Sunday, March 30, 2008

Easter Heirloom Recipe


In keeping with the post-things-way-after-the-fact trend, here is a fabulous dessert I made for Easter.

Every family has food with history, this banana cake is filled with family lore. As the story goes, my grandma made this cake for special family functions, and it was everybody's favorite. UNTIL the fateful day when only one piece of the cake remained--but more than one person desired it. Apparently an argument broke out over who was to get the last piece of coveted cake. Amidst the furor, my grandma declared her disgust for the whole matter and determined Never to Bake the Cake Again. And she never did.

I heard this story a few times growing up, but didn't realize until collecting recipes for a wedding gift for my sister, that my mom had (years ago) obtained a copy of the recipe from one of my aunts. I couldn't wait for the perfect family gathering to flex my fledgling baking skillz and try this puppy out.

Unfortunately (for me) the recipe was a bit cryptic on some key measurements. This lead to one failed egg cake recipe (the second run I made a buttermilk cake base with a recipe from the always perfect 'joy of cooking' cookbook). And a need to 'wing it' for one of the icing recipes. But in the end, I found success.

Without divulging this coveted family recipe I will say this:
  • The cake was (supposed to be) an egg cake
  • The filling included banana slices and a powdered sugar frosting
  • The outer icing was a pan simmered caramel
According to my dad the cake was "almost perfect", but some elusive and undescribable taste was missing. Regardless, the cake was delicious, and 'almost perfect' is good enough for me!

3 comments:

Blanchardlawn said...

I think I better clarify that this was Grandma F's recipe. Grandma G would have been thrilled if people were fighting over her cake!

Hygeian Stew said...

too true

Wilmaryad said...

Oh MY! That's one heck of a delight!