May 11, 2011
I'm a soft touch for recipes that have "Grandma's" in the title. Grandmas had the best recipes and they knew what the best was supposed to be because they all seemed to know what they were doing. Sure enough, Gramma Bertha's cake did not disappoint me, although I took a little liberty with her recipe by adding 1 tsp. of vanilla and 1/2 tsp. salt. When I cut into the cake I got concerned when I saw what looked like uncooked batter. But not to worry! I had never added sliced bananas to a batter rather than mashing them and what I was seeing (whew!) was the sliced bananas! I have no criticism of this recipe whatsoever (although I'm glad for my small additions). First, I love the texture of it - it's not as dense, as "wet" if you will, as banana breads (cakes) can sometimes be. It does have a well-developed crumb, so in my view this really is a banana CAKE, not banana bread masquerading as one. It's moist and just sweet enough – remember, the closer to mushy black your bananas are, the sweeter they'll be and so will the cake. Mine were brown-speckled. Because I baked it in a specialty Bundt pan with a lot of detail I didn't frost or glaze it, just sprinkled it with powdered sugar and I'm kind of glad for it - the cake stands on its own with no other frosting or glaze necessary, although a chocolate butter cream or cream cheese frosting would be nice, as would a vanilla or caramel glaze. Gramma Bertha's cake, I'm sure, has pleased a lot of family and friends.
—naples34102
