Receta Grandma’s Banana Cake
In my mom’s recipe box, I found a recipe in my paternal grandmother’s handwriting for banana cake. I can’t say I remember either my mom or my grandmother making a banana cake, but I decided I wanted to give it a try.
My daughter wanted caramel icing for her birthday, so I suggested we try it on banana cake. My grandmother’s banana cake recipe included instructions for an icing, but I thought we’d be wild and do something different.
I mixed up the cake…I would say following my grandmother’s directions, but really the recipe was just a list of ingredients followed by “bake in a sheet pan for about 30 minutes.” I poured the batter into a greased and floured old, cheap, dark, and thin metal pan that I do not normally use for cakes. The result was a cake that cooked and browned too fast on the sides and did not rise enough, especially in the middle, despite baking it at 325 degrees to try to accommodate for the pan.
It tasted great, but I wasn’t going to serve a cake with a sunken middle for my daughter birthday. Thus, I made another…in a glass baking dish (it cooked evenly and browned nicely) and we ate the first one, our test run, without icing.
My husband and daughter both commented that it tasted like banana bread. I am not sure what they thought it was going to taste like, but it is very similar to banana bread…only lighter. It is moist and tasty enough that it was really good plain, but is equally good with whipped cream, my grandmother’s icing or caramel icing.
Recipe: Banana Cake
Ingredients:
- 2 c. flour, sifted
- 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
- 3/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1 1 /2 c. sugar
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 c. vegetable shortening
- 1 c. mashed bananas
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/4 c. buttermilk
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl.
Add shortening and bananas and mix on low just until all ingredients are incorporated (pausing to scrape sides of bowl as needed).
Add eggs and buttermilk and mix on medium for 2 to 3 minutes.
Pour into a greased and floured 9 X 13 baking pan or 2- 8 or 9 inch round pans.
Bake 25 -35 minutes (20ish minutes if using larger round cake pans)or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean or when the top of the cake is lightly touched with finger it bounces back.
Notes:
You can substitute milk with 1/2 Tbsp. vinegar for the buttermilk.
If using a dark baking pan, the oven temperature needs to be lower, 325 degrees.
Copyright © 2014.
Recipe by Paula, A Simple Home Cook.
Recipe: Grandmother’s Icing
Ingredients:
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 c. sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp. butter
1 1/2 c. light corn syrup
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Instructions:
In top of a double boiler, combine ingredients except for vanilla.
Heat until sugar in incorporated and mixture temp is 160 degrees F or use a pasteurized egg or egg product.
Allow to cool some if you cooked it to 160 degrees.
Beat with a “rotary egg beater” for 4 to 5 minutes.
Copyright © 2014.
Recipe by Paula, A Simple Home Cook.