Grandpa's Banana Cake

This afternoon, I stumbled upon a pile of overly ripe bananas already beginning to issue a siren song to all fruit flies within a five mile radius. As I pondered the integrity of the banana peels (would they make it to the garbage can intact?), I had a flashback to my grandparents' kitchen. My grandpa had an extreme "liking" for banana cake. My grandma had a taste for overly ripe bananas. The scenario would play out something like this. My grandpa would hide some bananas, hoping against all hopes, that they would last long enough to rot into acceptable banana cake material. Just about the time they were approaching banana cake nirvana, my grandma would find his stash and snatch them back from the brink of certain "cake-hood". And round and round it went; grandpa hiding the bananas and grandma eating them. When we all were fortunate enough to reap the rewards of grandpa's crafty banana stashing, he would bake the most divine banana cake ever.

This afternoon, I decided it was time to remake grandpa's recipe into something I could eat again. With lots of help from my kids (see the bits of mashed banana in my hair), we recreated a family favorite.

1/2 cup Crisco Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup SO Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk

1 tsp white vinegar

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

2 mashed bananas

Combine vinegar with coconut milk and set aside.

Cream Crisco, sugar applesauce, and vanilla.

Mix in salt and baking soda, distributing thoroughly.

Add mashed bananas and vinegar/coconut milk mixture and stir.

Stir in the flour until completely combined.

Bake at 350 in a well greased pan; 30 mins for a 9 x 13; 40 mins for a Bundt.

Invert immediately and cool.

This cake is delicious warm from the oven, cooled, with powdered sugar or a glaze. Cream cheese frosting (vegan cream cheese, of course) is also a decadent addition to this dense, moist cake.

Ruth's Cherry Pudding

Ruth was the vivacious mother of three, grandmother of ten, my grandma. She was a teacher, an avid reader, a phenomenal baker. The following recipe is adapted from my childhood memories of summer baking sessions, sans air-conditioning, with grandma.

The term "pudding" is something of a misnomer. This dessert is not a creamy, custard-like concoction, but a light, moist cake laced with luscious fruit. This recipe is incredibly versatile and I will include several variations.

1 cup sugar (DIVIDED)

8 T Crisco Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening (DIVIDED)

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup SO Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk

2 t baking powder

1 cup flour

1 t vanilla extract

1/2 t almond extract

1 quart (4 cups) cherries

Heat the oven to 375 and grease a large, oven safe bowl.

Cream 1/2 cup sugar with 6 T Crisco in the greased bowl.

Add applesauce, coconut milk, vanilla and almond extracts and mix thoroughly.

Mix in the baking powder and distribute throughout the batter before adding flour.

In a sauce pan heat 1 quart cherries, 2 T Crisco, and 1/2 cup sugar until it reaches a slow boil.

Stir for five minutes and then pour the boiling mixture over the batter.

The cake will bake up through the fruit but remain moist.

Bake for 45-55 mins.

Notes for variations:

If fresh or frozen cherries are used, follow the fruit instruction above.

If the fruit is canned and already in a syrup based juice, omit the sugar and merely heat the fruit and Crisco.

Peaches are perfect for this recipe as well. Fresh peaches are incredible in this dessert, but canned peaches substitute well. With fresh peaches, I slice the fruit, toss it with the 1/2 cup sugar, and allow it to sit for an hour. I then add the melted Crisco in addition to upping the almond extract to 1 t.

Tonight, I used a mixture of frozen blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and cherries (see the picture) and the "pudding" would have made my grandma smile.