Petit Banana Cakes


A quick recipe to make you a hit at your next brunch, picnic, or morning coffee with friends, with your kids when they walk in the door after school, or the donation to a bake sale. I adapted a recipe from a fellow personal chef - Chef Leslee of the Daily Gourmet in the Boston area.
Petit Banana Cakes take the humble banana bread to a new level. I prepared the recipe in a large baking sheet, added a drizzle of ganache and VIOLA!!! An impressive presentation with a minimum amount of work.

Get your apron on and impress your friends and family!

Petit Banana Cakes

makes about 60 cakes with some leftovers for the cook

2 sticks unsalted butter -- softened
2 extra large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
6 very ripe bananas
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups flour - I used white whole wheat for a nutty taste
2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
4 - 6 tablespoons half and half

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 12 x 17 inch baking sheet with cooking spray and line with parchment paper. Set aside.

In large mixing bowl, combine butter, egg and sugars. Add bananas, breaking up and pressing against side of bowl. Stir in vanilla. Combine flour and baking soda. Add to banana batter.

Spread batter into prepared baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes. Tent with foil if the cake is getting too dark.

Remove from oven and let cool. Remove from baking sheet and cut into 1 inch by 3 inch pieces.

For ganache, melt chocolate and half and half in a small saucepan. Watch closely so the chocolate doesn't scorch. Add enough half and half to make a good drizzle consistency of the ganache. Let cool slightly. Put ganache in a ziploc bag. Trim off a small corner of the bag and drizzle ganache over the petit cakes.

12 comments:

Robin said...

These look fab! My middle guy loves banana bread but never thought to drizzle with ganache. He may love me even more now!

PheMom said...

Great job! This looks really yummy.

My Sweet & Saucy said...

Nice job on making something so homey into an elegant bite! I love miniatures of anythings!

Anonymous said...

these look too good. i would eat a great many of them.

Deborah said...

These look fantastic! And a wonderful change up from banana bread.

Leah said...

My oldest hates nearly everything but the one thing he ALWAYS eats is banana cake...I'll give yours a try! They're cute too. ;-) Leah

Anonymous said...

yum. that looks really good. i love banana and chocolate together.

Chef Erik said...

Those look super duper yummy. All I need is a few of those and some chocolate soy milk and I'm set!

amycaseycooks said...

robin sue - these disappeared faster than I could make them.

phemom - thanks - i like simple things that look fancy.

my sweet & saucy - i love mini everything. they take more work, but they are so fun to eat.

michelle - we did eat a great many of them. the recipe makes a bunch so that was good.

deborah - i am now going to adapt some of my other similar quick bread recipes. stay tuned.

leah - cute and fun to eat - but I ate way too many b/c they are small. I figure you have to eat about 4 to equal 1 piece of banana bread.

sweetand savory - i usually put cc chips in my banana muffins - these just look a little fancier.

chef erick - milk is a must!!

Tarah at Genesis of a Cook said...

That looks wonderful. I love the drizzle. Makes it look so beautiful!

amycaseycooks said...

tarah - I have been drizzling everything lately - pumpkin bread, zucchini bread. Thanks for the compliments.

Anonymous said...

These were amazing! So moist and tasty. Thanks for the recipe!