Ingredients
Serves : one 9″ round cake (3 layers).
- 2 sticks (8 ounces) butter at room temperature
- 2 cups brown sugar, packed firmly
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 cups mashed banana (about 3 large bananas)
- 2 ½ cups plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
- 6 tablespoons cornstarch (corn flour)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- sift in with the dry ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
Directions to make the gingerbread banana cake
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare 2 x 9″ round cake pans by spraying with non-stick cooking spray and lining bottom of each pan with a circle of parchment paper cut to fit.
let’s bake
1.using an electric mixer beat the butter at high speed until lighter in color and fluffy.
2.add the sugar and beat at medium speed until well incorporated (about 3-5 minutes).
3.add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
4.add the mashed banana and don’t worry if the batter looks curdled right now – it won’t for long.
5.sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt on to a piece of parchment paper.
6.with the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the batter, mixing just until combined.
Mix in to the batter right after creaming the butter and sugar:
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
7.pour the batter into the prepared pans (2/3 in one pan and 1/3 in the other) and bake, checking after 30 minutes, then every 5-10 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
8.cool the cakes in their pans for about 15 minutes then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
The reason I bake with 2/3 of the cake batter in one pan and 1/3 of the batter in the other, is to save time when torting (splitting the cake layers horizontally). I only have to cut once to end up with three layers. Easy!
