Tag Archives: Snacking cakes

Banana Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

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The inspiration for this cake came from Sally’s Baking Addiction blog. She claimed it was the Best Banana Cake she had ever made! After baking it, I must agree. It’s outstanding.

Even if you’re not a baker, chances are, that during the past year, you have baked a banana bread during the pandemic. But banana bread is so 2020. This year, it’s all about Banana Cake. So, what’s the difference between banana bread and banana cake? Generally, banana bread is a bit denser than banana cake. Banana cake tends to be a bit sweeter as well. The biggest difference however, is that Banana Cake almost always has a frosting. And really, isn’t all about the frosting.

Sally frosted it simply, with a butter-cream cheese icing. I took it up a notch and browned the butter in my cream cheese frosting. Browning the butter is an additional step that is most certainly worth the effort. It adds a nutty taste that helps to temper the sweetness of the frosting. Even non-frosting types, like my husband, loved this one.

Instead of making a simple snacking cake in a 9×13 inch pan, I baked mine in three 6-inch round cake pans and created this statuesque layer cake.

In addition to the frosting between each layer, I added a crunch element. I toasted some chopped walnuts, crushed digestive cookies and some melted butter to create a crumble.

When my children were little, we used to pretend that the first of every month was Elmo’s Birthday, complete with cake and candles. Of course the cake was almost always chocolate. And I always had at least one of the kids in the kitchen “helping”. Somehow, with help, it always took longer! I have so many lovely memories from that time. The enthusiasm for these monthly celebrations was infectious. The kids have all moved out now, but I think it just might be time to bring back monthly birthday cakes.

Click here to print recipe for Banana-Crunch-Cake-with-Brown-Butter-Cream-Cheese-FrostingDownload

Apple Caramel Cake

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I’m passionate about apple cake, so when my Instagram friend Dee, boasted that her apple cake was the BEST ever, you can bet that got my attention. Of course, I had to go over to her blog and check it out. I had a sneaky feeling I knew exactly which recipe she used, and I was right. The recipe came from her mother-in-law, who got it from the Second Helpings Please! Cookbook. Every Jewish mother, worth her salt, cooked from this book in the 1970’s. I don’t recall my mom using this book though. We ate mostly frozen foods in the 70’s.

I first learned about this apple cake at one of my very first professional cooking jobs. I was working in an upscale take-out food shop in Toronto’s Yorkville area called Dinah’s Cupboard. I learned so much from Dinah Koo, the shop’s owner. She demanded perfection and precision. She cooked with big flavours and was a master at presentation. I am forever grateful to her for teaching me so much. It was my job to make 4 of these cakes every day. We baked them in 9×13 inch rectangular cake pans and cut the cakes into large squares to sell in the shop.

Dinah’s twist on the Second Helpings classic was to soak the just baked cake in a caramel sauce. How bad could that be? As soon as it comes out of the oven, poke holes all over the cake and pour on caramel sauce so it has an opportunity to soak in. This is a moist, dense, intensely flavourful cake. Because I’m fancy, I baked mine in a Bundt pan with 2 layers of apples sandwiched between 3 layers of batter. Watch how it all comes together.

Click here to print recipe for Apple-Caramel-CakeDownload