Banana Cake

A Saturday afternoon with cloudy cold weather ... There is nothing better than a warm home-made cake.

My favorite cake ever is this banana cake that I learned from my mother. It is a simple cake that looks and taste delicious. The instructions are also easy to follow and it always works.

I am really not sure where the original recipe comes from but it does resemble the traditional German cakes we have in the south of Brazil. The topping can vary with apples, pineapples or grapes instead of bananas.

The original recipe also has a crumble topping made with sugar, butter, cinnamon and flour. I usually omit the flour which results in a more glazed topping (this is what you see in the pictures in this post).   

This cake can also be served as a dessert, a bit warm, with a spoon of vanilla ice cream.

Hope you like it.

2 cups of plain white flour

1 cup of sugar

3/4 of a cup of milk

50g of butter

2 eggs (yolks and whites separated)

1 teaspoon of baking powder

Topping:

1 or 2 bananas finelly sliced lenghtwise

1/2 cup of sugar

50g of butter (sliced)

2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon

Pre-heat the oven to 180o C.

In a medium bowl, start using a hand mixer to mix the 100g of butter and the sugar together until crumbly. Add one egg yolk at a time mixing well before adding the next one.

Add the flour and the baking powder to the mixture. Mix well with a wooden spoon now. Add the milk and keep mixing until fully incorporated.

In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until they become firm. Add the egg whites to the cake mixture and fold them in gently.

Transfer the cake mixture to a round 8" pan lined with parchment paper. Slice the bananas and place the slices on top of the cake mixture side by side.

In a separate small bowl mix together the sugar, cinnamon and butter to finish up the topping. Use your hands to mix all the ingredients together until crumbly. Spread this mixture on top of the banana slices in the cake pan.

Bring it to the oven and let it cook for 35 minutes.