Go to the Recipe: This Cake Is Bananas
Adjusting to 0.7X cake batter worked out perfectly with just a bit left over. Make a microwave cup cupcake snack!
0.7X frosting is borderline, so I'd make a touch more next time, and 1X if you want to frost the sides.
I made this cake yesterday and I have to say, I liked the loaf I made with the MASSIVE leftover batter better than the actual cake with the frosting, which I found terribly sweet. One thing I don't understand, is why if we are already being super precise, measuring everything in grams (even the eggs), the recipe adds up to a grand total of 2,866 g of batter but only 3x600 g or 1,800 g are used in the 3 layers. Sure you can make cupcakes with the leftover and then you'll be so sick and tired of all things banana that you won't have to make this recipe again in a long time. Same thing goes for the frosting. EVERYTHING in this recipe, should be scaled down to 2/3 and you'd still have a bit of overage for spillage and stuff that can't be recovered from the mixing bowls.
Hello Matthias, When using cream cheese icing it is always good practice to place in the refrigerator. Buttercream iced cakes and especially chocolate can be left at room temperature and chocolate cakes are always best at room temperature and store well that way. The cake would be fine at room temperature but the icing is the factor.
Apologies for the ignorance. It says "if you leave it overnight and serve it the next day, it’ll be even better." Given the content of milk, butter and cream cheese, can this stay outside or is it better refrigerated?
I know im about 5 years late to the ballgame but mascarpone worked great in this!
ya about 3% or 2g for every 75g of flour.
2g for every 75g of flour
they have a carrot cake recipe! it is amazing!
You could sub some liquid (milk/buttermilk or both) with fresh pressed carrot juice and replace the bananas with carrots by weight. Just a thought, I haven't tried it, but that's how I would do it.
I made this cake and it was marvelous! Question though, if I wanted to make this a carrot cake instead of banana bread...how many carrots would I substitute for the bananas?
This was a great cake! I finally had a occasion to serve banana cake, and this was a huge success. Thank you! Quick question - if I wanted to keep other cakes moist - what is the % of glycerol monostearate I would use by volume? Thanks,
Just as I mentioned after baking the Ultimate Chocolate and Red Velvet cakes, this is an extraordinary cake as well. So grateful to ChefSteps. If there is somebody out there that has a moment to spare, I have a couple of issues to which I would love to gather some support. I am looking to perfect a vanilla/white icing that is less sweet, probably meringue based/mousse tasting. I am from US and understand we often have cloyingly sweet frostings where sugar dominates or obscures the more subtle flavors.
Also, could some one post a white/yellow cake equivalent as I want badly to make yellow cake as scrumptious as the red velvet, chocolate, and banana versions. Lastly, has anyone at ChefSteps or beyond experimented with adding more GMS and what was the result? For instance, why only 11g and not 20g?
Try using a mild salt like Maldon salt, I've used maldon in this and the chocolate cake recipe and it's turned out great/not too salty.
M.Golba
I made this cake yesterday and this cake is the best I have have made and eaten. Will be making the chocolate soon.
I made it this week and I think you could do a lot less in the icing.
Made this for my 30th birthday last month. Possibly the best cake I've ever had.
It seems like a lot of sugar, is it possible to reduce the sugar by 25% or more?
Hi, I am in uk at the moment is it ok to use regular flour and not the bleached one? ...
I suspect you committed an error at some point along the way. 19 g of salt is less than 1 percent by weight in the recipe. Salt is used to enhance the flavor of many things: cakes, cookies, ice cream, etc. The kicker is you use just enough to keep it below the "salty" threshold, but still allow it to have its affect. If it tasted salty to you, something went awry somewhere.
Tried this recipe last night. Taste so salty! why this banana cake needs to put 19g salt?
they are still there , also new
Why no vids for Premium recipes?! I absolute love your videos
Thanks Nick! Love the experimenting. Indeed, we also found this particular cake best without the syrup step.
Made this last night as written, minus the GMS. It didn't achieve as fine of a crumb as in the recipe pictures, and borders on almost too moist and oily, even without the GMS. Still tasty.
So for anyone wondering I made this cake today in two versions (one with the syrup in the red velvet recipe and one without) and the one without, which is what the recipe suggests anyway, is miles ahead of the "syruped up version", mainly due to the fact that the cake mix is sweet enough as it is and the syrup just pushes it over into the edge into sickly sweet terrain!).
So morale of the story is trust the recipe and the guys at Chefsteps!
I really like the biscuit, how it is moist and tender. However, I find the frosting (and applied in the quantity indicated) way too sweet. There's so much sugar that it in effect overpowers the flavour of the biscuit.
Can we add a syrup to soak the cake layers like in the previous two cake recipes? If so what type of alcohol would you use for this syrup?
Also what's the advantage behind omitting the soaking of the cake layer in this version of the recipe?
Can I make this as a sheet cake? It seems to me if I make it as a sheet cake, and cut out layers with cake rings - I can do this faster. Your thoughts?
I missed out all of the hot milk by mistake (making chili and a couple of batches of baby food simultaneously!). The cakes were still absolutely delicious - great texture. Having not made the cakes any other way it's hard to figure out what the impact was. Anyone have any theories?
Is there a standard ratio/percentage/weight that works using GMS? This recipe is close to a 3% use by weight, just didn't know if that was a good rule of thumb to use across the board.
Hi Michal, that's actually a known issue we're working on fixing right now. Thanks for bearing with us!
Absolutely! Feel free to experiment with ratios and presentation!
Hi Maggie! We checked in with the kitchen and they used bright-yellow bananas with some brown spots and loved the results. This could be an area for experimentation—some people may like the flavor better when the bananas are more ripe. We've updated the ingredients so it's more informative.
Hi Sandra! Great question! We haven't tried this so you should let us know how it goes if you experiment with it! Ben notes that mascarpone is basically cream, so it will act like cream and may be a little thin, just something to keep in mind!
Thanks for the feedback, Alex! We hear you and while we try to vary our content/how we deliver it, we know what you mean!
Videos... please! After a week of work, reading a massive recipe is not as relaxing as kicking my dogs up and watching a really cool video.
Hello, This recipe is only available for users with a premium , while all are available on the mobile application for android , it seems to me it wryly user who kept paying for a premium package , while the premium recipe is for free in the application.
Ok, that makes sense to me. Thanks!
To a degree the ripeness of the bananas will affect the outcome and taste. If using a puree (as in the banana bread) the batter will be much heavier and carry a different flavor. As an aside, you can also use that same banana puree and use the recipe template from the flourless carrot cake (using the pressure cooked banana puree from the banana bread recipe). It's quite delicious. You'll notice this recipe and recent others are essentially templates where we get to fill in the blanks. :-)
Hi Emily, I checked in with the kitchen and they used bright-yellow bananas with some brown spots and loved the results. This could be an area for experimentation—some people may like the flavor better when the bananas are more ripe. I updated the ingredients so it's more informative.
Can i swap Mascarpone for cream cheese??
HELP! Can i use Mascarpone in place of cream cheese? it didn't come in my order :-(
I'd love to see a carrot cake version of this. What do you think about just replacing the bananas for some pressure cooked caramelized carrots?
I also want to know about the recommended ripeness of the bananas. Firm, green, ripe, overripe? Mashed, chopped,??
What do you guys think in terms of ripeness for the bananas? I know some like them beyond ripe http://luckypeach.com/recipes/banana-cream-pie/. Would ripeness affect the texture or just flavor?
Can you make it as one whole cake instead of layers? Same with red velvet and carrot I suppose.
any sort of gluten free flour replacement will work (e.g. Cup4Cup)
Sounds delicious, looks amazing... but guys... this is a calorie BOMB. Culinary terrorism; full size. IMHO...
This particular individual made a similar comment on the red velvet cake. A ChefSteps employee recommended the same thing you just did. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Some people, for whatever reason, seem to need to be shown Barney style what to do, and if they don't get that, feel the need to make their close mindedness known.
We get it, you want to watch someone make it. However, my question is why? Have you ever cooked something without someone right there showing you step by step what to do? Are you really so closed minded that you refuse to try something without someone holding your hand through the process?
With the ChefSteps Banana Bread recipe there was some specific prep with the bananas and using pressure cooker, This recipe doesn't suggest there is any prep required, or even if there is an advantage of aged/brown spotted vs.'smooth yellow' or anything. I thought the sugar content changed as the fruit aged, but that the starch levels changed too but I really don't know if that is true, or not.
Does any of this impact this cake and how moist and tender the cake turns out?
Why don"t you just watch the chocolate one, they're all mild variations on the same theme?
seems like I'll have to pass trying this one too since there is no video ... sigh ...
You may hate me for this comment but any thoughts on making this gluten free? I so want banana cake...
