The biggest surprise with this cake is the color. It went into the oven as a very pale yellow batter and came out looking like a chocolate cake, but still tasting very much like a lovely banana cake.
Cake plate by Boyd Sugiki and Lisa Zerkowitz of Two Tone Studios
Good banana bread or cake requires one critical element-really ripe bananas. I refer to bake-ready bananas as spotty brown bananas because that’s exactly what they look like. A dark brown spotted peel conceals sweet ripe fruit that is too mushy to enjoy eating fresh, but just perfect for delivering a full banana flavor in baked goods. It’s rare that I ever find such spotty brown bananas in the store; in fact, it’s rare to even find bananas that are ready to eat. The good news is bananas can be frozen, so they can be on hand when a banana baking whim hits. On the rare occasion a banana manages to make it to the spotty brown stage before being eaten, I peel it and pop it in the freezer to have on hand for a baking project. Once thawed, they let off a lot of liquid, which I drain before using.
The banana bunt cake is this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie baking activity. I associate bundt cakes with having a texture much like a pound cake; slightly dense with a fine tight crumb, but this cake is quite light and delicate. I baked a large bundt cake, but had additional batter and also filled some individual bundt pans. I liked the little cakes better for two reasons. First, I think my large cake was a touch over baked so it was drier and not as tender. Second, while the cakes were still warm I dipped the minis in the sugar glaze rather than just drizzling the glaze on like I did with the large cake. The dipping method created a more significant glaze coating and biting into one of these petite bundts was just like biting into a glazed buttermilk doughnut. The set glaze crackled and broke apart to reveal a soft tender cakey interior. The mini bundts had a perfect crunchy coating to tender cake ratio that made them dangerously addictive.
When I mixed up this cake I was in a rum mood and added dark rum rather than vanilla to the batter. I also used dark rum and a little milk for the powdered sugar glaze. It worked really well with the banana flavor, but didn’t come off as overly boozy. Classic Banana Bundt Cake is another winner from the book. Thank you to Mary of The Food Librarian for the selection. She has the recipe posted on her blog if you happen to have some spotty brown bananas that are ready to be transformed into a delicious baked delight.
Over 350 baking bloggers are baking our way thorough Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. 85 recipes completed 136 to go!
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Your banana cake looks AMAZING! I love the shape of that cake pan! I thought this was a winner of a recipe!!! So good!
Both cakes look great. I love the idea of dipping the minis in glaze!
These cake look abolutely gorgeous!
I’m glad yours was a hit too!
Really love the shape of your cake pan!
Ooh. I love that image of the glaze making it like biting into a donut. My kids refused to let me glaze, but I’ll describe it that way next time.
Rum sounds like an excellent addition. Well done!
Carol, you are right about the bananas. You need them spotty and just right before baking and you can never find them that way at the stores!
Gorgeous cakes!
Love the big cake pan, is that from Williams-Sonoma?
I don’t even own one, can you believe it?! Been baking too many cupcakes.
I got this bundt pan at Costco years ago and in true Costco fashion it came bundled with another pan that has 6 mini bundt molds.
Your cake looks great and sounds delicious with the rum.
Beautiful cakes. Beautiful pan.
Wow, these photos are wonderful…you sure know how to fancy up a plain old bundt cake! Love the additions…I always learn a lot over here!
oh golly.. yours really does look like a chocolate cake entirely. haha. still the photos are wonderful! great job.
Ooh…I like the shapes of the pans you used. I also like addition of run. YUM!
Both of your cakes are gorgeous! I love the pan you used for the top cake – it’s so cool! I skipped the glaze, but I’ll definitely give it a shot next time.
Doubly lovely — actually triply nice: the cake plate is beautiful, too.
I love the dipping method for the small Bundt! Your cakes look wonderful. Thanks so much for baking along with me this week! – mary the food librarian
I was surprised at how dark the exterior was. I didn’t know what to expect when I cut into it.
I love your large bundt pan… so cool! and the mini bundts are cute as well. I like the ida of dipping them in the glaze. Good thinking!
may I have the Classic Banana Bundt Cake recipe?
The Food Librarian has the recipe posted on her site. You can click on the link to her site at the end of my post, or click on this link to get the recipe. http://u.nu/5e253