Banana Cake

I've disliked bananas for as long as I can remember. I even tried pretending I was allergic to them to avoid having to eat them in any form. I gave up feeling guilty about it when I learned that the humble potato has more potassium than the banana. It has only been in the past year or so that I have been able to pick them up to buy them at the store for the hubby and girls. I've never met anyone who hated them as much as I did, so I laughed when I read this a couple weeks ago and was happy to know that someone shared my distaste for this fruit. I figured if she could enjoy a product made with bananas, I'd follow the advice I give the girls to just give it a taste. It took me two days to talk myself into it, and I had to have the hubby mash up the bananas to keep from gagging. I'll reserve my opinion, but will say that I shared it with many who loved the taste and texture of this cake.

*2 sticks butter, softened
*1 1/2 c. + 2 TBSP. sugar
*3 eggs
*1 1/2 c. mashed ripe bananas (about 3-4)
*4 c. + 2 TBSP. flour
*1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
*1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
*1 1/2 c. sour cream

Grease and flour a Bundt cake pan. Set aside and preheat oven to 350. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time beating well to incorporate. Add bananas and beat. In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients. Alternate adding sour cream and dry ingredients. Beat well. Pour into cake pan and bake 1 hour 10 minutes, until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Invert and let cool before slicing. She recommended serving with butter.
I initially sprinkled powdered sugar on, but the hubby suggested chocolate frosting, we'd already given part of it to a neighbor so here's the glaze I made for 2/3 of the cake.
*1 square semi sweet baking chocolate
*3 TBSP. butter
*1/2 - 1 c. powdered sugar
Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl in the microwave for about 1 minute. Whisk well to combine. Add powdered sugar until chocolate is slightly thick, but still thin enough to drizzle. Pour over top of cake.

Carmelized Roasted Banana Drop Donuts

I was given some overripe bananas yesterday so I decided to pull out a recipe I had saved a while ago after watching an episode of the Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown. I was also waiting for my deep fryer to arrive, which it did last week, to make the process a little easier. If you follow the blog The Picky-Palate, the author is the one who created this recipe and competed in the Showdown. Anyway, the recipe was for Carmelized Roasted Banana Bread Drop Donuts (click the link for the recipe).

(picture from picky-palate.com)

I'm so glad I finally got to try these because they really were so good. Kory ate like 7 of them as soon as he got home from work. I did, however, make a few changes. First, I couldn't find cinnamon chips so I omitted them like some of the recipe reviewers suggested...and I didn't miss them at all. In fact, I wouldn't add them even if I could find them at some point. Also, after I got the batter all made up, I made a sample donut and thought it needed a little more sweetness. I noticed that really the only sweetness in the recipe is from the 3 tbsp. brown sugar you sprinkle on the bananas to roast, and that just didn't seem like enough to me, so I added an additional 1/8 c.(ish) brown sugar to the batter and it helped a lot! And finally, I had to cook mine in the oil until they were a really dark brown, almost burnt looking. I took the first one I made out of the oil when it was golden brown like the picture shows, but there was still raw batter inside, so I cooked them longer assuming they'd probably taste burnt, but they didn't at all. They were perfect.