When bananas are ripe on my counter or the grocery store has ripe bananas setting out for a reduced price, I always make banana wheat cake with yogurt and applesauce in it. I’ve modified a recipe for the past few years from a fabulous cook book given to me by my 105 year old Great-Great Aunt Iris.
It’s been well used and I just wrote my modifications into the cookbook. I remind myself of my mother sometimes. And sometimes I remind myself of my Grandma Nola who for as long as I can remember has had a King Arthur Flour catalog around her house. I have flipped through it and dreamed of the finer baking items in life. My grandma is a baker and particular.
So when my fellow Real Farmwives of America blogger (and in real life) friend, Ott, A announced the Iron Chef Challenge this month was with King Arthur Flour, I knew it was going to be a winner.
King Arthur Flour is the finest baking flour I know. For the banana wheat cake, I love using the King Arthur white whole wheat flour combined with cake flour. You can use regular wheat flour also but the white wheat flour is a lighter and makes a less heavy cake with not such a strong nutty wheat flavor. It still gives you plenty of protein and fiber.
I started using wheat flour six years ago when I first did the Weight Watchers program for added fiber in my diet. I lost 30 lbs. and I have been up and down with my weight since then with two pregnancies since then, gaining 50+ lbs with each pregnancy and working hard to lose the weight. High fiber is a key for my weight loss.
Banana wheat cake takes me 10 minutes to get into the oven.
Preheat oven to 350F.
To your mixing bowl add:
1 1/4 cup King Arthur White Wheat Flour (or whole wheat)
1 1/4 cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup margarine or butter
1/3 cup applesauce
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt
(I have used flavored yogurt of any kind I have on hand. This week I used banana yogurt.)
2 medium very ripe bananas
I had two “helpers” during this baking and my photography was limited. Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into a 9 x 13 pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350F.
When I cook or bake, I think about where the ingredients have come from and how they arrived in my kitchen.
When I look at this sugar bag, I think about it being produced from sugar beets grown in North Dakota from farmer’s fields I have grown up seeing daily and smelling the sugar processing.
When I see the two eggs to add to this recipe, I think of farmers raising egg laying hens whose farm fresh eggs are being shipped daily to grocery stores across the USA.
No matter what kind of flour you use in your baking and cooking, there is a good chance it is coming from USA wheat fields like this one near our prairie home. Our family farm, GriggsDakota, has raised wheat for five generations.
Knowing I was going home to make banana cake, I snapped the above picture of this wheat field on our steamy and humid Sunday because it reminded me of King Arthur flour, the cake I was about to make and of course my family farm. That’s a whole lot of thinking for a cake but quite a connection that I am thankful for.
I frosted the cake before it had totally cooled but the frosting is easy.
It’s banana frosting.
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 very ripe small banana
3 cups of powdered sugar
Combine first four ingredients and slowly add powdered sugar to blend. Add a little milk if necessary to make a better spreading consistency.
I am thankful every day for three specific blessings in my life and they happen to be the three very reasons I quickly bake banana cake…
One.
Two.
Three. (showing his sign at how good the cake is as a bedtime snack)
Banana cake success.
My family is fed.
Linking up today for Ott, A’s Iron Chef Challenge
King Arthur did provide me with flour to use for this recipe contest. However the opinions listed here are my own. The flour shipped right to my doorstep on the prairie which is about as convenient as it comes. And believe me, I only have opinions of my own.
Looks nice and yummy. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I will surely try this out. Also the kids look sooo sweet.
Take the Cake Personality Test and find out which cake are you like. I have taken the test and have enjoyed a lot. Hope you too will enjoy it. Have Fun!!
I don’t do bananas. Only food I absolutely will not do. However, your pictures are pretty! 😉
Love the pics of your kids enjoying the cake. What a great cookbook to have passed down. thanks for linking up to the iron Chef Challenge!
Hey Katie- The recipe looks fabulous!! I am game to do a little baking now that the heat index is below 110 degrees!! So banana cake it is!! Thanks muchly. Cute pics of the kids also!! 🙂
R and boys
I’m not sure if we have King Arthur flour here in CA…I’ll have to check it out! Thank you for linking up to Thankful Thursday, your three treasures are adorable eating that yummy banana cake:)