Banana Oatmeal Snack Cake

When life gives you a plethora of ripe bananas, make a banana cake!

This week for some reason, we ended up with loads of beautiful spotty brown bananas. (And beautiful red tulips from my hubbie for Valentines, but that is not what we are here to talk about now, is it??) I was also lucky enough to receive a bottle of vanilla, straight from Mexico, from--let me make sure I have this right--Dave, my vanilla guy. Now, super ripe bananas, plus some heavenly smelling vanilla (Muchas gracias, Dave!) to me, are two darn good reasons to bake something. (Like I need a reason to bake...) I made banana bread just last week, so something else banana-ey was called for. (is that even a word??) My Muffin Thursday’s Blog had a very nice Banana Crumble Snack Cake, perfectly suited to the occasion. I have been trying to cut down on the refined sugar and white flour that I use in my baking lately, so I did some substituting with the large pail of honey that my veggie guy Shawn procured for me from the market. I changed the white flour to whole wheat, so with the oats there is a good dose of whole grains in it as well. The result is a somewhat virtuous snack cake, while not calorie free, at least with better for you ingredients. Moist, dense and wonderfully banana-ey (there is that word again!) you will never know it is good (ish)for you!  The crumble part is the proverbial icing on the cake, definitly do not leave it out! Part way through the cooking time, I was second guessing the addition of the 3rd banana that I added for moisture, it seemed to be taking way too long to cook, and was getting pretty brown around the edges.  Make sure you wait until the test toothpick comes out just clean, though, with no batter, just a few moist crumbs showing. It is well worth the wait!
The original recipe is here if you want to try it unaltered, I am sure it is positively yummy. 

Banana Oatmeal Snack Cake

1/2c butter, softened

2/3 cup honey

2 eggs

3 large, ripe bananas

2 tsp vanilla

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/4c old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick or instant, the large flake kind)

For the topping:

1 c old-fashioned oats(same kind as for the batter)

¼ c honey, softened

2 Tbsp wh wheat flour

4Tbsp butter, softened

Directions:

Thoroughly grease a 9" springform pan.

Cream together first amounts of butter and honey in a stand mixer until very creamy, at least a minute or two.

 Mash bananas

 Add to creamed mixture. Add eggs, one at a time, beating till fluffy after each addition.

Add vanilla, beat til combined. Add salt, baking soda, oats and flour into the the batter, and mix til JUST combined. Over mixing will make your cake tough.

Pour into greased springform pan.

For Topping: Mix together the oats, honey, flour and butter until a crumbly mixture forms. Sprinkle over cake.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick tests just clean. 

Run knife around the outside of the cake to loosen it from the sides as it cools.

Let cool in pan for 15 minutes, on a wire rack, then remove outer layer to cool completely, still on the wire rack.