Simply the Best Banana Cake – Extraordinary!

Franci Mashaal is a baker extraordinaire. She brought love into a gathering of mourners and reminded everyone of how life’s simple pleasures — her banana cake — elevate the ordinary into the extraordinary. Of course we were grateful — and even more so now that we have Franci’s Simply the Best Banana Cake recipe.

Simply the Best Banana Cake

• 1/2 c butter, room temperature
• 3/4 c sugar (Franci uses 1 cup)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed (well thawed if you use frozen bananas)
• 1 t salt
• 1 t baking soda
• pinch of cinnamon
• 1 1/2 c flour
• 4 oz chocolate chips
• 4 T brown sugar (Franci uses 1/3 cup)

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar, then add the egg and the banana.

In a second bowl, combine salt, baking soda, cinnamon and flour, then add the flour mixture to the banana mixture.

Line a 10 x 4-inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Place half the batter in the loaf pan. Then sprinkle on half the chocolate chips and half the brown sugar, then the rest of the batter followed by the rest of the chocolate chips and brown sugar. 

Bake for 50-60 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. Serves 12. 

Simply the Best Banana Cake Print Ready Recipe

Final notes:

• Couldn’t resist taking a peek at this banana cake recipe  and these tips on making banana bread.
• I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. If you haven’t yet read “The Fish that Ate the Whale,” by Rich Cohen, then read it now because it’s excellent. And, it’s a true story about Sam the Banana Man.

• Pssst! Wanna try some super comfy DeadSoxy socks that fit like banana peel? Best of all they’re no-show socks so you won’t see ‘em popping out the top of your sneakers. Now that I’ve sampled, I’m ready to stock up. Or is it sock up? (Disclaimer: DeadSoxy socks were sent to Jittery Cook to review. Opinions expressed are genuine.)

• Bar none, this is the most odd music video I’ve ever witnessed — Banana Man, written by Joe Hawley, released by Tally Hall’s 2008 reissue of Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum. 

Bumbo Chumbo and the Zimbabwe Songbirds

Do you see banana man?
Hopping over on de white hot sand
Here he come with some for me
Freshly taken from banana tree
Banana man, me want a ton
Gimme double and a bonus one
Gimme more for all my friends
Dis banana flow will never end

Do you want a banana?
Peel it down and go, “Mm-mmm mm-mmm”
Do you want a banana?
Dis banana for you

Tonight we dance around de flame
Then we get to play de spirit game
Spirit names we shout out loud
Shake de thunder from de spirit cloud
All de songbirds in de tree
Chant a tune to let de spirits free
Den we see dem in de night
Spirits jumping by de firelight

Do you want a banana?
Peel it down and go, “Mm-mmm mm-mmm”
Do you want a banana?
Dis banana for you

Look you, you too uptight you know
You could laugh and kick it back it and go (whee)
But without a rhythm or a rhyme
You do not banana all de time
Fly away from city on de run
Try to make a little fun

Look you, come to de bungalow
African’t you tell me, told you so
Don’t you love de bumping of de drum
Make you shake until de bum go numb
Let de bongo play you till you drop
Dis banana never stop

Forget all your troubles and go with de flow
Forget about whatever you may never know
Like whether whatever you doing is whatever you should
And whether anything you ever do is ever anything good
And then forget about banana when it stick in your throat
And when it make you wanna bellow but you stuck in a choke
And then forget about de yellow from de beckoning man
Who make you take another one and make a mock of your plan

Bungalay, bungalow
Make up your mind and tell me no
Well it’s nine o’clock and it’s getting dark
And the sun is falling from the sky
I’ve never left so early
And you may wonder why

Tomorrow morning on de plane
No banana make you go insane
Floating back to busy town
No banana make you want to frown

Do you want a banana? (Do you want a banana?)
Peel it down and go, “Mm-mmm mm-mmm”
Do you want a banana?
Dis banana for you