Saturday, 21 2010

kitchy weekends: banana marble cake

I had bananas sitting nicely in my pantry, and I only had milk, flour, sugar, butter and vanilla. What should I make? Banana cake of course. So I browsed my baking books for banana cake recipes and all the recipes I found required brown sugar for banana cake. And when no brown sugar required in a recipe, it required sour cream. Both ingredients, though, I don’t have.
And the quest for banana cake recipes continued, until I found Lots-of-Ways Banana Cake in Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan, fyi, have I told you that one of my future plans is become just like Dorie? Jetting between Paris and New York, writing books about baking, baking for loved ones and sells cookies? Yeah, that’d be perfect.

Okay, anyway, yeah lots-of-ways banana cake by Dorie Greenspan, it’s the most flexible banana cake recipe, with alternatives ingredients choices. Here is what she says, “the inspiration to bake a banana cake always seems to strike when a bunch of bananas are mottling on the counter, but just because you’ve got the fruit doesn’t mean you have all the ingredients you need, which is why I created this amazingly flexible cake. No coconut? Skip it. No brown sugar? Use white. No coconut milk? Use milk, buttermilk, sour cream or yogurt.” Isn’t it the most wonderful recipe? I wish every other recipe could be this flexible and by that time, I’ve found my baking bible.

So I was set on baking this recipe, I opened my cupboard to get flour only to found a bag of brown sugar, looking so pretty. Just beside my fabulous Lindt dark chocolate. There, I changed my mind. I went with my big first recipe crush, this banana black and white chocolate, simply because it involves chocolate and banana. Both my favorite. And no, I wasn’t sorry, how could you be sorry with marbled banana chocolate cake? Its moist and light at the same time, although maybe a bit short in banana flavor.

BANANA BLACK AND WHITE CAKE

adapted via Dorie Greenspan
Makes about 8 servings

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon dark rum
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature (i used salted margarine)
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk

1. center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven t0 325 degrees F.
2. butter a loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess.
3. whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. in a small bowl, mash the bananas then stir in the rum.
4. melt the chocolate and 2 tablespoons of the butter together in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water. beat the remaining stick of unsalted butter in a large mixing bowl using electric mixer at medium speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. add the sugars and beat for another 3 minutes, until light and smooth. add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. the batter will look curdled, and it will continue to look curdled as you add ingredients. reduce the mixer speed to low and add half the flour mixture, mixing only until it is just incorporated. with the mixer running, pour in the milk, and when its blended, add the remaining dry ingredients. scrape down the bowl and mix in the mashed bananas. the batter will look even lumpier.
5. pour a little less than half the batter into the bowl with the melted chocolate and stir to blend. drop alternating spoonfuls of both batters into the prepared pan, then, using a table knife, swirl the batters together, taking care not to overdo it.
6. bake for 1 hour and 20 to 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean. transfer the cake into cooling rack and let it rest for 15 minutes before unmolding. then cool the cake to room temperature, but i liked it warm better!