After tackling the post Easter chaos in my refrigerator, I turned my attention to a bunch of very ripe bananas in my fruit basket. My first impulse was to make banana bread. But given that I was expecting company, I decided to be more adventurous and make a cake. And wow, what a cake I made.
I found this recipe on the Epicurious website. It was originally published in 1997 and hales from the now shuttered Gabrielle Restaurant in New Orleans.
I made the cake as directed, except I used 4 ripe bananas, not two. (They must have mighty big bananas in New Orleans.) This recipe makes two, perfectly level 8" layers. If you want three layers, I would recommend using 6" pans, or doubling the recipe.
I iced the cake with (my own recipe for) cream cheese frosting, and sprinkled chopped walnuts on top. The original recipe recommends placing slices of fresh banana in between the cake layers. I elected not to do this, as I assumed that the slices would quickly become brown and mushy. I wanted to solve a problem. Not create one.
My company subsequently cancelled, so I gave the cake to the staff in my building. They were very pleased, and I was relieved to have it out of the house. It would have been too hard to resist.
The recipe for the cake is here.
