Banana & Chocolate Cake

choc banana 806 tss

Double-layer Banana Cake with Whipped Chocolate Ganache Buttercream Filling and a Frosting of Ruffles

This sweet little cake is just as darling as could be.  Being health conscious and all, I decided a Banana Layer Cake would be amazing – all the food groups are tagged and I get a gold star for Food Pyramid Bingo.

food_pyramid_311984

http://www.google.de/imgres

The last time I baked this cake was about six months ago.  Our youngest son was home visiting and I remember him just loving it.  I blogged it here.

A few basic ingredients and I was off and running.

DSC_0742

After I whisked together the dry ingredients (the baking soda is added later), I smashed the bananas the best way I know how… use a fork.

DSC_0746

Preparing the pans includes non-stick spray, a round of parchment paper, and weighing the empty pan.  By ensuring the empty weight and allowing for differences, this the best I know to bake even layers.

DSC_0748 DSC_0751

With the oven heated up, pans ready, and ingredients on stand-by… it’s time for science.  I love when this happens in baking (which technically is every time) – and sometimes a recipe calls for a bonus science lesson.

The Banana Layer Cake uses buttermilk, which is incredibly common in cake.  When out of this ingredient I add a small bit of vinegar to whole milk and every thing works out splendidly.

Just before blending the wet and dry ingredients, the directions state to add 1 tsp. baking soda to 1 cup of buttermilk.  This never gets boring!

Thanks to our oldest daughter who edited the very shaky footage… and did you see that?  An increase from 1 cup to 1.75 cup!

The layers baked evenly and once again we witness the science of cake.  The parchment paper peeled away nicely.  I’ve said it before, the extra effort is well worth it when chunks of cake are not left in the pan.

DSC_0754 DSC_0756 DSC_0757

I was torn regarding the frosting and filling of this cake… peanut butter, chocolate, more bananas, vanilla… so many wonderful choices.

Chocolate Ganache is always a winner and it’s an easy process to whip into buttercream.  Remembering that ganache is chocolate melted with hot milk (not scalded) this can be done with the microwave.

DSC_0776 DSC_0778 DSC_0779 DSC_0783

After the crumb coat, the cake sat in the fridge for about an hour.

For a while I’ve been contemplating the vertical ruffles.  They look difficult and require the buttercream to be just right and I knew there was a secret mystery to this lovely presentation.

My first attempt resulted in one of those secrets… with a small tip, smaller movement is required.  No long, slow swoops with a small rose tip.

DSC_0790

After I cleared the first attempt away, I focused on speed and tightening up the side-to-side movement.

DSC_0791

Practice helps and I could see improvement as I made my way around the cake.  I kept the wide end of the tip against the cake surface and worked bottom to top.

Because the top of the ruffles were an uneven mess, I added a little bit of an edge around the surface.

choc banana 830 insta

I do love how this cake turned out.  It’s definitely a test kitchen design and one that I’ll need to practice often… and that’s great.  Baking is science and fun and creativity – I’m so lucky I get to do this!

My life partner loved a slice of this cake and I love him.  So we all win.

I’m grateful for our talented people and for sobriety.

choc banana 826 insta

 

You may also like...

1 Response

  1. John says:

    It was a yummy treat at the end of a hot bicycle ride!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *