Going Bananas here in Virginny

Yep, it's another BANANA recipe from me and you're probably beginning to wonder if banana's are the only thing I ever cook with. With the heat and humidity here in olde Virginny it just seems like our bananas ripen much faster than we can eat them.

This past month I've tried 2 more banana bread recipes and a cake. The breads were okay but I'll probably not make them again. I think I've found the best banana bread recipe which I've already posted on this blog, Banana Coconut Lime Bread. The cake recipe I tried is worth passing on to you, I made it for Father's Day and it was a hit.

"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" has been attributed to Marie Antoinette although there is no record of her ever saying it. In the Nelson family we always thought it should have been "Let them eat pie" but lately I've found myself making more cakes than pie and so I'm back to saying, "Let them eat cake". I've found that one cake will serve 14 family members after Sunday dinner and that makes for an easy dessert in my opinion.

I found this recipe at a food blog HERE , and I used one of the pictures taken by Leigh Anne from the this blog below.

Banana Cake

4 very ripe mashed bananas

1 box Duncan Hines WHITE cake mix (I used a yellow cake mix because that's what I had on hand QV)

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup oil

3 whole eggs

3//4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

Mix all ingredients except bananas for 2 minutes, medium speed. Add bananas and blend well. Bake in two 9" greased and floured round cake pans, following baking recommendations on box. I think about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (The cakes were really high after cooking in the 9" pans QV )

Whip a pint of whipping cream, LIGHTLY sweeten with powdered sugar and a tsp of vanilla.

Filling: 1 large box of cooked banana cream pudding (NOT the INSTANT) (I used Vanilla pudding as I thought the Banana cream would make the whole cake TOO banana flavored QV)

Make pudding according to directions on the box and cool completely. Slice 3 additional firm ripe bananas. Split the layers in half, putting pudding & sliced bananas onto 2 layers, and the whipped cream on the others. Frost the whole cake with whip cream & sprinkle chopped walnuts on top. (Next time I'll use Cool Whip Lite and I put chopped pecans on top of the cake instead of walnuts. QV) This cake can be put together ahead of time (like several hours) but needs to be refrigerated until it is eaten. I used Dr Oetker Whipit in the whip cream, it's a terrific stablilizer.

The top layer you're looking at should be whipped cream with another split layer on top with the pudding and bananas. This gives you the idea of how the pudding/banana layer should look though.

And this is how the cake looked on Father's Day before we ate practically every ounce of it.