I initially posted this recipe as a comment on the giant falafel bundt, because the same week that they posted, I had made a real bundt cake of my very own. I shared this cake with a couple of people who I work with, including Hazon’s Executive Director, Nigel Savage, who insisted that this lowly banana cake get its very own post and photo.

Nigel actually tried the cake when we were on our way from Manhattan to Long Island to a Jewish wedding. In retrospect, I suppose I see how silly I was to bring provisions for an hour-long car ride on the way to a Jewish simcha, but hey, there can never be too much food! And six hungry Jews in a car in NY traffic - what did I know? I’ve never been to Long Island - things could have gotten ugly.

I didn’t think there was a Jewish connection to my banana cake, but when doing a bit of research on the Wikipedia I found this:

“The Bundt pan (a registered trademark) was created in 1950 by H. David Dalquist, founder of Nordic Ware, at the request of members of the Hadassah Society’s chapter in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They were interested in a pan that could be used to make bundkuchen (sometimes called kugelhopf or Gugelhupf), a popular German and Austrian coffee cake. The old-world pans, made of delicate ceramic or heavy cast iron, were difficult to use. He modified some existing Scandinavian pan designs by introducing folds in the outer edge, and fashioned the pan out of aluminum.”

So that you never have to risk being hungry on the way to your next simcha, here’s the recipe for banana cake.

Banana Cake
This cake is a great way to use up bananas that are over-ripe.

• 2.3 cups of flour
• 1 cup pecans (broken)
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup candied ginger
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• .5 tsp. baking soda
• .25 tsp salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup mashed banana (about three bananas)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup melted butter
• 1 cup buttermilk

mix flour, pecans, cranberries, candied ginger, baking powder, baking soda, salt
in large bowl, mix sugar, banana, vanilla, eggs
add butter & buttermilk mix well.
add flour mix and mix well
butter and dust a non-stick 10″ bundt pan
bake at 350º for about an hour