Tuesdays With Dorie: Black-and-White Banana Loaf
Yay! No fruit! (Or, to be precise, no identifiable bits of fruit!) This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie pick (courtesy of Ashlee of A Year In The Kitchen; head on over there if you’d like the recipe) had a much subtler fruit presence than most of the recent recipes. It’s essentially a banana pound cake; half of the batter is mixed with chocolate, then the yellow and brown batters are swirled to make a lovely marble cake.
My ongoing issue with loaf pans (9×5? 8×4? who knows?) led to this being baked in one of those disposable aluminum pans, whose label said quite clearly that it was 8×4 (and was bought for that very reason). But no, when measured (alas, too late), it turned out to be 7×3. There was spillage. (Which wasn’t terrible, because I scraped it up off the foil I had presciently put under the pan and ate it!)
So the finished cake was not the prettiest thing I ever made (although Sunday’s challah may have been), and I don’t think it was entirely baked in the middle. But it was delicious, especially drizzled with homemade chocolate syrup. Husband said it seemed more like a quick bread than a pound cake, but he’s insane. It wasn’t entirely pound cake-y, but I think that’s because it didn’t bake long enough.
A lot of comments on the TWD site mentioned that their batter was too runny for good marbling. I don’t know why that would be; mine was quite thick. (The photo is terrible — I enlisted #1 Son to shoot it, and there’s really no natural light in my kitchen — but it does show the consistency of the batter.)
The finished product was moist and dense and banana-y and chocolate-y and really all you could ask for in a cake. This one’s a keeper. Go and make it. Now. And check out everyone else’s versions at Tuesdays With Dorie.
August 5th, 2008 at 8:52 am
After looking at all these posts. I’m beginning to realist that maybe the super-moist situation is perhaps normal. Maybe mine is not a failure after all!
Fantastic job anyway!
August 5th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I was very happy when I found out that we were doing this! No fruit! Yipee! Great job! Love the chocolate sauce!
August 5th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Your cake looks very tasty! The chocolate sauce is a good idea
August 5th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
I used mini disposible loaf pans, and got the bread to come out fairly well… Nice photos!
August 5th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Okay – the chocolate – that would have made the difference for me. Great job.
August 5th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I’m sick of fruit, too! Isn’t that terrible? Bring on the chocolate!!!
August 5th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Oh the chocolate sauce is making me drool! Looks great!
August 5th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Homemade chocolate syrup? Yes please!
August 6th, 2008 at 12:27 am
Nice pictures! My husband is all for moving to chocolate and away from the fruilt too
August 6th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Mmmmm…chocolate drizzle! Nice touch.
August 7th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
My batter was pretty thick, too. That last picture is evil incarnate! YUM!
August 11th, 2008 at 2:08 am
So very moist! Drizzled in homemade chocolate syrup, that piece of cake looks absolutely sinful.
August 11th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I love that you drizzled some chocolate on it. I have to try that next time!
October 27th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
[...] made similarly small, similarly darling cakes; Bungalow Barbara has picture-perfect marbling; and Confectiona’s Realm served hers with chocolate sauce for a extra [...]