Banana coconut cake

Banana coconut cake

If you like baking, or are thinking about trying to bake more or learn to bake, check out Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. She's a fantastic cookbook author/writer, and writes great instructions and explanations, and everything looks and sounds amazing. I'm not even that huge of a sweets person but I love the exercise of baking, and there's something about home-baked sweets and goods that make sweets so much more appealing. I also try to cut the sugar down in most recipes so things don't turn out super sweet.

This recipe is adapted from her "Lots of ways banana cake" recipe - she basically says that this is a very flexible cake. If you don't have brown sugar, just use all white sugar. If you don't have or like coconut, sub with dried fruit. If you don't have coconut milk, use milk, or buttermilk or yogurt. I love that! Also, it calls for optional 2 Tbsp. dark rum or coconut rum. I used port b/c I had it, and I loved the flavor of it in the cake.

This is a recipe for a 2 layer cake. I halved the recipe and just make one layer - along the way, I forgot to halve some of the ingredients as I was putting it together, but it still turned out great so, this is what I did. Double for 2 layers. Enjoy!

• 1-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 3/4 stick (6 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, soft at room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, or a little less if you like
• 1/3 cup sugar, or a little less if you like
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp. dark rum, coconut rum, port or whatever booze you like (I used port)
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk, whole milk, buttermilk, sour cream, plain yogurt, almond milk (I used almond milk)
• 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut, or plump dried fruit like raisins, currants, chopped apricots, cranberries, chopped cherries, or so a little coconut and a little fruit

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Put a rack at the center level of the oven. If things tend to burn on the bottom like my oven, put in at the upper third of the oven. Butter a 9" cake pan (or make cupcakes if you like) and then dust with flour, tapping out the excess. 

Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg together in a bowl and set aside.

With a mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Add both sugars and beat for a few minutes until creamy and well incorporated. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each. Then add the vanilla and rum or port, and beat together until your batter has completely come together. 

Add the mashed bananas and beat on low speed. Add half the flour mixture and continue mixing at low speed. Then add the milk or yogurt, continuing to mix at low. Add the remaining half of the flour mixture and mix. 

Scrape off the mixer paddle and add the coconut or dried fruit and mix in with a large spoon or spatula until everything is mixed together. 

Pour into your pan. Put your cake on on a baking sheet and bake for 35 minutes. Check and test with a or something thin in the center - if it doesn't come out clean, put back in the oven for another 5 minutes and check again. And if it's still not ready, another 5 minutes until it's done and browned.

Put the cakes on a cooking rake and cool for at least 5 minutes. Then remove the cake from the cake pan and cool until it is room temperature. Sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top and serve as is, or frost if you like, maybe something chocolate-y or sweetened whipped cream.