I've Gone Bananas!

December 19th:  For this day, it was back to the good ol' Williams-Sonoma Baking Cookbook. For what, you may ask? Why, for Banana-Honey Cake! Now, I'm not really wild about bananas, but I don't mind them once they're mashed up and put into some form of bread, which, even though the name of the recipe says cake, this pretty much is. It's not something you'd frost and use for a birthday since it has a more banana bread/muffin texture.

Makes: One 9-inch square cake

2 1/4 cups (11.5 oz/360 g) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (4 oz/125 g) plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup (3.5 oz/105 g) light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup (6 oz/185 g) honey
2 eggs
2 peeled and mashed bananas
2/3 cup (2.5 oz/75 g) walnuts or almonds, chopped

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan. Sprinkle with flour and tap out the excess.

2. In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In another large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the butter and brown sugar until creamy. Add the honey and beat until blended. Add the eggs, increase the speed to medium-high, and beat until smooth. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 2 additions, alternating with the mashed bananas and beating on medium speed after each addition until smooth. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Sprinkle evenly with the nuts, if using.

3. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 35-40 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Cut into squares and serve.

This recipe wasn't bad. Not my favorite, but not bad. Honestly, I think I should've let the bananas ripen a bit longer because the flavor wasn't strong enough and I think it would've added some moisture to the cake.

I'm also interested to use some different honeys in future attempts at this recipe since there wasn't much honey flavor in this at all. Since I currently know next to nothing about the different honeys that are out there (i.e., I know there ARE different honeys, but not what they taste like or how they flavor things they're baked in), I'll have to do some research before the next banana-honey cake adventure.

I used walnuts instead of almonds in my cake because I'm a fan of banana nut muffins with walnuts in them, but I'm curious how this would taste with almonds instead. Another thing to try next time, I guess!