I've added pumpkin to Gram's Banana Bread and turned it into a Loaf Cake. Yum!
I love Gram's Banana Bread, and Mom's Banana Bread and my Banana Bread. All three recipes are a just little different. But, this time I've taken Gram's and transformed it a little to fit the month of November in homage to all the pumpkins that grew up over the summer and wanted to be inside of a tasty cake or pie. Gram would chuckle about my combination of bananas with pumpkin puree, especially since she knew I never liked pumpkin.
With a little streusel of pecans, butter, flour and brown sugar all baked on top, it first reminds me of an apple crisp, but has pumpkin and banana inside. This loaf is another easy cake to make, with a delicious end combined with homemade whipped cream. My hubby is my official taste tester, and he really likes this one. He normally does not care for pumpkin flavor. That just proves the pumpkin flavor does not dominate. Last time I made it, I had put half of the cake in the freezer to save for later, only to find that he had pulled it out after the first half had disappeared. I think he especially likes the crunchy streusel topping. My sister and her husband have also given their thumbs up for the recipe.
Prepare the 9" x 4" loaf pan:
- Lightly brush the pan on the bottom and the sides with softened butter.
- Line the pan with two pieces of parchment paper. One goes up the long sided and the other piece goes up the ends so the paper overlaps a couple of inches on all four sides. I like to put a little butter in between the layers of parchment paper so they don't slide around when I'm pouring the batter in the pan. When the loaf cake has baked and partially cooled the cake is easy to lift out onto a serving tray or platter by grabbing the overlapped sides of parchment paper.
Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
Cake Batter Ingredients:
1 1/2 C Flour
1/2 t Baking powder
1/2 t Baking soda
2 Bananas, ripe, mashed (about 1 cup)
1/4 C Pumpkin puree
1/2 C Brown sugar
1/2 C Sugar
4 T Butter, melted
2 Eggs, large
1 t Vanilla extract
Streusel Topping Ingredients:
2 1/2 T Butter, melted
1/4 C Flour
1/4 C Brown sugar
1/2 C Pecans, rough chopped
Make the Streusel Topping first:
- Mix all ingredients - it should be lumpy.
- Chill while making the loaf cake batter.
Make the Loaf Cake:
- In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and set aside.
- In another bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas and pumpkin puree until well combined.
- Add and whisk in the sugars, butter, eggs, and vanilla extract until well combined.
- Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir together just until combined, but do not overmix.
- Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Sprinkle the streusel mixture over the top of the batter.
- Bake at 350F degrees for 55-65 minutes.
- Give it the clean toothpick test at the 55 minute mark. Mine was not done at 50 minutes and was still not done at the 60 minute mark. So, I baked it the full 65 minutes in my oven.
- This recipe produces a nice crunchy streusel topping with a heavier but moist cake crumb.
Serve it with some special toppings:
- Gram used to serve her banana loaf cake with honey or maple syrup, fresh from one of the neighboring farms. Then she would top it with her own vanilla flavored homemade whipped cream.
- This would also be good baked in two or three round cans from canned vegetables. Mom used to make her banana bread/cake in them for pretty round slices on the dinner table. I liked it because the cans yielded more crusty edging for each slice. Since there's no place to sprinkle the streusel on top in these cans, just bake the streusel on a flat pan for a few minutes until golden brown. Then sprinkle the crumbles on top of the individual slices and enjoy! Bake your own Memories!
Storage:
- I store this under a domed cover on my kitchen counter for about 5 days.
- It will save in the fridge, wrapped well for a couple weeks or so.
- In the freezer it will keep for at least a month if no one sneaks it out to eat. I wrap individual slices so it's easy to grab a slice to go.
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