fbpx

By RetroRuth

This week’s recipe was all about what I had laying around the house.  I was out of cheese and tuna, which knocked a whole bunch of mid-century recipes off my radar. But what I DID have was sour cream and bananas, so I did what any self-respecting person would do.

I made a cake.

IMG_7179

This is Banana Sour Cream Cake!

Scan_20140616

And her name is Ruth, too!

Banana Sour Cream Cake
Author: Mrs. David Kahn, 1973
Ingredients
  • 3 very ripe bananas, sliced
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup chopped nuts
  • 1 1/2 T melted butter
  • 1 banana, sliced
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp soda
  • (*1/2 tsp salt – my addition!)
Instructions
  1. Combine bananas and sour cream at medium speed in blender until smooth. Set aside.
  2. Combine 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon, nuts and melted butter, mixing well. Fold in remaining bananas. Set aside.
  3. Cream softened butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs.
  4. Sift together flour, baking powder and soda. Add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream mixture.
  5. Spread half of batter into greased 9-inch pan (*I found that I needed a larger pan than that.). Sprinkle with half of sugar mixture. Repeat process, using remaining batter and sugar mixture.
  6. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until done. (*Mine took about 50 minutes)

This fun recipe is from a Detroit area newspaper. I found a bunch of these on eBay and bought them all. I am in love with the little blurbs about the everyday life of the recipe author!

IMG_7103

Once great thing about having a one year old in the house is that I have a never-ending supply of bananas in various stages of ripeness.

IMG_7106

When this recipe called for three very ripe bananas and one  ripe banana, I was all over it. As back-ups, I even had a sort of ripe banana AND an unripe banana.

Yes, she does eat that many bananas.

IMG_7109

IMG_7111

As a sidenote – I didn’t have a 9 inch square pan, so I use a 11×8 inch pan. That pan was almost too small. Which means a 9 inch pan would have been way too small. I don’t know how I ended up with so much batter, but  if I had this to do over again I would out this in a 13×9 pan. The baking time for the 11×8 pan in the oven was about 20 mins longer than the recipe called for. It was dense, and by the time the center was baked the top had become overly brown.

IMG_7169

Not that it stopped Tom from digging in.

IMG_7192

IMG_7203

And, since we had used the Small Assistant’s bananas, we thought she should have a crack at it as well.

IMG_7217

IMG_7223

“She seems to like it.”

“Ow! Ow! She’s biting my finger!”

The Verdict: Good, Even For Small Assistants

From The Tasting Notes –

The cake was good, and with the topping it tasted like a cross between a coffee cake and a banana bread. The crumb was soft and moist with a good texture. It was sweet, but not too sweet. But it did need some salt! You could definitely taste the lack of salt. So if you like banana bread or coffee cake, you should try this recipe, but just add about a 1/2 tsp or so of salt to the batter.

  |