My sister recently gave me a few fun pans that she’d found in an antique store. Sadly, I couldn’t fit them in my suitcase so I left them at my parents’ house. If I’d known that, less than a week later, I’d be searching my kitchen looking for a pan to bake half a bundt cake recipe in, you can bet I would have made room for those pans!
Instead, unable to choose between my overused assortment of small-sized pans, I decided that variety would be fun. Plus, if you’re looking for a reason to hover over your oven in the middle of the summer, testing and retesting differently sized cakes for doneness, well then, this is perfect.
The cake is mixed using the creaming method – butter is aerated with sugar, then the eggs and bananas are added, and then the dry ingredients and sour cream are alternatively mixed in. Plain yogurt can be substituted for the sour cream.
The cake was very good, in a richest-banana-bread-ever kind of way. There were a couple complaints from other Tuesday with Dorie members that it was too moist, and I agree that low-fat plain yogurt may be a better choice than sour cream, for my tastes. Instead, or maybe even in addition, you might even be able to reduce the butter by 25%. None of this is strictly necessary though, as the cake really was delicious as is.
Mary chose this recipe for the group and has it posted .
One year ago: Tuscan-Style Couscous Salad
Ahh too bad about not having the pans 🙁 But hey, I love all the fun little shapes you made!!
mmmm….
really just posting to say that i’m a big fan of your blog. the photos are beautiful, and the recipes inspire me to cook, even if i don’t actually do it. alas. 🙂
Love all of your assorted little cakes and I give you props for standing over the oven in the heat of the summer. I was sweating in my kitchen just having the oven on yesterday 🙂 Great job!
I love all the different shapes! I also used yogurt instead of sour cream.
What a fun assortment of shapes and sizes. My favorite thing is checking for doneness in the middle of summer. glad to hear I am not alone… :-p
These look delicious!
All of those tiny cakes would have lasted as long as the photo shoot around me!! I love banana cakes. YUM.
What a great variety of pretty little cakes!! Well done.
Very cute cakes!
I love the variety of mini cakes! So fun and elegant!
Those little cakes are gorgeous!
Simply adorable! I’m sure that wasn’t the word that came to mind when you had the oven door open though.
I made mine with non-fat yogurt and mine was a little too dry. I think there must be a happy medium somewhere. I like this, so I’ll try again and see if I can find the right level of taste/moisture.
Your cakes are lovely!
oh what a great idea with those little cakes !! love it!
I like the different shapes you used. Too bad about your sister’s pans, hopefully you can get them soon.
In the third picture I first though the cake in the little mini tart pan was on a griddle…haha. I was thinking you were taking the batter and cooking it stove top….I was going to ask how that worked it:) I finally realized my eyes were playing tricks on me.
I was told this cake was the best thing I’ve brought to work yet. It was SO good. I used lemon yogurt (cuz I had it) and added chocolate chips, but I think the chocolate was unnecessary (didn’t know that was possible). I love your idea of the different shapes and pans! Next time I’ll make cupcakes; I did find it took forever to bake.
I LOVE all the different shapes. I am so glad people are creative with their baking. Gives me ideas for the next time.
Great job with this great cake.
What cute little cakes! When I saw the first photo, I immediately thought about opening and closing the oven testing them in 1 minute increments. 🙂 Thanks for baking along with me this week! – mary the food librarian
Aawww, I wanted to see a lobster shaped banana cake!
Oh what a coincidence! I just made banana cake too! This is a swell idea … pouring the batter into different baking tins. My only concern is: don’t they bake at different rates? How did you manage?
The Little Teochew – You are definitely right! Each one cooked at a different rate. I went through a lot of toothpicks while I checked for done-ness!
Wow, can banana cakes be too moist? I would’ve thought that was a good thing! (Well, it can always be baked for longer…) As you know, I am a huge banana cake fan 😉 I would’ve loved to see those awesome antique shapes though!
But forgetting the new ones means you get to use a variety, and that’s good too, right? They look too cute – I wasn’t in the “hovering in the kitchen” mood when I made mine, so no minis; yours make me want to try the recipe again (that’d be three times in two weeks!) just to make minis!
Omg I would totally love to try this recipe…Is it available?
Thanks a bunch!
Yvette – In the last sentence of the post, click on “this recipe” and it’ll take you there! Enjoy!