Babies and Bananas

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Sunday was an exciting day. Jordan and I went to his parents place for an early dinner and we were just about to put on our boots and go for a walk when Jordans sister called and said her water broke! so we put the soup that was simmering on the stove into a box and grabbed our bags and hopped into the car to look after her 2 year old while they went to the hospital. It was very exciting. Before we left our house that morning though I made a Pumpkin cake. It’s a modified recipe from “A Cook’s Companion” by Stephanie Alexander. If you don’t own this book already, go buy it right now. Seriously.( http://www.amazon.com/Cooks-Companion-Complete-Ingredients-Australian/dp/1920989005/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296171719&sr=8-1) I am a relatively new fan to Stephanie Alexander, I was introduced to her by an Australian friend a couple years ago, but now i wonder how i ever survived without her. This woman is magical. Seriously.

So her banana cake is the best banana cake i`ve ever had. By a long long run, but heres the thing. I HATE raw bananas. Passionately. So in order to not have to smell them and mush them to make banana cake I added tinned pumpkin instead. And hot damn is it tastey! It`s beyond moist and delicious.  But heres what makes this cake (in both its incarnations) so good. You make this topping of brown sugar, butter and a little flour and it becomes this amazing caramelly crunchy bit on the top. I`m not lying Stephanie Alexander is a Godess. So here it is, If you want to make this banana cake instead just use 1 cup of mashed bananas, the pumpkin is more subdued so it needs an extra 1/2 cup.

(Disclaimer- because of the excitement I didn’t get a picture of it while it was cut,  which is to bad, Because its certainly not beautiful in the tin, but I promise, you will not be dissapointed by this cake either in looks or in flavour!)

Pumpkin Cake

125g Unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups Sugar

2 Eggs

1 1/2 cups Pumpkin Puree (or 1 cup mashed bananas)

250g AP Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 cup Buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk with 1tsp Lemon Juice)

  • Preheat oven to 350F
  • Butter and flour a 8 inch round pan
  • Cream butter and sugar until fluffy
  • add in eggs one at a time beating well between each addition
  • Alternately add in wet and dry ingredients, starting and ending with dry.
  • pour into prepared pan
  • Add dots of topping onto top of cake (recipe follows) and bake until an inserted skewer comes out with only a couple crums (about 45 minutes)

Topping:

3 tbsp Chopped Nuts of your choice

3 tbsp AP Flour

1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

100g Soft Butter

  • Combine all ingredients until just combined