Wednesday, November 16, 2011

blogiversary and banana cream tuxedo cake


I totally missed my one year blogiversary.  My very first post was October 5th of last year, and I totally forgot about it until I suddenly realized one day in November that I had missed it!

To celebrate, I decided to recreate a cake that I had eaten at a birthday party a few months ago.  It was a banana cream cake - two layers of moist banana cake, filled with a thick layer of pastry cream, and covered with whipped cream.  And it was delicious!  To take it one step further, I wanted to decorate it like this tuxedo cake at Annie's Eats, with a gorgeous ganache glaze dripping down the sides.


For the cake I initially considered using my mom's banana bread recipe, which I love because it's so easy and very moist and delicious.  But I thought perhaps I should choose a recipe intended for cake, since i wanted a cake-like fluffy texture.  So I chose a recipe from David Lebovitz's book "Ready for Dessert".  It called for ingredients that I would never think to pair with bananas, including cinnamon and espresso!  I was curious to see how the combination would taste.


Once the cake was baked and cooled, I made a batch of pastry cream, using the recipe from my boston cream pie inspired cake.  After letting the pastry cream cool in the fridge, I piped a thick layer on top of a layer of banana cake, and returned it to the fridge to let it set.  When I though enough time had passed, I placed the second layer of banana cake on top, and placed it back in the fridge while I prepared the whipped cream frosting.

When I was ready to decorate the cake, I opened the fridge, and gasped when I saw that the pastry cream was oozing and dripping down the sides of the cake.  Not pretty.  I guess I didn't let it set enough.  But I tried not to freak out, and just used a spatula to scrape off the excess pastry cream and dump it in the sink.  What a waste.  At least there was still a thin layer of pastry cream in between the two cakes!


After covering my cake with whipped cream and piping a shell border on the bottom, I returned it to the fridge and then began to make my ganache glaze.  I used an Ina Garten recipe, and it was so simple to make - just semisweet chocolate, heavy cream!  I didn't want the glaze to melt the whipped cream on my cake, so I waited for it to come to room temperature first.  But perhaps I waited too long, because by the time I spread it over my cake, it wasn't drippy enough to ooze down the sides!


The next time I make this, I think I'd change a few things - a) I'd use my mom's banana bread recipe, as it is still my favorite; b) I'd lighten the pastry cream with whipped cream, which might help it from oozing out the sides; c) I'd spread the ganache when it's warm and still slightly runny.  But the cake still ended up tasting great, and I especially loved the flavor combination of all the components!  Bananas, chocolate, and cream - YUM!  Perfect for a blogiversary! :)


22 comments:

  1. I think it looks absolutely lovely - happy blogiversary! Also, I've been thinking about ganache a lot lately. I don't know why. And now I really, really want something ganachey.

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  2. Happy blogoversary! The tuxedo form of decorating a cake is a stunning choice and you cake does look awesome. Love the last picture showing the inside. Another reminder that I need to work on improving my layer cakes. You did bring together some wonderful flavor components in this cake-delicious.

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  3. Your blogoversary....!!! Congratulations, and celebrate it with this wonderful cake is an excellent idea. I like banana cake as well as pastry cream and chocolate. This is an excelent recipe.

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  4. Happy Blogoversary! The cake is beautiful, the flavor combination sounds delicious. I did once read on another blog where the baker piped a border on the first cake layer with frosting before filling with pudding/pastry cream type fillings so that it does not ooze out when assembling.

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  5. Wow. This seriously looks SO amazing. I love banana so it would be perfect! :D

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  6. Happy blogiversary! Love all of your creations!

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  7. Happy Blogiversary! This cake sounds amazing, love the flavors.

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  8. brilliantly frosted! the banana cream is just yum...

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  9. Oh my, cinnamon and espresso IN the cake. Me likey! Happy Blogiversary too!!!

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  10. The cake still looks great! If you want to make sure your filling doesn't spill out, pipe a border of buttercream around the edges of the cake and then fill with pastry cream. It creates a barrier for the pastry cream, because no matter how long you chill it for, the pastry cream won't set on its own. And glazing ganache is fickle, you have to spread it pretty much right away, because the longer you wait, the thicker it will get. You can always heat it up just a little if you think it's too thick. Hope that helps! And I don't like bananas but this cake looks delicious.

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  11. Thanks everyone for your awesome comments! And thanks for celebrating with me! :) So happy you all are reading the blog!!!

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  12. @Bites of Sweetness - thank you! and, that's a GREAT idea to pipe a border of frosting before filling with pastry cream! i will definitely do that next time.

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  13. Happy Blogaversary! This tuxedo cake is perfect for the occasion, it looks amazing!

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  14. I just love it! Chocolate cover looks fantastic.
    Happy Blogiversary!

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  15. happy blogiversary - i don't love baking, so i would love to be your taste tester...

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  16. Happy Blogiversary! If this cake were sitting in my kitchen, I would have already eaten all the ganache off the top with a spoon. It looks delicious.

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  17. @Carole - sure, thanks for the link!

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  18. thanks for linking in. Cheers

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