So this cake started with a few brown bananas I had in the fruit bowl that were staring me down all of last week.
Because, just FYI, I am a little bit weird, and I have this thing with textures.
Like, I will only eat bananas if they’re green.
Once they’ve got a few brown spots on them, it’s over. There’s no way I’m going near them. They’re just way too mushy (but I’m cool with a green banana that’s been mashed. See how this is weird?).
Anyway, there was no way I was going to eat the brown bananas. They had to baked. And I was yet to post a banana cake recipe on the blog – it seemed kind of a perfect fit.
So I made banana cake. And poured it into a bar pan.
Partly because I simply liked the idea of calling it a snack cake (Americans, what does that even mean?). And partly because I hate baking cakes in loaf pans for what feels like hours and hours on end while the base and sides burn and the center remains liquid. Fun! Not fun.
Then I realised I had like three jars of open Nutella in the pantry (because you can never have too much Nutella. Right? Right).
So I slapped some on the cake batter and swirled it around with a knife. Amazing.
And then I found a bag of pecans. So I sort of like… threw them on top. And pushed some of them in, in certain places.
So it’s like a pecan-studded, Nutella-swirled cake.
Aaaaand this cake came out amazingly good. Moist, from all the bananas, and the fact that it’s baked in a bar pan. Then it has thick, chocolatey, Nutella swirls and random crunchy, buttery roasted pecans… It’s great. And if that’s not enough for you, then drizzle it with some more Nutella.
So go and stock up on Nutella and pecans and bananas.
Let your bananas tease you for a week from your breakfast bar as they brown.
Then get baking. Yum.
- 150g unsalted butter, softened (5½ oz)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 cup wholewheat plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ⅔ cup buttermilk
- 3 large, ripe bananas, roughly mashed
- ½ cup Nutella (8 tbsp)
- ½ cup pecan halves
- Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F) and line a 9 x 13 inch pan with baking paper.
- Beat the butter and sugar using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla, beating well between each addition.
- In a separate bowl, combine the cinnamon, both flours, the baking powder, soda and salt.
- Alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the butter mixture in three lots, stirring until just combined between each addition.
- Mix in the bananas.
- Pour into the prepared pan and level out.
- Drop tablespoons of Nutella around the cake randomly and swirl in roughly with a knife, so there is a bit of Nutella everywhere. Scatter the pecans over the cake, pressing some in and leaving some on top.
- Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, until a deep golden brown and when a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Allow to cool slightly before cutting. Makes 20 squares.