get a taller cake. I believe banana cakes fall under the 'plain and rustic cake' category (my opinion, solely) and thus need not be frosted nor iced. I simply dusted some cocoa powder and the barely there bittersweet taste complimented the cake beautifully.


You may find the recipe on pages 205 & 206 of Baking from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan or here.

7 comments:

  1. Wow, the new look of your blog looks great! I love it!
    I think it's wonderful that you decided to experiment and added coconut milk. This really is a wonderful cake, isn't it? The flavors just intensify the longer the cake sits around & it will taste even better a day later (if it lasts that long)

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  2. Hi Grapefruit!! Are you commenting from Paris?? aah.. I'm so jealous!! ;-)

    No, I wasn't that brave to use coconut milk, but used sour cream instead. I brought this to a small family do and they loved it!!

    the blog design maybe temporary..still finding one that I really like.. actually the template I like most is yours ;-)

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  3. this is a lovely place u have here Tina. Love the colours. n the cup cakes on teh side bar are so pretty n sweet. Id love to bake cupcakes but its so much easier to make a whole cake like d banana cake. :) glad u dropped by.

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  4. Hi Zurin, thanks for dropping by my humble blog :) I sometimes like to bake cupcakes more than a whole cake as their baking time is shorter and I never get a soggy centre! I guess to each its own :)

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  5. Bonjour mon ami!! So sorry for the loooong silence and delayed response; thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment, btw. it's only been couple weeks since I got here but feels like eons already. I'm physically and mentally exhausted when I get back to the apt. every day! Some jet-lag still trailing (impossible after 2 weeks?!) and probably sign of age catching up! :-(
    Hope all's well. And your new blog? J'adore!

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  6. Jennyyyyyyyyyyyyy... so glad to hear from you!! No worries whatsoever... I am sure absorbing all the lessons and everything French is exhausting.. exhausting but EXCITING I am sure!!

    Thanks for dropping.. I'll keep up with your French adventures on your blog :)

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  7. I baked this the other day and it was a success. I am not posting it yet because, we will shortly, be making it in TWD.

    Yes, Dorie has blessed us with some really good baking.

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