I have an uncontrollable sweet tooth. It’s gotten to a humiliating point where, on my way home from work, no matter what time it is, I will often stop at the grocery store and buy one 3.5 oz. mini container of Haagen Dazs. Just one. I can’t buy a pint or, God help me, a half gallon, because there is literally nothing that will stop me from eating the entire thing in one sitting. So I continue to embarrass myself nightly, always hoping that the checkout person doesn’t recognize me and my weird and wasteful shopping habits. Not only is my craving for sugar uncontrollable (it is genetic, people!) but it also operates with remarkable specificity. Which is to say, eating a bowl of strawberries is not going to cut it. It needs ice cream, it needs cookies, it needs cake. That’s where this brilliant banana cake comes in.
There’s nothing about this cake that is shocking or particularly complex, but I think that’s the point. It’s basically a bunch of bananas with just enough starch to hold them together and bake them into a crispy-topped, golden cake. It’s very dense and pudding-like - it almost reminds me of a moon cake - and isn’t overly sweet, but just sweet enough to pass as a cake and not a pile of bananas in a cake pan.
I hope I’m not under-selling this recipe, because I think it’s kind of brilliant. People like to pretend that they are using up a ton of ripe bananas making banana bread, but really they are using 1.5 bananas and a load of flour and sugar and making a banana-flavored cake. This is more like cake-flavored bananas- you’ll use almost a whole bunch of them, and what you’re getting out of it is a banana cake in its purest form.
If your sweet tooth is even more aggressive than mine (if that’s even possible), and this cake isn’t cake enough for your taste, I think some sweetened whipped cream or even some melted bittersweet chocolate drizzled across the top of your slice (or, if you’re just a total, unapologetic glutton, both) will dress this up into a pretty complex and, dare I say, fancy cake. Either way, my tooth and I are completely sold.
Banana Cake (Bánh Chuối) From Andrea Nguyen’s Into the Vietnamese Kitchen
This recipe serves 6
Ingredients 1 1/2 pounds very ripe bananas 1 egg 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled 1/4 cup whole milk 1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375°F. Oil an 8-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
Select the firmest, bruise-free banana. Set aside half of it for decorating the top of the cake. Peel the remaining half and all the remaining bananas and cut them into 1/8-inch-thick slices. Put the slices in a bowl.
In another bowl, lightly beat the egg to break it up. Beat in the butter and milk, and then pour over the bananas. Add the 1/2 cup sugar and stir gently with a spatula or wooden spoon to mix. Sift the flour directly into the bowl and continue stirring to incorporate all the flour. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Give the pan a few shakes to level the batter.
Peel and cut the reserved half into slices about 1/16 inch thick. Arrange the slices in a decorate pattern on top of the cake. Create a wide circle of overlapping slices, or place the slices randomly. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1 teaspoon sugar.
Bake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top is golden brown. Remove from the oven and put on a rack to cool completely. The cake will puff up slightly during baking and then deflate as it cools.
Run a knife around the pan sides to loosen the cake an unmold it onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges and serve.
