If you love dense, moist, flavorful cakes, this one’s for you! Because it’s chockfull of bananas (I used 5 large bananas, total) you can serve it with a glass of milk and call it breakfast!
Cake:
3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
2 T. cinnamon
3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla
1 8-oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 cup chopped pecans
2 1/2 cups chopped bananas
Banana Glaze:
3 T. butter, softened
1/2 banana, mashed
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
Preheat the oven to 350º and grease/spray a 9” x 13” baking pan. In a large bowl, combine the flour, soda, salt, sugar, and cinnamon. With a fork or spoon, stir in the eggs and oil, just until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in the vanilla, pineapple, pecans, and bananas. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40-50 minutes, until center of cake is firm and a toothpick comes out clean. Gently pierce the cake surface with a fork in several places.
When cake is nearly done, combine the glaze ingredients in a small bowl and mix until smooth. (I was glad I had a hand mixer for this part.) Frost cake while hot from the oven, spreading the glaze that flows toward the edges back onto the center so it will soak in. Cool completely. Freezes well.
Kitchen Hint: When I had chopped the bananas into a measuring cup, I mashed them a bit with a fork so they would incorporate into the batter—totally mashing them would work fine, as well.
Another Hint: If a regular fork is tearing up the hot cake surface, try using a meat fork.