I’ve had a serious hankering to bake lately, probably due to everyone’s lovely blog posts ….and maybe also to temperatures in the tens. This weekend I made some yummy banana nut bread from my mom’s recipe.

In addition to my two bread pans, I scooped some batter into these heart shaped foil tins so I could give individual portions to some friends. You can find them near the cupcake wrappers at the grocery store.

If you’re ever baking a cake that you won’t get to eat until the specific occasion, fill one of  these shapes, or even a cupcake wrapper, and  you can make yourself a cupcake! That way you can taste the cake beforehand…you know, to make sure it’s okay. Wink, wink. No one will notice that your cake is one cupcake short of batter. My sister Ann taught me that!

Banana Cake

1/2 c. butter
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 -3 very ripe bananas (you can always freeze your gross brown bananas and use them for this. be sure to peel them before freezing)
1/2 c. sour cream or yogurt
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 c. chopped pecans (more or less)

Cream the butter and sugar together. You should taste it at this point, because butter+ sugar= best tasting thing ever. Next, beat in the eggs one at a time. Add bananas and sour cream. Sift remaining ingredients together (if you don’t have a sifter, just be sure to stir really well) and add to the mix. Once the batter is well stirred, add the pecans (if using).

Now, my recipie says to pour it into a buttered and floured (very important- it will stick!) 9″ tube pan. I have no idea what that is, so I use one 4 x 8 ish bread pan and one that’s slightly smaller. Bake at 350 until golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes, then turn out on a cooling rack.

It’s delicious, I promise!