Make Ahead

Banana & Butternut Buttermilk Cake

by:
December 11, 2009
4.4
7 Ratings
Banana & Butternut Buttermilk Cake
  • Serves about 10 big slices
Author Notes

Is it a cake, bread, loaf? I am not sure where one crosses the boundary from bread to cake....So often we refer to "Banana Bread." It is a cake in my book. A buttery, sweet satisfying, crumbly, sugar filled treat. In this recipe I combine many seasonal flavors. The spices combined with the butternut squash give a nice holiday twist to a traditional banana bread....or cake!
—Marla

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • Roasted Butternut Squash
  • 1 Butternut Squash
  • Splash Canola Oil or Cooking Spray
  • Banana & Butternut Buttermilk Cake
  • 2 1/2 cups A/P Unbleached Flour (I used 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 unbleached white A/P, use what you have on hand)
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons Baking Powder
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons Baking Soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 teaspoon Cardamom
  • 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
  • 2/3 cup Unsalted, Softened Butter
  • 1 cup Brown Sugar, Agave, Honey or Maple Syrup
  • 2 Eggs
  • 2 Medium Bananas, Mashed
  • 1/2 cup Butternut Squash, Mashed
  • 3/4 cup Buttermilk
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • Powdered Sugar for Dusting
Directions
  1. Roasted Butternut Squash
  2. Clean squash, leave skin on. Cut the top and then the bottom off. Cut the squash down the middle and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Slice squash into large chunks.
  3. Spray or lightly coat flesh with a bit of Canola oil. Spray baking pan as well. Put squash flesh side down in baking pan. Roast for about 50 minutes, until squash is very soft and golden brown.
  4. Let cool and remove the skins. Mash some squash so you have about 1/2 cup. You will have plenty of leftover squash for other recipes.
  1. Banana & Butternut Buttermilk Cake
  2. Preheat oven to 350?F Butter a cake pan, I used one 9x3 round pan. You could make smaller cakes or muffins for gifts. Adjust cooking time to accommodate pan size. The batter went about 2" up the sides of my pan, to keep baking time and temperature similar you can go smaller in size or shape, but keep the same depth of batter. Please reference baking charts to get time and temp. correct.
  3. Sift all dry ingredients together, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside.
  4. With a mixer, beat butter at medium speed until fluffy. Add sugar and beat until well blended. Add eggs to the mixture, one at a time. Add mashed bananas, squash and vanilla. Mix until combined.
  5. Alternately add 1/3 of the flour to the butter mixture, stir until just mixed. Add 1/2 the buttermilk. Repeat until all ingredients are added, ending with the flour.
  6. Pour the batter into prepared cake pan(s). Bake in the oven for about 50-55 minutes. Cake(s) are done baking when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Start testing at 50 minutes.
  7. Cool cake in pan. When it is cooled, flip it out, dust with powdered sugar and enjoy!
Tags:
Contest Entries

See what other Food52ers are saying.

Popular on Food52

1 Review

Bonny
Bonny October 23, 2010
Awesome as muffins. I made these to share at work and got tons of raves.