My Second Try on Rebbecca’s Famous Banana Cake

When Aussie was here, one of the discoveries of the many many topics we covered was our mutual love for banana baked goods. Aussie claimed that his aunt’s banana cake was the best recipe there was. I decided to attempt to make and taste “the best banana cake ever” for myself. I opted to make the cake prior to his departure as a bon voyage/happy early birthday gesture.

Just a side note on me and my cooking/baking history…. my culinary abilities developed much later in life… in fact, one of my exes was horrified by my kitchen skills. I am an overachiever by nature, so naturally I took that as a challenge and enrolled in the Rouxbe online cooking school. It was through Rouxbe I learned how to make an entire Thanksgiving meal from scratch and how to slice an onion.

Now, baking, I had been doing since I was a kid. I used to bake sugar cookies in shapes relevant to the most recent holiday and deliver them to my friends in high school. One thing I know about baking- is that it truly is chemistry. It is science. Everything must be measured. If you don’t have the right set up, you are destined to fail.

Back to the banana cake. Aussie forwarded me his aunt’s recipe, and it called for 1/4 c of flour. Wait, is it 1 1/4c of flour? He said this is the recipe- so I followed it exactly… and sure enough… the cake was a little more banana-pudding-mushy than cake. Flavors were there, cakey-texture was not.

Aussie has since left, but I was bound and determined to make this damn cake. So when I was hosting 4th of July, I thought that would be a perfect time to test out cake # 2. After getting re-confirmation that it was 1 1/2 C flour (although, I think it should be 1 1/4 c. and that is what I will list in the recipe because I also used some pastry flour), I think I did good.

Rebbecca’s Famous Banana Cake

CAKE:
½ c butter
1 c sugar
Pinch Salt
2 eggs
4 bananas, chopped roughly
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4c flour
¼ c Apple Juice

Preheat oven 350 F.

Melt 1/2 c butter (option to put in microwave for 50 seconds)
Pour into mixing bowl and add sugar and pinch of salt.
Mix thoroughly.
Add in eggs, while mixing until mixture is creamy.
Add bananas, mixing gently.
Add baking powder, baking soda, and vanilla, continuing to mix gently.

Spray cake pan with olive oil, and add a little flour to pan and mix around pan and pour it out so cake doesn’t stick. I used two pans, but you can use one.

Slowly incorporate flour while mixing.
Add apple juice and continue to mix gently

Place into oven for 25-30 minutes.
After 25 minutes poke middle of cake and if it comes out clean, it is ready.

Time to dig in!!!