Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Old Fashioned Banana Cake

Looks like I am becoming a hard core Ina Garten fan. This is another one of her recipes from the Barefoot Contessa book series "How easy is that?". Now what is the difference between banana cake and banana bread? The only thing I know of is that the banana bread is made in a loaf pan and the other one in a regular cake pan. If one of you has a better answer than that, let me know. This is a super moist 'n soft cake recipe and the taste reminds me of the unniyappams (a traditional fried snack made with rice flour, banana, etc). I have slightly altered the recipe to reduce the amount of sugar.



Makes a 9" Cake

Very Ripe Bananas - 3 (mashed)
Granulated Sugar- 1/2 cup
Light Brown Sugar- 1/2 cup (lightly packed)
Vegetable Oil- 1/2 cup
Eggs- 2
Sour Cream- 1/2 cup
Pure Vanilla Extract- 1 tsp
Grated Orange zest- from a small orange
All Purpose Flour- 2 cups
Baking Soda- 1 tsp
Salt- 1/2 tsp
Coarsely chopped walnuts- 1/2 cup

  1. Using an electric mixer or blender, mix the mashed bananas, granulated sugar and brown sugar on a low speed until combined. The original recipe calls for 3/4 cup granulated sugar. So if you want it to be sweeter, you could add 3/4 cup.
  2. Add the oil, eggs, sour cream, vanilla essence and orange zest to the banana-sugar mixture and mix at low speed until smooth. If you do not have orange zest, you could avoid them.
  3. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking soda and salt to combine them well.
  4. Add the dry ingredients slowly to the wet ingredients in a slow speed and combine well.
  5. Stir in the chopped walnuts to the cake batter.
  6. Pour the batter into a greased 9" baking pan.
  7. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50-55 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. The heating time varies by the oven, so keep checking towards the last 10-15 minutes.
  8. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes and turn on to a cooling rack and cool completely.

You should also be able to bake it in a loaf pan or even make this into muffins.  This is a perfect snack which has the goodness of bananas and the crunchiness of the walnuts. You could also make this cake without the walnuts, if you do not like them.

24 comments:

  1. Wud love to have them for Tea :)

    Cheers,
    Reshmi

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  2. Yumm, thats a great looking scrumptious banana cake...

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  3. Very nice recipe and very professional pics

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  4. They look soft and fluffy...can you pass that piece to me...yumm...

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  5. I am a big fan of banana breads, i try different combination as per my liking. I love the sour cream addition in here...I make it almost the same way..

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  6. wat a gorgeous clicks...love d fantastic recipe..
    Tasty Appetite

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  7. Soft and moist cake..looks lovely

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  8. Cake looks so delicious and moist. Great preparation.

    Deepa
    Hamaree Rasoi

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  9. I feel like biting that piece! awesome!

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  10. Fantastic n drool worthy tempting cake...lovely!

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  11. Adipoli banana cake, evide aayirunu post kanan ilia.

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  12. Delicious banana cake..Loved the clicks!

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  13. I love Ina's recipes too. The cake looks fab..perfect texture!

    US Masala

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  14. Super moist banana cake..Loved the presentation !!

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  15. Wow.. looks so so so tempting and delicious.. Thanks for the awesome recipe dear !!

    Indian Cuisine

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  16. Looks soft and moist... delicious banana cake.

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  17. I now know what I am going to bake this week:)looks delicious :)

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  18. yummy yumm!!!

    just thought of letting u know that the book that I won from you , is helping me a lot ;)...
    I tried many recipes ;)..Thank you

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  19. I have sure made a lot of banana breads or cakes depending on the mood or the pan but have never added sour cream, interesting idea.

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  20. Hi dear, How are you? Thank you very much for the warm wishes. Take care :)

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  21. I like banana cake a lot ...yummy

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