Chocolate-Banana-Sour Cream Cake

Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, let's use bananas six days old. I've already determined that bananas thawed out and stored in the fridge for seven days are still fine to bake with so this time around is essentially confirmation.

Chocolate-Banana-Sour Cream Cake
from Cooking Club of America
click to print

CAKE
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 c mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium)
1/2 c sour cream, room temperature
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c packed light brown sugar
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

FROSTING
3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 c sour cream
2 tbsp light corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350ºF. Coat 8-inch square baking pan with butter; sprinkle with flour, tapping out excess.


Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.


Whisk bananas, 1/2 cup sour cream, egg and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla in separate medium bowl.


Beat butter, sugar and brown sugar in large bowl at medium-high speed 3 minutes or until fluffy, scraping bowl occasionally.


Add banana mixture; beat 1 minute or until smooth.


At low speed, slowly add flour mixture, scraping bowl after each addition.


Stir in 4 oz. chocolate. Spoon and spread batter in pan.


Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack.


Place 3 oz. chocolate in medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high 30 seconds; stir. Continue to microwave at 10-second intervals until almost melted. Stir until melted and smooth; let stand until room temperature.


Whisk in all remaining frosting ingredients until smooth.


Spread over top of cake.



Most fascinating was the frosting. If the sour cream is cold, the chocolate will seize on you. I did a "tempering" process to ease the chocolate into the cold. I added a little sour cream, stirred, added a little more, stirred, then piled the rest of the sour cream and mixed. It worked. And the results were dull. Once the corn syrup was in, the frosting had a nice gloss. It looked like a buttercream. It's shocking when you taste it and realize it is nothing like a buttercream.

The cake turned out nicely. It's weird though. I mean, what the hell, it's cake and it tastes like bananas. It's just not right. That said, it doesn't taste horrible like banana rot so you can use bananas thawed up to six days.

Be sure to store the cake in the fridge. The sour cream in the frosting will cause this cake to grow four different colors of mold within five days otherwise. Trust me.

Cost:

• all-purpose flour: $0.12
• bananas: $0.64
• sour cream: $1
• egg: $0.27
• vanilla extract: $0.08
• unsalted butter: $0.41
• sugar: $0.12
• light brown sugar: $0.18
• bittersweet chocolate: $3
• light corn syrup: $0.22

Total: $6.04 or about $0.67 for each of nine servings.
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9/22/14
It looks much better in daylight.

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