This banana pecan cake entered my life thanks to one of the countless blessings this blog has brought to my life, which is to have met and become friends with quite a few cookbook authors.
Cookbook authors are delicious people to be around, naturally, and if I manage to fox my way into their house they may actually cook for me, but the invaluable bonus is that, once I’ve come to know and trust them, once I’ve witnessed how exacting they are, and how much pressure they submit themselves to in order to produce bulletproof recipes, I feel I can use their cookbooks with blind faith. I know I’m in good hands, and things had better work out because I know where they live.
One of my cookbook-writing friends is Marianne Magnier-Moreno, whom I met almost years and years ago at Chocolate & Zucchini’s second anniversary party, and who wears many hats: recipe writer, journalist, translator, cheesecake maker, young mother, and significant other to a gifted painter.
The crumb is moist and fluffy, the flavors multi-dimensional, and the overall sweetness is moderate, which leaves ample room for the maple glaze to step in and do its thing.
Marianne has recently released (and received an award for) a book called Le Grand Manuel du cuisinier that could actually be seen as an epic follow-up to another wonderful one she had written years before, called Mon Cours de cuisine pâtissier, a baking manual that offers seventy recipes with step-by-step pictures and detailed instructions. Step-by-step photography is nothing new in the world of cookbooks, but I’ve always thought it could make a book look dull. Not so here, where the shot-from-the-sky visuals and tasteful styling make each double an aesthetic treat.
My dear friend’s banana pecan cake
Among the winning recipes in that book is one for banana pecan cake, which I often bake when I have über-ripe bananas to use, and top with a maple glaze that’s also one of Marianne’s recipes.
I actually do not make the cake quite as written: I substitute almond butter for part of the butter in the printed recipe, and maple syrup for part of the sugar. I also lower the amount of flour, and add a little amber rum, and use pecans in place of Marianne’s walnuts.
Now, I know I just stated that I wanted to feel I could follow a cookbook’s directions with my eyes closed, but let me explain: I like to bake and cook things my own way, but in order to tweak a recipe, I need it to be rock-solid, otherwise it might not hold up to the tweaking.
But this banana pecan cake does, and brilliantly so. The crumb is moist and fluffy, the flavors multi-dimensional, and the overall sweetness is moderate, which leaves ample room for the maple glaze to step in and do its thing.
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Ingredients
- 80 grams (3/4 cup) pecans, toasted (see note) and roughly chopped
- 280 grams (2 1/3 cups) all-purpose flour (I use the French T65)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 60 grams (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 80 grams (3 level tablespoons) whole almond butter (unsalted and made from whole, unblanched almonds)
- 100 grams (1/2 cup) unrefined cane sugar
- 40 grams (2 tablespoons) maple syrup (substitute cane syrup or honey)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon amber rum
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 4 ripe bananas, about 600 grams (1⅓ pounds) weighed with skin, peeled
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F) and grease a 24-cm (9½-inch) savarin or ring mold, a loaf pan, or a simple 20-cm (8-inch) round cake pan. (Alternatively, you can use muffin tins; the recipe will yield about 18.)
- In a medium bowl, combine the pecans, flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a food processor, mix the butter and almond butter until creamy. Add the sugar, syrup, vanilla, and rum, and mix until fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, mixing well after each addition.
- Mash the bananas with a fork and fold them into the batter.
- Add the dry ingredients to the batter and use a spatula to combine, gently lifting the batter and folding it over itself until no trace of flour remains; don't overmix.
- Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes (25 minutes for muffins), until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let the pan rest on a rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife or a thin spatula all around the cake to loosen, then remove from the pan and transfer to the rack to cool.
- Let cool for 30 to 40 minutes before glazing (see glaze recipe below), and serve slightly warm, or at room temperature.
Notes
- When I need to toast nuts for this sort of cake recipe, I spread the nuts in a baking dish and place the dish in the oven when it's almost preheated, and check it after 5 minutes, or as soon as I start to smell the nuts.
- Recipe adapted from Marianne Magnier-Moreno's La Pâtisserie.
Have you tried this? Share your pics on Instagram!
Please tag your pictures with #cnzrecipes. I'll share my favorites!
Ingredients
- 50 grams (6 level tablespoons) confectioner's sugar
- 40 grams (2 tablespoons) grade B maple syrup
Instructions
- Sift the sugar into a small bow.
- Pour in the maple syrup, and whisk vigorously with a fork until smooth.
- Spoon over the cake and spread with an icing spatula or the back of the spoon.
Notes
- This makes enough to coat the top of the cake above thinly. If you prefer a more generous layer of icing, double the recipe.
- Recipe adapted from Marianne Magnier-Moreno's La Pâtisserie.
This post was first published in June 2008 and updated in January 2016.
