Favorite Banana Cake

It has been a long time since I posted a cake recipe. I don't make cakes as much as I used to - there are fewer at home to eat them!














But a bowl full of over-ripe bananas reminded me of a cake I used to make regularly years ago. I enjoyed eating it for breakfast and snacks - often with a dish of plain yogurt - because it contained bananas, a healthy food! But it does have white flour and quite a bit of sugar... so I modified it a bit to satisfy the NEW ME (the type-2-diabetic ME who tries to eat less white flour and sugar).














The original recipe comes from a favorite dessert cook book, the Better Homes and Gardens Dessert Cook Book of 1967. (Page32) The original calls for frosting it with chocolate whipped cream. That would make it too rich for my purposes - a healthy breakfast or snack.














I have modified it a bit.... using less white flour and sugar. But this slightly healthier version is just as tasty - and rose just as high as the original would have. So I'm again enjoying it with a dish of plain, unsweetened yogurt... After all, the cake is sweet enough on its own.

Recipe:

Stir together

• 2/3 cup of shortening or margarine and
• 1 2/3 cups of sugar (This time, I used only 1 1/2 cups of sugar.)
  

Add the following dry ingredients to the above ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder and
  
• 2 1/2 cups of flour. (The recipe calls for sifted cake flour, but I substituted a mixture of flours. I used approximately 1 cup of unbleached white flour plus - and to make up the last cup and a half of flour, I mixed together 2 TABLESPOONS EACH OF PSYLLIUM, WHEAT GERM, SOY FLOUR, AND OAT FLOUR - and then I added enough SPELT FLOUR to make up what was lacking. Spelt flour is apparently a healthier choice for diabetics.)

After blending this dry, crumbly mixture, add

• 1 1/4 cups of fully mashed bananas (Or approximately 4 medium bananas) and
• 1/3 cup sour milk or buttermilk (Add 1/2 a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice to the milk if you don't have sour milk.Yogurt can also be substituted for sour milk.) Mix well.

Now add another

• 1/3 cup of sour milk and
  
• 2 eggs. Mix well again.

Put batter in greased cake pan and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (or 175 degrees Celsius) for approximately 45 minutes in a large pan. Cake should be brown on top and pulling slightly from the sides of the pan when done. Test by putting a toothpick into the cake - if it comes out dry, the cake is done.)

Let the cake cool completely before removing it from the pan. Enjoy!

PS It is soft enough to eat on a soft-food diet!