banana fana fo fana
Cornelius loves bananas. I hate 'em and I welcome their untimely demise. There is only one instance where I welcome their sickly sweet and slimy texture...it's a version of banana bread that won me over at our local bakery, called "UBC cake" which stands for Ultimate Banana & Chocolate cake. It is the ultimate! A crispy cinnamon sugar topping studded with chocolate chips. What's not to like? A few years ago a friend in San Francisco sent me a recipe that she called "Willie Nelson's Famous Banana Bread". I'm not sure if Willie made the bread or if it really was some kind of famous secret recipe, but I baked it and it tasted just like the UBC cake I loved! Ooooh, I was sooooo thankful for the recipe and it's delicious results that I didn't even care that bananas were a part of the mix.NOTE: When I made the cake this morning, I reduced the amount of sugar the original recipe called for by 1/4 cup. I also reduced the amount of chocolate chips by half. Feel free to stick to the original recipe below.
willie nelson's famous banana bread AKA ubc cake
3 really ripe bananas, mashed
2 large eggs
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/4 c sugar
1 t baking soda
1 t vanilla
1 T cinnamon
1 c chocolate chips
1/4 c sugar mixed with cinnamon
1. Mix bananas with eggs and stir well. Add flour, sugar, soda, vanilla, and cinnamon and mix well. Add 3/4 c of the chocolate chips into the batter.
2. Pour batter into a buttered square cake pan. Sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mix and the remaining chocolate chips.
3. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.
Labels: banana cake, bananas, cake, chocolate chip, ubc cake
posted by kickpleat at 10:19 PM
19 Comments:
Fantastic post!
I share your reservations when it comes to bananas. It's not so much that I hate them, I'm just very picky about them.
But this looks great ... thanks for the recipe!
I hated bananas - the taste and the texture - as a kid, but I've slowly been warming to them, especially in breads and other desserts. This looks incredible! Thanks for sharing, dear kickpleat.
Oh, no! No more bananas? Anyway, anything is better with chocolate. :)
how many cups of mashed bananas did your 3 bananas make?
this recipe looks great. kind of like the mexican monkey cake over at the farmgirl fare blog (but healthier!).
thanks!
Thanks Ivonne, glad to know I'm not the only banana-hater out there!
Molly, it's a pretty good recipe and it just might be the one to convince me that maybe it wouldn't be so bad if bananas outlived me!
Yes, it's true, Crystal! True about your chocolate comment and I'll add cinnamon to that list, as well.
Mai, I didn't measure the bananas to see how much it added up to. The recipe said "3 bananas" and that's what i added.
hey Kickpleat.
this is a little random - I saw your comment on Popsheep.
I might explode if i don't get a copy of Mississippi Luau. But it's SO not available anywhere. Is there any chance u could hook me up with some MP3s?
It was worth a try askin. u could email me at patrickcragg@gmail.com if u can help, if not, sorry to bother u...
I used to like bananas till the incident where a teacher invited me to her house for dinner and I ended up cooking it! She adored bananas and demanded I make a warehouse full of banana cakes. I refused to touch bananas for a very long time after that. I love the look and the recipe for this fab cake though!
Love the recipe. Will definitely use it. Thanks.
Love your blog -- just came across it from Zen Foodism (another fav). The recipe looks great. Love banana bread and chocolate together. Cooking Light has a Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread that is amazing -- it might convert you yet. I can't wait to try your recipe. Bought bananas today!
I notice there is no fat in the bread, is this correct?
Patrick, sorry, I only have the album on vinyl! Good luck in your search.
mm, having a teacher invite you over for dinner & then making you cook?! That's insane! You have a very justifiable banana complex :)
Thanks Fran!
Hello Anonymous, thanks for stopping by!
Randi, it is indeed true! No fat! Just some butter to grease the pan with.
Ooooo. I'm trying that. Send any spare bananas my way. ;)
After seeing this recipe, I had to try it! Couldn't wait until my bananas were real ripe today. Just finished a piece -- it tasted great! Thanks so much. If you don't mind, have a question. Not sure of the top of the cake turned out right -- the sugar stayed white (looked like it came right out of the sugar container). ALso, the topping (maybe crust) you can kind of peel right off and for some reason the edges didn't have crust (I guess I didn't put the sugar over the whole cake). But it was GREAT!! will make AGAIN!!
Thanks!
We made this last weekend, finally, and it was delicious! I loved how bread-y it was, as opposed to the usual dense, rich texture of a banana bread. I made just a couple of changes: I pureed the bananas in a food processor, rather than just mashing 'em; and I decreased the cinnamon to 2 tsp. It was heavenly. We froze half of it and then - ooh la la - discovered that it was even better frozen. Yum, yum! A definite keeper.
Hi Anon, hmmm, I have no idea why the sugar stayed white....maybe you didn't just lightly sprinkle it around the cake? I"m not very good at solving baking problems, but I'm glad you enjoyed it anyway!
Molly, ah, you are lucky to have a food processor! Me, I'm dreaming of one constantly (really). I'm glad the cake turned out lovely and eating it frozen sounds like a perfect summer night treat.
BEST banana bread EVER. I made it today and we ate half of it already! Really moist- I can't believe it's got no extra fat (bonus!) Thanks much for the recipe! - Stacey
I adored this banana bread, so much so that I made it, photographed it and wrote it up on my much-neglected group food blog. Here tis.
I baked your banana bread recipe last night--actually made 2 mini loaves, 1 with choc chips and the other without, and used cake flour instead--WOW! what a delicious banana bread. I was pleasantly surprised at how moist the bread was and there was virtually no fat (except from the eggs). Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
I just made this for the second time...I had quite a different experience from mm...I brought this to dinner at a professor's house the first time I made and she loved it! Her daughter begged her to keep the leftovers.
This time I used white whole wheat flour and less sugar and chocolate chips. It makes great cupcakey muffin treats, too!
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