Sunday, August 14, 2011

Banana Snack Cake



From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...What follows is my attempt to make bananas and banana cake a bit more interesting. Buried in the annuls of music history is a song called "Yes, We Have No Bananas". It was popular in the 1920's and the phrase was used on signs posted by British grocers decades later to let patrons know they were in compliance with bans that prohibited the importation of the fruit during WWII. It's generally thought that the song was inspired by a banana blight in Brazil, but it is harder to identify who originated the phrase. Some credit Jimmy Costas, a Long Island grocer, for the catchphrase. Others believe the honor should be given to the cartoonist, Thomas Dorgan. Whatever the case may be, the song became the theme of the Outdoor Relief protests that took place in Belfast, Ireland in 1932. Ironically, it was one of the few secular songs that both the Protestants and Catholics knew and could sing together. Over the years, the song has lent its title to a book about the depression in Belfast and been mentioned or heard in the movies Sabrina and The English Patient. I'm told the phrase was used as late as 2006 in Australia, when a large portion of the country's banana crop was destroyed by a cyclone and caused a shortage for most of the year. Now, as it happens, my youngest grandsons have assured that I have bananas aplenty today. This moist and flavorful cake is one of my favorite ways to use them. If you like banana cake, I hope you'll give this version a try. The frosting is especially nice. Yes, we do have bananas, we do have bananas today. We also have Louis Prima's version of the song for those of you have never heard it.



Banana Snack Cake...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite inspired by Maureen Saunders

Ingredients:
Cake
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mashed ripe banana
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dash salt
2 to 2-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted + chopped pecans for topping

Directions:
1) To make cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch square pan. Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture just until combined. Fold in banana and pecans. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack.
2) To make frosting: Cream butter in a small bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in milk, vanilla, salt and enough confectioners' sugar to achieve spreading consistency. Stir in toasted pecans. Frost cake. Garnish with additional pecans. Yield: 9 servings.







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You also might enjoy these recipes:
Banana Cake with Easy Caramel Frosting - Desserts in My Kitchen
Old Fashioned Banana Cake - Mrs. Regueiro's Plate
My Go-To Banana Cake - Young Baker
Banana Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting - The Dutch Baker's Daughter
Best Ever Banana Cake - Apron String Baking

42 comments :

Angie's Recipes said...

What a great looking banana cake! I would need a really large slice to lighten my heart as it has been raining......almost the whole week. Just raining...;-0(

GLENDA CHILDERS said...

Fun history on a much loved fruit.

Fondly,
Glenda

Anonymous said...

Greta story.Goesd down well as good as the slice of this banana cake:)

Umm Mymoonah said...

Gorgeous slice of cake, I love the frosting on top.

Karen S Booth said...

Beautiful cake and my elderly parents still use the expression "yes we have no bananas", in a sing song way!
Karen @ Lavender and Lovage

Sue/the view from great island said...

I love the idea of a frosted banana cake, yours looks so sweet. And your bit of history was fascinating. So nice that you have grandsons around you to eat up all your wonderful treats!

Prema said...

Delicious and Perfect banana cake,luks yumm...

Diane said...

Loved the bit of history and pecans must make this so much nicer, will give this a go. Keep well, Diane

From the Kitchen said...

No littles around here to demand bananas and we tend to eat them well before they get to the usable stage for baking. I think I'll secret a few away to make this as you've tweaked my taste buds. Now I'm off to check your quick pickled beets recipe because "yes, we have some beets" today.

Best,
Bonnie

penny aka jeroxie said...

Great looking banana cake. I miss it :)

Priyanka said...

Great history....and awesome recipe.
Your dishes are always wonderful

Anonymous said...

What a pretty slice of cake! Perfect!

Karen Harris said...

This cake takes me back a year or two to when I was a little girl and my own grandmother would make a banana cake like this one. I would always eat the icing first, yum. It just so happens I have some bananas in the fruit bowl that need to be eaten.

Kim said...

Yum! This banana cake look really good!

Mary said...

Oh NO! I'm going to have that song running through my head all morning now. My mom used to sing it to us when we were using bananas. I think I need to teach it to my kids now.

Anonymous said...

yum, this is my favorite

Kim said...

i love banana bread cake! this looks so good! i am hosting a cake bloghop on my blog for the month of august. you should totally submit this or any other cake recipe you've made so that other people can see your yummy cake posts! have a great sunday Mary!

Pondside said...

I haven't heard the term 'snack cake' for ages. This one sounds delicious. I love a banana cake with icing!

Maris (in Good Taste) said...

Thanks for bringing back memories for me of my grandma singing that song! Perfect banana cake!

Beloved Green said...

I love the banana WWII history. I vaguely remember reading about the imported fruit ban when I was studying there eons ago.

Such a lovely banana cake!

coming unstuck said...

Your food looks so delicious. I signed in to Follow because everything looks so good. I can't wait to see whats next...I can almost smell it cooking...Liz

http://izscorner.blogspot.com

http://lizzybella58.wordpress.com

Chiara said...

awesome recipe Mary, I love this kind of cake! have a good day....

polwig said...

Beautiful cake now I am going to google the song, or watch English Patient, I love Ralph Finnes ;)

Y said...

I love everything bananas :)

~~louise~~ said...

I too am going to have that song in my head all day! Yes we have no bananas we have no bananas today we have...that's all I can remember without listening to good ol' Louie Prima, lol...

Great cake, Mary! Didn't they once sell boxed cakes they called Snake Cakes? Oh the memories...

Thanks for sharing...

Baking Addict said...

Excellent post! I love banana bread/cakes. Will definitely bookmark this to try. I have a whole bunch of bananas ripening.

Patricia @ ButterYum said...

Looks absolutely wonderful, Mary. I've long preferred banana snack cake to banana bread. Your version looks delicious.

I didn't know the origin of that song, but we used sing it in our family whenever someone did something kind of silly or crazy.

:)
ButterYum

Karen (Back Road Journal) said...

The cake looks delicious and what a nice icing for it.

T.W. Barritt at Culinary Types said...

I am fascinated that the source of this "slogan" might have originated on Long Island. You are on the road to convincing me to buy more bananas.

Ginny Hartzler said...

I have a childhood trauma about banana cake! I am going to post it at some point.

Rita said...

Great recipe! I often made the same one when my boys were growing up; i often added cocoa to mu icing.
Rita

Joanne said...

When I have bananas hanging around, I usually just make banana bread...but cake sounds way more exciting.

Ryan said...

This looks so good! I love snack cakes!! I didn't know the origin of the song-- esp. the WWII catch phrase. So interesting!

Elin said...

Mary..you have there a great looking banana cake. I would love to have a slice please...looking at it now makes me want to make one now. Thanks for sharing such a lovely banana cake :)

Deb in Hawaii said...

I love banana cake and this one looks really good with that creamy frosting. Yum! ;-)

Unknown said...

Hi mary...
Nice to know u :)
Tq for visiting my blog & ur kind comment, I'm following ur blog now so I can receive ur update
This posting I love it coz I'm searching for the perfect banana cake or bread
I'm sure will try ur recipe when my banana is ripe enough, just wish me luck then :)
I hope my kimchi recipe can help u
let me know the result then :)
*Bless u*
Elies_Lie

Unknown said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm glad you did because it led me to yours! This cake looks lovely - can't wait to go check out more of your recipes!

Katarina said...

What a beautiful cake!

Eating Deliciously said...

I love a good banana cake and yours looks great!

Elaine said...

How interesting. I've always wondered about that song...this cake looks delicious a perfect way to use up some ripe bananas.

Jennifer said...

I had never heard that song before, but now I'm glad I did -- it will definitely help me remember to make this asap!

Krystal R said...

Beautiful post & cake, thanks for linking my recipe! ;-)

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