vanilla cake with two bananas

This was an attempt at banana bread, but while it came out sweet and vanilla-tinged and tasty, there wasn't enough thick banana flavor to call it that. As one of my housemates said, all affection, "It's not banana bread; it's vanilla bread that happens to have bananas in it. I mean that in the best possible way."



The batter was delicious. I am not insulting the bread; it was tasty, warm and steaming from the oven, flecked with chunks of melting banana and run through with honey and brown sugar sweetness. But the batter, oh, the batter; it was delicious. I have a hankering to make it into ice cream.

But that would ruin the point of this recipe, which was decided upon while walking home in the rain. I wanted something warm and sweet, and just a little sticky with brown sugar. I sorted through a small corner of the vast collection of banana bread recipes, in my books and in the internet, and decided on this one, from Smitten Kitchen. Nothing in the recipe particular piqued my interest--except her addition of bourbon (but you see, that would involve being over twenty-one). However, nearly everything I've made off her site has been taste-bud-blowing fantastic, (her chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, by the grace of all things good), so I decided to give it a whirl.



The bread here is soft and just slightly moist. It's not nearly as dense as most banana breads (probably due to its lack of banana) and feels a lot more like a baked good and less like a floured lump of baked banana. Though I added more sugar than the original recipe, I didn't find it to be overly sweet at all.

I wish it had more banana, but, then, that's all my fault. She asked for 3-4. I had 3 when I started this recipe, and only two made it into the bowl. However I added extra butter to make up for it.



Vanilla-Banana Bread

2 very ripe bananas
1 cup melted salted butter
3/4 C light brown sugar (less if you don't like it sweet)
1/4 C honey
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cup of flour

Dump the bananas directly into the bowl and smash them a little with a wooden spoon; don't worry too much about it. Chunks of bananas are good.

Next, mix in the mil, sugar and honey until smooth. Add the egg, vanilla, and cinnamon and beat some more. Finally, dump on the flour and baking soda and stir as little as possible until it is just combined.

Pour into a greased 8x8 baking dish (of a loaf pan, if you'd like) and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.



I don't know how long it keeps. It was gone the next morning.