Apr 11, 2010

Banana Refrigerator Cake




Hi Heavenly Bakers! As Marie said in the last 'Last Cake, Next Cake' I, Saira, am the guest host for this week. It's been a while since I've blogged or participated in the group and it's great to be back! I was really looking forward to the Refrigerator Banana Cake recipe in this book and was so dissapointed when the cake was already done by Marie. Then, there was an ingenious idea of guest hosts making cakes already done by Marie before the group started. So of course I jumped on the wagon as I love banana cake. The best Banana Cake I've had was at my bridal shower, my sister picked a great bakery and a great cake! At the shower, I had the chocolate raspberry part of the cake but once the guests left, and there was a ton of cake leftover, I tried the banana cake and fell in love. Since then, I've been looking for a great banana cake recipe and knew Rose would have it so I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to try it.

So here's how I did it....




First, I proccessed the 2 bananas and sour cream together. To be honest, I was loathing using a food processor AND a hand mixer, but it didn't seem that much trouble at the end. The banana mixture tasted pretty good at this point!



Then, I added the eggs and the vanilla. No lemon zest.




I transfered the banana mixture to a large bowl and mixed in the turbinado sugar with a hand blender.




In went the oil. Then I mixed in the dry ingredients: cake flour, salt, baking powder,and baking soda.



Then the cake went in the oven. I had a little more batter from my 8" pan so I made a few banana cupcakes too...



I didn't make the White Chocolate Cream Cheese frosting for this cake. I was all set with my ingredients and all of a sudden had a change of heart. I didn't want the tange of this frosting with this cake so instead, I decided to make a whipped white chocolate frosting. I just used the White Chocolate Ganache recipe from 'The Cake Bible' and whipped it.

For the frosting,



I ground 4 oz white chocolate in the chopper. Heated a cup of heavy cream and mixed it again in the chopper. Chilled it for a few hours in the freezer. And, finally, whipped it till stiff peaks formed.

So how was the cake...it was DELICIOUS. I am no longer looking for the perfect banana cake recipe. This cake will stack nicely so it will be great as a celebration cake with maybe a meringue buttercream. It's perfectly sweetened and has a strong banana flavor which wouldn't be over-powered by buttercream. I think the turbinado sugar gives the cake a depth and a uniqueness which other recipes don't have. The cake was really soft and moist and paired beautifully with the white chocolate whipped cream

I will do stacking and frosting of the cake some other time, but for now this cake is absolutely perfect with the whipped white chocolate frosting. I think this will be my go to cake light entertaining (granted I have ripe bananas on hand which is a scarce commodity in my home) because the cake was super easy despite the food process and other appliances.



Thanks Rose for a great recipe and thank you Marie for letting me be guest host! I've thoroughly enjoyed the experience:)

12 comments:

Marie said...

Great job, Saira! You've come back to baking in high style. Both the cake and the frosting look lovely.

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed reading your post. Do try the cream cheese frosting sometime--I think it makes the cake truly "heavenly."!

Hanaâ said...

Welcome back, Saira. Missed you lots! Glad your come-back cake also turns out to be a new favorite of yours. I enjoyed this cake very much too.

faithy said...

Looks so good! I'm sorry i can't bake-along with you this week as i just got back from my trip and am now down with a cold. :S

Monica said...

Saira... good post and great pictures! And oh boy the cake was DELICIOUS :::licking off the crumbs as I type this:::

And the frosting was soo good with it, I put a bit of lemon zest on mine and it gave it a whole another level on it.

Saira said...

Thanks everyone:) it's good to be back!

Anonymous...I love the white chocolate cream cheese frosting too, I made that with the carrot cake and it really was delicious:)

Faithy...hope you feel better soon:)

Monica...next time I'll try adding the lemon zest, just wasn't sure how the lemon would taste with the bananas...but should've trusted Rose!

Jenn said...

I posted a comment this morning, looks like it didn't go through.
Welcome back Saira! Great job on the cake, it looks so pretty. And a good idea on the frosting, I feel that the white chocolate frosting is a little too sweet.
Monica - next time I'll try adding the lemon zest too :).
Faithy - feel better soon.

Mendy said...

ב''ה

Looks great!

evil cake lady said...

great post Saira! and welcome back :)

Nicola said...

Welcome back Saira, and what a great cake to come back on.

Definitely do try the dreamy creamy disaster next time you make this cake - it is amazing with a capital A and really complements it, rather than detracting from it.

Alpha Baker Joan said...

Hi there - you have inspired me to try this cake this weekend! Looks great. joan

Unknown said...

Sounds great but your not including recipes is odd. You want people to continue to buy her books so you do not publish recipes??? How do I know if I want to purchase her books if I can not try one of her recipes. I have literally hundreds of cook books that I purchased AFTER trying one of the authors recipes. Seems like all you are doing is pushing the cookbooks I know this will not get published but I feel you should know I am not the only one who feels this way