[food] okay fine this was a good idea and I'm doing it again

[kaberett]

Pineapple upside-down cake, right, only instead of sponge you use banana-bread batter. (Trivially veganable: substitute hard vegetable fat of your preference for butter, and one banana per egg.)

For the cake:
250g butter
300g sugar
4 bananas
2 eggs
400g self-raising flour
few drops almond/vanilla/whatever essence (optional)

For the topping:
50g butter
75g dark brown sugar
1tsp cinnamon
splash of Cointreau/rum/whatever (optional)
1 tin of pineapple slices

Method:
Set oven heating to GM4/180degC (adjusted for whether your oven's a fan or not, etc.)

Place topping ingredients (except pineapple slices) in your cake tray and stick in the oven.

While that's heating, getting bubbly, etc, make cake batter as standard:

• cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
  
• mash together peeled bananas and eggs (and additional flavouring if using), then add bit-by-bit to butter+sugar, beating as you go along
  
• add sifted flour and beat to combine

Once the batter's ready, remove your cake tin/tray/whatever from the oven, mix the bubbling butter-sugar mixture to combine, and spread the pineapple slices out across the bottom. (You can drink the juice. If you are not that way inclined, you can add it to the other topping ingredients before the tray goes into the oven.) Then pour over the batter, spread out as you would normally, and bake for approximately 45 minutes, until golden brown & set.

If you are a braver soul than me you can try turning it out once it's done, but honestly I don't see the need.

Comments

[davidgillon]

Oh, that's one of those simple, but really, really clever ideas!

[kaberett]

WE HAVE SO MANY BANANAS IN THE FREEZER I AM TRYING DESPERATELY TO USE THEM UP

[kaberett]

(specifically, my housemate eats bananas. only she eats them slightly less fast than they ripen, so once the remnants of a bunch start turning black, they get popped in the freezer until one or the other of us can face dealing with them. unfortunately this time round we were legit getting on for TWO DOZEN of the fuckers. we have been eating a lot of banana-centric dessert over the past week.)

[davidgillon]

I think that's a problem all of us banana eaters face - that reminds me I've stopped buying them without actually meaning to - and freezing them is quite a clever response. OTOH that's a hell of a lot of bananas!

Yay for banana-fuelled culinary genius :)

[vass]

Protip: peel them before freezing. Unpeeled frozen bananas are a pain to deal with.

[davidgillon]

I can imagine :)

[kaberett]

alas we can never quite face doing that at the point at which they need bunging in and curse ourselves for it later

(by which I mean "leave them out to defrost for a couple of hours then decide I've got Reynaud's anyway so whatever"; though a paring knife can be very useful if you want them more rapidly.)

[jjhunter]

Actually, if you slice off the end of an unpeeled frozen banana (if it was properly ripe when you frozen), you can squeeze the innards out like the fruit equivalent of toothpaste. Weird, but handy!

[ewt]

I put a dozen bananas in a banana bread the other week, but substituted some oatmeal for some of the flour, with the result that it was more like a sort of steamed porridge-y pudding thing.

Really tasty though.

I like the pineapple idea.

[ceb]

Gosh, that sounds nice. Do you line the cake tin or just hope?

[kaberett]

I'm working with ceramic in this case and find that the melted butter works adequately to scrape things up!

[ceb]

Noted, thanks :-)

[forestofglory]

Yum.

[kaberett]

Would love to know if you try it and find it works for you :-)

[forestofglory]

Currently I've been on a banana eating kick. (The potassium may help with the painful leg craps I've been having lately.) So the bananas aren't staying around long enough to get to the banana bread batter stage. But I'll keep it in mind for next time I have over ripe bananas.

[jjhunter]

From this evening's culinary adventures, I can confirm this works beautifully with the banana bread batter recipe from my Momma's Golden Banana Bread, and have added a footnote to the recipe there accordingly.

*om nom nom*

Thank you so much for sharing!

[kaberett]

I am delighted to hear that this idea has found homes elsewhere, and that you agree that it's a good one :-) <3

[jjhunter]

I am trying to tell myself I don't really need a second piece tonight. I feel this may be a losing battle.

(I love my momma's golden banana bread recipe. When I was a tiny person, one year that's all I wanted for Christmas - my own private loaf of banana bread. That I think I will occasionally make this variation again in the future instead of sticking just to the version I grew up with is among the highest compliments I have to give. I feel like I've just fallen in love with banana bread again in a new way, and just —!)

...darnit, I'm getting that second piece now. mmmmm, banana bread plus pineapple yum.

[kaberett]

<3<3<333

*splat into bed*

[jedusaur]

Re: veganization, I usually use applesauce instead of extra bananas when the thing I'm veganizing already has bananas in it. Keeps the flavors balanced.

[kaberett]

so on the one hand yes, but on the other I have been desperately trying to use up bananas and tend to reckon that more banana-y banana bread is not a downside :-p

[alexseanchai]

EEEEEE