Hello my long lost friends out there in dishblogland! I have missed you so. Maybe you were wondering where I was, or what really happened to me? Well, let me tell you what! I’ve been workin like a dawg. Not like my Golden Retriever Ecko, mind you, whose life consists of eating carrots, chewing bones, sleeping, begging for saltines and walking when her owner gets off her duff.

No. I’ve been working like a Border Collie, pacing around, shouting orders, growling and pretty much taking the position of the crabby, bossy girl who snarls a lot. Why? Because in the summer it is catering season, and more specifically wedding season. Very, very busy! So, so much work, on top of the cafe and all. But my staff is still speaking to me. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger!

But now it is September, so I can talk. About cake. We are changing the web site for the restaurant to give folks a good glimpse of what we really, really like to make. Cake. We make all different kinds, and we even make wedding cakes now (you can kind of see this one)! But not with fondant. I don’t think I like something that should be covered with sweet, swirled frosting to look so perfect and smooth. Nope. I want to see knifemarks.

I want to savor the look of a cake before it is cut, anticipating the moistness of the large slice I will get before I get to eat it forkful by lovely forkful. With a large glass of ice cold whole milk. That, my friends, is living. The proof is in the cake. That life is good, that people’s mood can be changed by something so simple as a slice of cake. Or a cupcake. But that is for another day!

One of the first cakes I ever ate was one my mother made called Banana Snack Cake. She made it in an aluminum 9×13x2 inch pan, the kind that had the plastic lid, remember? So you could take it somewhere, like a party or to a neighbor’s house two doors down. Only we did not know where our lid went. I think I may have taken it into the garden to make my own version of cake (mud) and left it out there with dandelion decorations on top. Sorry, mom. Wait, we were in Canada. Soory, Mom! The recipe came from a cookbook from our church, submitted by Mary Santana….I wonder if she is still alive? When my mother made this cake the whole house was perfumed with banananess, so much so that even our braids smelled like bananas! She would make a simple cream cheese frosting, swirl it on with a knife, and cut it into squares. We each got to have one square per day until it was gone. The pieces we far too small, I thought to myself, vowing to make this cake into a round layer cake when I grew up. More cake, more frosting, and more like those pictures in the cookbooks I thumbed through while snacking on my square.

So. Here it is. A lovely rendition of banana deliciousness. You will be so satisfied when you cut the first slice, slip your fork through the two layers, and lift it to your mouth. Promise. Oh yeah. You’re welcome.

Mom’s Banana Cake

Cream till fluffy and yellow:

1/2 cup room temperature butter (1 stick)

1 cup sugar

Add and beat:

2 beaten eggs

3 mashed bananas

Add and mix till incorporated:

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 heaping tablespoons sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8 inch round pans with butter and flour, or spray with cooking spray and line with parchment. Or butter and flour a 9×13x2 inc pan or spray and line that….Then, when you have your batter made, divide evenly between the two rounds, or use all of it in the rectangular pan. Bake for 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with no wet batter stuck to it. You may need to bake a little longer. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes, then release from the pan(s) to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pound room temperature cream cheese

3/4 pound salted sweet cream butter (3 sticks)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/5 pounds powered sugar, sifted

In a mixer add the butter and cream cheese. Beat until fluffy and light. Add the vanilla. Beat again. Sift the sugar into the mixer bowl and cover the edges with plastic wrap to keep the sugar from flying out if using a stand mixer. If mixing by hand add a cup at a time, mixing in between. Beat until fluffy. Frost both layers and chill seperately for 30 minutes. Place one layer on top of the other. Cut into 12 or 16 slices. Eat at room temperature. Enjoy!!!