Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Lot's of Ways Banana Cake (TWD)

I've made this week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe for Lot's Of Ways Banana Cake several times before, and I can tell you that this is a keeper!

For some, all they see are sad old bananas. For me, I see a delicious banana cake in the making:
In the book Dorie shares that this cake can be baked in a variety of shapes and sizes. I've previously made this recipe into a layer cake and cupcakes, and they turned out perfectly in each case. I wanted to try a different pan, so I dug into my cabinet of "I'll use them once every 5 years" baking pans:
So, what did I find? Mini loaf pan...perfect! I haven't used this pan since 2002.
Dorie share a number of suggestions to play with the ingredients in the cake (thus the "Lot's of Ways" in the recipe title). As I had all of the ingredients readily on hand, I didn't veer off course from the original recipe. I made half the recipe, which yielded me 8 mini-loaves. I also reduced the oven temperature to 325F degrees and baked the cakes for 18 minutes (I think the dark loaf pan expedited the baking time).
To dress up these little loaves, I topped them with some Mascarpone Frosting leftover from another cake I was working on.
This cake is DEEELISH! The cake is beautifully moist and tender, and it does not have that dense, gummy texture that I get with other banana cake recipes. The banana flavor definitely shines, and the toasted coconut gives the cake a nice chew (for those of you who hate coconut, you can easily omit it). The mascarpone frosting's light creamy texture is the perfect complement as it doesn't overwhelm the cake.

If I haven't already convinced you to try making this banana cake, peruse the TWD blogroll to check out all of the beautiful banana cakes - you'll be convinced to try this recipe. For the complete recipe (including all of the variations), please head to Kimberly's blog, Only Creative Opportunities.

20 comments:

The Food Librarian said...

Love the frosting! And the collection of pans! :)

Paula said...

YUM! That mascarpone frosting sounds wonderful. I like the mini loaves too. Got a kick out of looking inside your cabinets.

Amanda said...

How fun are those??? And the frosting looks awesome! This was my farewell post with TWD after almost two years of baking along. Hope you'll stop by and say goodbye!

chocolatechic said...

My favorite picture?

Your cupboard full of pans.

Your cakes look great too.

Kimberly Johnson said...

I love how you made your cake in loaf pans with a squiggle of frosting! Brilliant! Thanks for baking with me this week!

Valerie Gamine said...

I love your pan collection! (I had to stare at it for a few minutes to see if you had some that I still don't own.) :D

Those mini-loaves are adorable, they remind me of something you would find in a little corner bakery. Nice work.

Tia said...

i'm so envious of your pan collection!

steph- whisk/spoon said...

haha--i have a cabinet like that myself! a perfect reason to drag out the mini loaves...they are cute!

Cindy said...

Love your pans--can I come and play?? This was a winner, I love your little loaves.

Eliana said...

Your cakes look gorgeous!!! I absolutely love the way you frosted them.

Heather Davis said...

Those look gorgeous!! Love all your pans. It's so much fun collecting them.

Nickki said...

Your cupboard looks kind of like mine...except your is tidier!

Your banana cakes look so good! I know what you mean about the texture of this cake. It's so light!

Carol Peterman/TableFare said...

I love your adorable mini loaf cakes. I bet the mascarpone frosting was perfect with these. I made a mascarpone frosting not long ago for the first time and loved it.

Jaime said...

love your minis!

Antonette said...

I always look forward to your posts! Absolutely have to make this recipe...actually, I will probably, at some point, make them all:-)

Pamela said...

Oh, man! I love the look of your mini loaves with that squiggle of decadent frosting on top!! Yum!

TeaLady said...

I thought I had a lot of pans, but.....

You can never have too many. Love that pan. I use mine about 1/year, but well worth having.

Especially if it turns out lovely little cakes like that.

Kayte said...

Look at those squiggles!!! I need to remember how to do those sometime. I should have dug into my once-every-5-years pan cabinet as well as this was a whole lotta cake! Yours looks fun and very delicious!

Flourchild said...

I loved this cake too! Your cake is awesome!

Ozlem said...

It seems so delicious .

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