I'm stuck.  Staring at the computer screen.  I'm desperately trying to come up with something that is absolutely deep and thoroughly enlightening.  Trying to sit here and type away with abandon.  Focussing hard on the words flowing out of my fingers. But the reality is that this is my first day off all week.  I've got a naked 5 year old reading the words out loud as I type and singing at random intervals.  Occasionally that same five year old squeezes and kisses my arm and then bounces off with a balloon.  The laundry buzzer goes off and then Skype rings and there I am completely distracted.  I know that there is stuff in me that's waiting to come out.  I feel it in there.  Something deep like a tree root.
I would love to come up with something profound to say about community and civil involvement.  I wish that I could adequately express how disturbed I am that there was a Canada wide recall on beef patties this past week and how revolted I am that the cheap food we've all been brain washed into buying is killing us and our world.  I'd love to go on about how I feel about gated communities and fear and how our possessions have ended up defining and possessing us instead.  How ownership in it's extreme capitalist consumer based form (as we now live it) - I don't even know if that makes sense - has rendered 'my stuff' more important than your life or our planet.   I wish that I could be more eloquent in expressing my disgust that a hoodie is somehow justification for a pedestrian to become a walking target.
But there it is.  I'm stuck.  And sad.  A little blurry on the inside.  Working to muscle my focus through a zany five year old, skype and laundry.  I'll stop trying now and get to the cake.


As promised:  Banana Cake.  I'm gotten over my shame about having so many sweet recipes in a row.  Whatever.  There are some food bloggers who only post sweets and baking.  So this ain't so bad.  I also need to add by way of further justification that this recipe is delightfully 'uncakey' when it comes to dessert cakes.  This cake got me through the week.  Occasionally it became my lunch which predictably launched me into a minor sugar coma for the rest of the afternoon.  To be honest it's not a half bad way to work through the afternoon.


Oh... before I forget, this recipes makes a lot of batter so I just kind of eye-balled it and made 4 cupcakes as well as the round cake.  If you find yourself in this predicament I can tell you that what worked for me was putting those cupcakes in a box and sending them off with some friends.

Crazy Cute box courtesy the most best KT.  BFF.

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Icing adapted from The Wednesday Chef
makes 1 10 inch round cake and about 4 med/lg cupcakes

2 2/3 cup pastry flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (I use sea salt)
3 - 4 med/lg bananas, very ripe and peeled of their skins (if there is a lot of liquid then you could easily drain them for a little bit)
3 lg eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup canola oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Your favourite cream cheese icing (Look - I don't get fancy here.  It's cream cheese it's just a little dab of butter and enough icing sugar to bring it all together so that it's nice and icingy... throw in some lemon zest if you want but why mess with perfection)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease and flour either a 9x13 baking pan or a 10 inch springform pan. (this is what I used)
Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.

Whisk or mix(er) the very ripe bananas until all goopy.  Add in the eggs one at a time and continue to mix away happily.  Add in the buttermilk, oil and vanilla next and mix until well incorporated.

Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir by hand until everything is wet and mixed together.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake - for the springform pan it took about 50 - 55 minutes before a tester came out clean - for the 9x13 pan 45 - 50 minutes should do but make sure you test the middle with a cake tester.  If you make some muffins with the extra then the muffins should stay in for about 25 - 30 minutes.
Cool completely.
Ice with your favourite cream cheese icing once the cake and/or muffins is/are completely cooled.