Chocolate Banana Cake

It's a long weekend and I'm feeling all domestic ... so I thought I would load up on pantry staples and spend the weekend with my little family here- making treats, reading books and watching movies. I REALLY need to slow down on my cookbook collecting. HELLO - I still want them for gifts but I have to stop buying them or at least paying full price for them. I have helped feed my addiction and also my bank account by renting them from the library instead. This weekend I got Tyler's Ultimate (Tyler Florence from Charleston, SC!!!!) ... and um, I'm disappointed. It's SUPER fancy. There really isn't anything I would make just for me and 'Rad - or even if we had people visiting. It's like a fancy french restuarant cooking ... So it turns out try before you buy at the library is a GREAT idea- cause I do not like this book ... BUT they did have a recipe for chocolate banana bread which is nothing I have ever heard of OR ever even thought about.

I buy bananas every week for the baby. She likes them and also I can grab one when I am heading out the door for work. But if you get a bunch of 7 or so - they go ripe and I won't eat them that way. We had 3 ripe ones yesterday and all the other ingredients, so I went for it.

This cake batter was SO messy. It calls for cocoa powder and melted chocolate. I had chocolate all over the kitchen, counters, sink ... it was everywhere.

See? On the counter- on everything!

The bad thing about silicone pans- they tend to break your stuff. They are very unstable, so when you pull them out of the oven, CRACK. But I like mine- they're pink. Here's my little powdered sugar secret. I got some tea set gift basket eons ago and I kept the little steeper thing. Never made any tea, but if you open it and stick it in a bag of powdered sugar and then do a little "shake, shake, shake" over your stuff, it's the PERFECT duster. I never did have to invest in a salt shaker to use for this purpose. We just don't powder sugar THAT much stuff!

Delicious!

This morning I got up, sliced some strawberries, got out the whipped cream, heated up my cake and poured a cup of coffee.

It was SO good this morning. I sort of wish the cake was a little more fluffy - it's very dense, but it's filling and it was GOOD. Chocolate and bananas are a strange combo - and I like it!

RECIPE:

Preheat over to 350

In a bowl:
2 cups of flour
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp of kosher salt
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
STIR

In your mixer (or another bowl):
Cream 1 stick of softened butter
Add in 2 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla extract
4 oz. of melted bitter sweet chocolate (I used semi-sweet, it was what I had)
3 ripe bananas- all chopped up

Then you need to slowly add your dry to your wet and make the batter. Pour into pan and bake 50 minutes. Mine actually took a full hour.

Tyler says he makes this once a week and eats on it all week, with his morning coffee. I could totally see that because it's a hearty cake. It was a MESSY process so I'm not going to make it weekly, but it's worth it to make. Also, I maybe would have added nuts- like a banana nut cake.

You should try it!

Tomorrow's post? Pulled pork!

Kah