I've found about half a zillion banana bread recipes, but no banana cakes that would be moist but firm enough to be picked up and dipped in a cold chocolate soup. Do you have one?

Thanks.

By W.DeBord on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 07:11 am: Edit

You have to be kidding, your ready to serve chocolate soup but you don't have a great banana cake recipe? Every housewife in the mid-west has one ... this is baking 101.

EVERY banana cake (except one, that remains cake like) recipe I've ever tried (or even tasted from someone else) turned into a moist dense cake if not immediately, then over night after refridgeration. I'm sorry Joal I don't think you've actually made the effort to bake one of those zillion recipes.

Perhaps your looking in the wrong cookbooks....for a good banana cake don't search thru modern books like Grand Finales. Open up Pillsbury, Betty Crocker....homemaker cookbooks will have what you need.

By Joal on Wednesday, January 24, 2001 - 08:44 pm: Edit

You've hit the nail on the head. Neither the bread nor cake recipes I've tried are light and firm enough (without turning too moist) to allow dipping in cold chocolate soup. Do you have a better recipe? P.S. I started making banana bread in 1974.

By W.DeBord on Thursday, January 25, 2001 - 08:26 am: Edit

I'm sorry, are you saying they aren't firm enough? Or you want firmness with-out moisture?

I think your asking for the impossible. A good banana cake turns firm and moist becoming denser once it's refridgerated. It's like a pound cake and that's exactly what you'll need to dip. My recipe for a light banana cake wouldn't be firm enough to dip, ever.

If your saying it's too dense and moist the only solution is to not refridgerate it or bake it daily. Because any lighter cake won't be firm enough to dip.

I feel dumb here...I don't seem to understand what you mean>?

By Joal on Thursday, January 25, 2001 - 05:21 pm: Edit

Dear WD--Thanks for your questions. I'm looking for a banana cake light enough to dip (thus not too dense) but moist enough to taste good and hold together. It's a confusing concept, but we had it at a Paris restaurant a few weeks ago and it was just perfect. Theirs was a light cake with small chucks of banana. No luck getting their recipe.

And for goodness sake--don't feel dumb. I think you've been very helpful--we didn't think about the effect of refrigeration. In retrospect the Parisian version did taste very, very fresh and probably was baked that day. Do you have a recipe that would be OK for what we want if it's made every day? Or does anyone reading this?

Maybe we just need to go to Paris again soon...