Pinteresting Summer

Challenge 28- Banana Bread Cake- A Pin with a Twist

I started this whole blog with an awesome banana bread recipe http://pinterestingsummer2012.blogspot.com/2012/05/challenge-1-cinnamon-swirl-banana-bread.html and I stand by it being the hands down best banana bread recipe. This recipe however is not exactly banana bread and not exactly cake, and is an adaption of a pin but unique in its own right.

The first thing you need to remember is that my family and I are moving on Thursday, which means 90% of our possessions (including my cookware and spices) are packed in boxes. I also haven't been grocery shopping in 2 weeks since I knew everything in the cabinets and fridge would need to be moved, and the less there was the better. I did however have 4 very brown bananas that were just crying to be made into something before they got too mushy and unusable. However my vanilla, cinnamon, flour, etc. had all been pack away. I remembered seeing a banana bread like recipe on Pinterest that involved yellow cake mix and I knew I had that so we were go for launch. We hit a snag in the having 3 eggs part of the recipe, but being the smart baker I am I knew I could replace eggs with applesauce in cake and bread recipes so we were still good to go. The original recipe called for chocolate chips (which surprise I didn't have) but it also said you could use nuts, and I just happened to have some sugar glazed pecans lying around (see http://pinterestingsummer2012.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-25th-pinniversary-win-and-fail-so.html).

Preheat the oven to 350 and the mix one box of yellow cake mix, two snack containers of applesauce (or 2-3 eggs if you have them) a cup of sugar glazed pecans (or chocolate chips, or walnuts, or whatever you think will taste good), and 3-4 ripe bananas into the Kitchen Aid (or using a hand mixer). I mixed it on medium speed for about 2 minutes until the batter was wet and I didn't see any dry powder.

My loaf pan was packed away so I used my glass 9X13 casserole dish and spayed it with some butter spray (guess where my PAM is) to help keep it from sticking to the pan. I put it in for 35 minutes on the top rack for 35 minutes. Around 25 minutes I noticed the top was browning a lot but the inside wasn't done yet so I moved it to the bottom rack for the last 10 minutes.  (If you use a loaf pan you'll probably need to add more time in the oven, just check it every 5 minutes once its been in for 30 minutes to see if you toothpick or chopstick comes out clean).

I let it cool about 30 minutes before I cut it, but it was still pretty warm. The butter spray did a pretty good job keeping it from sticking too badly. I put some Cool Whip on top and it was very good light frosting for this cake.

It definitely had the flavor of banana bread but with the fluffiness of cake. It wasn't as dense like banana bread usually is, which was a nice change of pace. The pecans added some flavor but weren't over the top. I think this would have been excellent with the chocolate chips and with or without the pecans. I also ate a small piece with no Cool Whip and it was still very good. This would be great with coffee, and I think really good around Thanksgiving/Christmas. I will make this again when I have banana bread ready bananas but I'm missing some of my regular banana bread ingredients, or I'm just feeling lazy. Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention and not having the right ingredients can make for a pretty tasty treat.