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Prep time
20 minutes
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Cook time
1 hour 5 minutes
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Serves
12
Author Notes
Excerpted with permission from Dorie Greenspan's Everyday Dorie:
’Twas the night before a cross-country flight and all through the kitchen I was picking up leftovers and deciding what I should toss, when my husband, spying mottle-skinned bananas, said, “You could make a banana cake to take on the plane.” Yeah, I could, but we’d set the alarm for 3:30 a.m. and I had bed, not baking, in mind. Still, I turned on the oven, pulled out the last of the eggs, measured the flour and set to work, realizing that this cake was also a good opportunity to finish up the yogurt and the half cup of coconut that was in the cupboard.
In case you’re wondering, this clear-the-fridge cake was great on the plane and for days after.
A word on the butter and coconut oil:
You can make this cake with all butter, if you’d like, but given that the cake has coconut in it, and that bananas and coconut are such a good combo, I think it’s nice to use some coconut oil too.
And a word on icing:
Icing a Bundt cake takes an everyday cake to a party. Ice the cake if you don’t expect to be keeping it for long. If you’d like a more generous coating of icing, increase the amount of confectioners’ sugar and add as much additional milk as needed to get the right texture. —Dorie Greenspan
Test Kitchen Notes
Featured in: Dorie Greenspan's Easy Trick for Perfectly Seasoned Roast Vegetables Every Time
Excerpted from Everyday Dorie © 2018 by Dorie Greenspan. Photography © 2018 by Ellen Silverman. Reproduced by permission of Rux Martin Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved. —The Editors
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Ingredients
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For the cake
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3 cups
(360 grams) all-purpose flour
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2 teaspoons
baking soda
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1/2 teaspoon
freshly grated nutmeg
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8 tablespoons
(1 stick; 4 ounces; 113 grams) unsalted butter, cut into chunks, at room temperature
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1/2 cup
(113 grams) coconut oil, at room temperature, or another stick (113 grams) butter
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1 cup
(200 grams) sugar
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1 cup
(200 grams) packed light brown sugar
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1/2 teaspoon
fine sea salt
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2
large eggs, at room temperature
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1 tablespoon
dark rum (optional)
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1 tablespoon
pure vanilla extract
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3
to 4 ripe bananas, mashed to a puree (about 1 1/2 cups; 360 ml)
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1 cup
(240 ml) plain yogurt (Greek or regular)
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3 ounces
84 grams) chocolate (milk, semisweet or bittersweet), finely chopped
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1/2 cup
(60 grams) sweetened flake coconut
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For the icing (optional)
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3/4 cup
(90 grams) confectioners’ sugar 1 to 11⁄2 tablespoons milk
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1 handful
sweetened flake coconut, toasted, for sprinkling (optional)
Directions
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Center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees F. Generously butter a Bundt pan, dust with flour and tap out the excess (or coat with baker’s spray). Do this even if your pan is nonstick.
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Whisk together the flour, baking soda and nutmeg.
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Working in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter, coconut oil, if you’re using it, both sugars and the salt together at medium speed for 3 minutes, or until well blended, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add the eggs one by one, beating for 1 minute after each egg goes in, then beat in the rum, if you’re using it, and the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low, beat in the mashed bananas; don’t worry about how curdled the batter looks.
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Still working on low, add half of the flour mixture. When it’s almost incorporated, beat in all of the yogurt, and when that is almost in, add the rest of the our and mix until blended. Switch to a flexible spatula, scrape down the bowl and mix in the chocolate and coconut.
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Spoon the batter into the pan, smoothing the top and swiveling the pan from side to side to even the batter and get it into all of the pan’s curves.
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Bake for 65 to 75 minutes, until the top is brown and the sides of the cake pull away from the pan when gently nudged; a skewer inserted into the center of the cake will come out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and let it rest for about 5 minutes, then unmold it onto the rack. Let cool to room temperature. If you have patience, wrap the cake once it cools and let it “ripen” overnight.
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To ice the cake (optional): Put the confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon milk. Add more milk if necessary, a drop at a time, stir- ring until you have an icing that falls easily from the tip of the spoon.
Drizzle the icing over the cake and sprinkle over some toasted coconut, if desired. Let the cake sit for at least 20 minutes, or until the icing is set, before you serve or store the cake.
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Storing: Covered, the cake will keep for up to 5 days at room temperature. Without the icing, it can be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months.
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Working ahead: I think the taste and texture of this cake are better after an overnight rest.
With the publication her 14th book, Baking with Dorie, New York Times bestselling author Dorie Greenspan marks her thirtieth anniversary as a cookbook author. She has won five James Beard Awards for her cookbooks and journalism and was inducted into the Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. A columnist for the New York Times Magazine and the author of the xoxoDorie newsletter on Bulletin, Dorie was recently awarded an Order of Agricultural Merit from the French government for her outstanding writing on the foods of that country. She lives in New York City, Westbrook, Connecticut, and Paris. You can find Dorie on Instagram, Facebook, Bulletin and her website,
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