Snow Food - Gone Bananas: Recipe

The eve of the January '15 "blizzard," found me in the kitchen. Not unlike millions of others who love to cook during cold winter storms, I decided to bake something with the three extremely ripe bananas I had in the house that no one would eat.

I doctored up a recipe I found by adding a layer of crumble and by pouring a cinnamon glaze on top that has now seeped into the cake -a few hours later - making it unbelievably moist and rich with flavor. I don't really like bananas all that much - I use them in my smoothies, mostly, and I eat them if I am hungry and stuck for something nutritious. However, I would eat this entire cake, if not for the fact that one piece is worth seven Weight Watcher points (as per the Weight Watchers Recipe Builder tool).

So...I'll go shovel snow for a while and eat a piece of cake when I come back in!

Banana Crumb Cake with Cinnamon Glaze

Serves 24

Cake

2 cups All-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 eggs

3 medium overripe bananas, mashed

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

Crumbs

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Cinnamon Glaze

1 1/2 cup sifted confectioner's sugar

3 tablespoons whole milk

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 9x13 pan.

Mix together the 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of sugar, 2 tsp of baking soda, salt and cinnamon and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter together for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy in color and texture. Next, add in the eggs, one at a time and before adding the next one, be sure to fully incorporate the egg into the mixture. Using a spatula, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl often to loosen the mixture that gets stuck.

Next, add in the vanilla and mashed banana. Mix gently. In alternating turns, mix in 1/2 of the flour mixture and the sour cream - ending with flour. Do not overbeat.

Pour 1/2 of the batter into the prepared pan. 

In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients for the crumbs. Pour in the melted butter and mix well using your hands to form crumbs. Sprinkle over the 1/2 mixture in the pan. Cover crumbs with remaining 1/2 batter and using an off-set spatula, gently spread batter to the edges.

Bake cake for about 35 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow cake to cool for about 45 minutes.

To make the glaze: put confectioner's sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and with a whisk mix in the milk, one tablespoon at a time. You may not need the last tablespoon - or or may not need the entire amount. Mix to your desired consistency and pour of the cake. Using a spatula, spread glaze over cake to the edges. Allow glaze to set about 1/2 hour...or not!