I thought i would start out my blog with one of my all time favorite cake recipes. This recipe is from "Sweet Serendipity" by Steven Bruce. Its a banana pecan cake with a coffee buttercream frosting. I made this cake for my husband's 27Th birthday - its wonderful. My cake decorating skills definitely need some improvement, but overall it was a fun cake to make. I wish I had a photo of the inside of the cake!
"Makes 1 8-inch three layer cake
For the Cake:
Unsalted butter for the pans
2-1/4 C. Cake Flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
7 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter, softened
1-1/3 C. sugar
1 C. Mashed Ripe Bananas (about 2 medium)
2 Large Eggs
scant 1/2 C. Buttermilk
1 C. Chopped Pecans
For the Frosting:
6 Large egg yolks
1 C. Sugar
1/2 C. warm water
2 C. Unsalted Butter, cut into small pieces & softened
2 Tbsp. Instant espresso powder
1 tsp. boiling water
To make the cake: preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans and line with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the bananas and mix well. Add the eggs and buttermilk, and mix until fully incorporated. Add the flour mixture, stirring only until incorporated. Fold in the pecans. Spread the batter equally into the three pans, smoothing with a spatula.
Bake for 8 to 12 minutes, until the cakes are golden brown and spring back when touched. Cool the cakes in their pans for 5 minutes on a rack, then remove them from pans and cool on a rack until they are room temperature.
While the cakes are cooling, make the frosting: In a medium bowl, beat the yolks with an electric mixer until light in color. In a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugar and 1/2 cup of water and cook over medium heat until the syrup reaches 238 degrees on a candy thermometer.
With the mixer running on medium speed, pour the hot sugar syrup into the yolks in a very slow stream down the side of the bowl. Continue to beat the yolk and syrup mixture on medium speed until it cools to room temperature.
Keep the mixture running on medium speed and add the butter gradually, bit by bit, continuing to beat until fully incorporated and fluffy. Meanwhile, mix the espresso powder with the boiling water until fully dissolved; then add it to the finished buttercream and beat until incorporated.
to assemble the cake, stack all three layers with one-quarter of the frosting between each, and coat the top and sides with the remaining frosting. For extra pomp, you may pipe some of the frosting with a pastry bag along the edges of the cake and garnish with coffee beans. Chill until the frosting is set. Store at room temperature, loosely covered."
