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.

Bundt Pan Banana Bread

We go thru bananas in our house like a pack of monkeys. No matter how many I buy, I always seem to be stopping at the grocery store to get more a few times a week. The dogs even love them. As soon as you peel one, they are both sitting pretty by your feet, waiting for their customary bite. And, should it be a particularly good banana, and you forget to share, well, you can expect the cold shoulder for at least 5 minutes, from both of them!

So, when I get the urge to make muffins, banana bread, or anything similar, I need to buy ones that are already “ready” to cook with, because they never last long enough to go brown here. When we were at our favourite little fruit market today, there was a perfect bunch, spotty and browned, just waiting for me. I took it as a sign that today was banana bread day.
This recipe makes a lot of batter. (As much as we like bananas, we seem to like banana bread more…) It will do 2 loaves nicely, but I prefer to cook mine in my Bundt pan. I like the even way it cooks, and it just looks so much nicer, I am sure you could even ice it and serve it as cake! (Oh, what a thought, maybe a nice dark rich chocolate icing…..I am going to have to try that!) The original recipe came from the Silver Palate cookbook; this is my “tweaked” recipe, for my Bundt pan.

Bundt Pan Banana Bread

Makes 1 Bundt pan or two loaf pans (would work for muffins too, would probably make 3-4 dozen though, and cooking time would be substantially less, around 20 minutes would probably do)

½ cup olive oil
½ cup butter, softened
¾ cup white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
4 eggs
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (I use coarse sea salt, feel free to use your favorite)
6 large ripe bananas, mashed with a potato masher
2 Tsp vanilla


Liberally grease your Bundt pan. (Seriously, this is one place not to be lazy; getting something out of a Bundt pan when it sticks is not fun, at all! I grease mine with a paper towel and a big smear of softened butter)

In stand mixer, cream together oil, butter, and sugars. Beat for about 3 minutes, until creamy, and lighter in colour. Continue beating while you add in the eggs, one at a time. When eggs are well incorporated, turn off mixture, and measure the flours, baking soda and salt into the bowl. Mix on LOW (unless you want to give your kitchen a flour bath…) until just combined. It is good to still see bits of dry flour. Over mixing of baked goods like this makes them tougher and drier, I think it has to do with the gluten in the flour being released. Good for yeast type bread, not so good for quick breads.) Turn off mixer again, add mashed bananas and vanilla, and again mix on low until just nicely combined. Again, do not over mix. (If you do not have a stand mixer, just use a large bowl, and stir ingredients together in the same order, mixing with a large wooden spoon or rubber spatula)

Pour batter into pre-greased Bundt pan and bake in center of oven, preheated to 350 degrees. Bake for 60-65 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out with a few moist crumbs, (not wet batter).
Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a rack and cool completely before cutting (if you can…)


PS: I have since made this with the addition of 2 espresso shots (or if you can find instant espresso powder, 2 tsp of that), and a cup of chocolate chips...Wow!!