My go-to recipe for using up old, spotty bananas is generally banana bread. I've made that quite a few times over the last few months though and, while delicious, I wanted to try something a little different. I've also been on a bit of an Edmonds kick lately. This meant that it was definitely time to give the Edmonds "banana cake" recipe a try!

The cake came out lovely overall. And I even split and filled it. (A first for me!) The flavour is alright, but a little sweet for my taste. It's a fairly sweet cake to begin with and then it gets a sugary chocolate glacé icing on top of it. In addition, since I didn't want to deal with trying to make stabilized whipped cream, I ended up filling it with dulce de leche. The end result was not a bad combination of flavours, but a bit cloying. The chocolate also didn't come through as much as I would've liked.

I think next time I'd reduce the sugar slightly and swap out the white sugar for brown. And, to cut the sweetness a bit and make sure the chocolate really comes through, I think I'd top it with a dark chocolate ganache rather than the saccharine glacé icing. I might also consider adding a splash of vanilla to the cake batter. I don't want to go too crazy with the spices and just end up making banana bread in a round tin, but I think a bit of vanilla would complement things nicely without overshadowing any of the other components.

Banana Cake

Adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 125g (salted) butter, softened
• 1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar¹
• 2 large (or 3 medium) eggs
• 4 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
• 2 Tbsp. hot milk
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 c. soft (cake) flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ~200mL dulce de leche
• 1-2 bananas, sliced
• ~400mL dark chocolate ganache (or chocolate glacé icing)
• 1/4 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Stir in the mashed bananas and vanilla.
4. Combine the hot milk and baking soda and stir into the egg mixture.
5. Sift together the flour and baking powder and fold into egg mixture.
6. Pour into greased and floured 9" (23cm) round cake tin (or springform pan)² and bake at 350°F (180°C) for 40 minutes³.
7. Allow cake to cool in tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool.
8. Split the cake horizontally by whatever method you prefer. (I always thought my mother's trick of using a piece of thread tied 'round the cake worked particularly well.)
9. Separate the layers and spread both cut sides with dulce de leche.
10. Place sliced bananas over bottom layer⁴ and then replace the top layer so the bananas are sandwiched between cake and dulce de leche.
11. Pour chocolate ganache over the top of the cake. It's fine if it drips down the sides a little, but they don't need to be completely covered.
12. If desired, sprinkle chopped walnuts around the top edge of the cake.

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¹ I followed the original recipe for this bake and made it with 3/4 c. granulated sugar, but found it too sweet. Next time I'll try 1/2 c. brown sugar instead. If you use brown sugar, the cake will come out darker than pictured here. ^Back
2 Edmonds calls for using an 8" (20cm) round pan and baking for 50 minutes, but I don't have one, so I opted for a 9" round pan and baked the resulting wider, thinner cake for 35 minutes instead. ^Back
3 I know I just said I baked my cake for 35 minutes in the last footnote, but I also accidentally set the oven temperature a bit too high (370°F rather than 350°F). It seems to have turned out fine despite the higher temperature. That said, if you're cooking it at the proper temperature, you might need the extra five minutes to make sure it's cooked all the way through. ^Back
4 If you used an 8" (20cm) pan then 1 banana will likely be enough. If you've used a 9" pan, then 2 would be better. I found 1 banana to be a bit skimpy for a 9" cake. I would've liked to have been able to slice it a bit thicker and not leave gaps between the slices when adding them to the cake. ^Back