Tag Archives: bananas

Banana Bundt with Cream Cheese Swirl

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My name is Cindy and I have a Bundt pan addiction. Is there anything more beautiful than a Bundt Cake? It does all the work for you. Somehow, over the years, I have amassed quite a collection of Bundt pans. I have this one, this one, this one, this one, these and these. I have resisted buying these, but we all know it’s only a matter of time.

Bake from Scratch magazine founder, Brian Hart Hoffman, recently released The Bundt Collection Cookbook, 128 gorgeous and delicious ways for Bundt aficionados to show off their baking prowess.

I started off with this Banana beauty. When you slice the cake you reveal a gorgeous cream cheese swirl. The tang of the cream cheese really complements the sweet bananas. It’s a classic combo.

Once the cake is cooled, you brush it with melted butter and sprinkle coarse sanding sugar all over the top and sides. It glistens like a jewel.

Since I have baked more than a few Bundt cakes in my life. I’d like to offer a few pointers for success:

  1. To avoid every Bundt user’s worst nightmare, spray the pan very well with Baker’s Joy, Pam with Flour, or other spray that includes flour.
  2. Dense batters, like pound cake and coffee cake are best for a Bundt pan. A light chiffon or sponge cake is not a good option for this pan.
  3. Be patient when you bake this. It takes a while. Use the wooden skewer test. If the skewer comes out sticky or covered in batter, it’s not ready. If there are just a few crumbs clinging to it, that’s fine. Better still, an instant read thermometer, registering 200°F is a foolproof test.
  4. Let the cake rest on a wire rack for at least 15-20 minutes before turning cake out of the pan. You might need to give the pan a gentle bang to help loosen the cake and release.
  5. Let the cake cool entirely before glazing or icing it.
  6. Any leftover cake freezes beautifully. I slice it, wrap each slice in plastic wrap and then put them in a freezer bag.
Click here to print recipe forBanana -Bundt-Cake-with-Cream-Cheese-SwirlDownload

Banana Coconut Overnight Oats

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When I was growing up, oatmeal meant Quaker Oats Instant Oatmeal in the package. We had an instant hot water tap, (the water never really got all that hot) so there wasn’t even any cooking involved. My mom would buy the variety pack, but my sisters and I only liked the maple and brown sugar, and I think we probably added extra maple syrup and brown sugar. My poor dad got stuck eating the unwanted apple cinnamon flavour. I recall that the dried apples always got stuck in your throat.

Fast forward a whole bunch of years and, “We’ve come a long way baby.”Now I’m eating oatmeal made with steel cut oats that you actually have to cook!

So, a little oats primer here. Whole oats, that have been cleaned and hulled, are called groats. They are a little too coarse for oatmeal. Groats that have been coarsely chopped are known as steel-cut oats (bowl on the left). Groats that are steamed and pressed are called rolled oats or old-fashioned oats (bowl on the right). Instant oats are pre-cooked, dried, and then rolled and pressed slightly thinner than rolled oats.Steel-cut oats have a wonderful nutty taste and chewy texture, but they take 40 minutes to cook, and who has time for that? Enter the overnight method. I learned how to make these from those clever folks over at Cook’s Illustrated.

Bring 3 cups of water and a teaspoon of salt to boil. Please don’t omit the salt. Your oatmeal will taste flat and lifeless. Take pot off heat, stir in 1 cup of steel-cut oats , cover pot and let sit overnight while you sleep. In the morning add 1 cup of coconut milk, bring to boil, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until oats are softened but still retain some chew and the mixture thickens slightly. This will take about 5 minutes. Cover the pot and let sit for 5 more minutes. The oatmeal will continue to thicken as it rests.

Mix in sliced bananas, shredded coconut and vanilla extract. Top with banana chips for some added crunch.


Mornings got a whole lot better around here. Stay tuned for an apple-cinnamon version with maple syrup!

Click here to print recipe for Banana Coconut Overnight Oats.