Bonappetit has already posted the recipe for David's Banana Cake with Mocha Icing and Salted Nuts, so I'm just going to discuss what I did differently. Be warned: the link includes a photo that may have you licking your monitor.
"Look, Mommie!! Up in the sky! It's a plane and it's writing in the clouds. What does it say, Mommie? What does it say? What does it SAY!!"
B.U.Y R.I.P.E O.R.G.A.N.I.C B.A.N.A.N.A.S !!!
(This not-so-subliminal message was brought to you by me. You're welcome.)
I made 24 cupcakes and a 6" single layer, rather than 2 9" layers. Cupcakes took 20 minutes, the 6" took 25 minutes.
Mar's Notes:
Reduced cinnamon to 1 tsp to let the banana flavor shine.
Can't say enough about having speckled, ripe organic bananas. The WHOLE house smelled great.
You can reduce the amount of nuts...this make a very nutty cake.
I used half butter/half corn oil because I love Cafe Beaujolais' banana cake and she uses oil.
I used 1/4 C buttermilk and 2 TBL sour cream because I had both.
ICING:
Rather than a mocha icing with espresso, I made a simple ganache:
8 oz Wilbur's Bronze bittersweet
1/4 C hot heavy cream
6 TBL soft unsalted butter.
Melt chocolate with heavy cream. Remove from double boiler and blend in butter. Icing will thicken as it cools.
Cafe Beaujolais' crème patisserie
3 egg yolks
5 TBL sugar
2 TBL flour
1 C hot milk
2 TBL butter
1 tsp vanilla
Blend yolks and sugar together, then blend in the flour. Heat the milk and gently add to the egg mixture. Return this mix to a pot and cook gently (stirring constantly with a whisk) until it thickens. Reduce heat and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, stir in butter and vanilla, cover with plastic and chill.
Split the cake and fill the middle with the pastry cream. Ice top of cake with ganache.
I made this last Saturday and had the final slice yesterday. It was still wonderful. This is definitely one of those cakes that you can make ahead. I think you can freeze the pastry cream, so it may even be freezeable.
http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2010/05/david-lebovitz-dessert-recipe-banana-cake.html
"Look, Mommie!! Up in the sky! It's a plane and it's writing in the clouds. What does it say, Mommie? What does it say? What does it SAY!!"
B.U.Y R.I.P.E O.R.G.A.N.I.C B.A.N.A.N.A.S !!!
(This not-so-subliminal message was brought to you by me. You're welcome.)
I made 24 cupcakes and a 6" single layer, rather than 2 9" layers. Cupcakes took 20 minutes, the 6" took 25 minutes.
Mar's Notes:
Reduced cinnamon to 1 tsp to let the banana flavor shine.
Can't say enough about having speckled, ripe organic bananas. The WHOLE house smelled great.
You can reduce the amount of nuts...this make a very nutty cake.
I used half butter/half corn oil because I love Cafe Beaujolais' banana cake and she uses oil.
I used 1/4 C buttermilk and 2 TBL sour cream because I had both.
ICING:
Rather than a mocha icing with espresso, I made a simple ganache:
8 oz Wilbur's Bronze bittersweet
1/4 C hot heavy cream
6 TBL soft unsalted butter.
Melt chocolate with heavy cream. Remove from double boiler and blend in butter. Icing will thicken as it cools.
Cafe Beaujolais' crème patisserie
3 egg yolks
5 TBL sugar
2 TBL flour
1 C hot milk
2 TBL butter
1 tsp vanilla
Blend yolks and sugar together, then blend in the flour. Heat the milk and gently add to the egg mixture. Return this mix to a pot and cook gently (stirring constantly with a whisk) until it thickens. Reduce heat and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, stir in butter and vanilla, cover with plastic and chill.
Split the cake and fill the middle with the pastry cream. Ice top of cake with ganache.
I made this last Saturday and had the final slice yesterday. It was still wonderful. This is definitely one of those cakes that you can make ahead. I think you can freeze the pastry cream, so it may even be freezeable.
http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2010/05/david-lebovitz-dessert-recipe-banana-cake.html