I usually waste about nothing when it comes to food. Even if it's dried up shriveled and looking mighty puny, I'll try to figure a way to re-constitute and use it. Now some things have to go, but I know overall I'm really frugal and resourceful when it comes to food. I think that too often, food is trashed just because it seems insignificant to throw out, like an aging banana. One banana. Sitting on the counter. A good sized banana. That's what inspired this cream cheese banana cake!
We split our time between two homes. (And, yes, I consider myself very fortunate!) Closing down each house, then heading to the other, means also planning and using up perishable foods about a week to 10 days before we're scheduled to leave. It takes some management, but the tradeoff is savings, as in lots of money. Unless perishables are really 'gone' then I'm going to find a way to use them. Thanks to my sweet friend Claudia from What's Cookin' Italian I even now have a way to use sour milk! She created a chocolate cake recipe! Growing up in the hills of West Virginia when times were tough and there's wasn't an abundance of everything, I watched my Mom do magic with food and other things 'recycling' them into something useful and/or edible. I had lush training ground for this trait. One that might be dying in today's world of quick, easy and plentiful.
Makes: 1 springform pan cake (7-9")
Preheat oven to 350
What you need:
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 Tbl. baking powder
¼ tsp. sea salt
¾ cup sugar
½ cup wheat germ
1 cup whipped cream cheese, room temperature
1 banana, mashed
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts, walnuts or almonds
2 pinches of finishing sea salt
What you do:
In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Add the salt, sugar and wheat germ and blend together.
In another bowl, put the cream cheese, banana, eggs and vanilla. Blend together on a medium speed hand mixer for about 2 minutes. Pour into the dry ingredients and blend well.
Fold in the nuts. Pour into a well-greased springform pan. Sprinkle on the finishing salt on top.
Put the pan in another pan and add water about one-third up the side of the springform pan to create a water bath. Bake for 65-75 minutes. When the top is golden brown (about 45 minutes through baking) put a doubled piece of foil loosely on top.
Remove and let the cake cool about 15 minutes before dislodging the springform wrap. Let the cake continue cooling another 20-30 minutes.
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