Picture Perfect Cooking

Below is the next installment of the Picture Perfect Cooking-Southern Plate Project for your enjoyment.  I really hope you try this little snack cake because it was so easy and oh-so-good! The weekend that I made it I had another dessert planned, but I realized that I had forgotten to get one crucial ingredient so I had to change horses midstream, so to speak.  It’s really hard to make a lemon cake without lemons!  Oops!

I went searching for a substitute for which I had all of the ingredients and found this little gem.  We love bananas and the flavor of this is awesome!  It makes a great dessert, but also makes a darn good breakfast with some orange juice or coffee on the side.

For the cake:

3 bananas, peeled

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine

1 cup milk

1 cup chopped nuts, optional (I used pecans.)

2 cups self-rising flour

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the crumb topping:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour (any kind)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare two 8×8” baking pans.  Place the bananas in the bowl of a mixer and add the sugar.  Mix until the bananas are liquefied.

Add the butter and mix until creamed together.  Add the remaining cake ingredients and blend well.

In a separate bowl, combine all of the topping ingredients and blend together until crumbly.  I used my hands to do this, but you can also use a long-tined fork.

Pour one quarter of the batter into each pan and top with one quarter of the crumb mixture.  Repeat this step with remaining batter and crumbs.  Bake for 45 minutes to one hour until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Serve from the pan.