I never know what to do with too ripe bananas. Some people put them in the freezer and save them to make banana bread but you can only give away so much banana bread before people start running. Maybe people won’t run away if they see me coming with this pound cake!

Oh and I almost forgot to tell you how good the streusel layer is. It makes a yummy tunnel right in the middle of the pound cake. Mmmm…

Banana Streusel Pound Cake
makes 1 bundt cake

Cake Batter
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3 cups granulated sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
6 large eggs
4 ripe bananas (with lots of speckles)
3 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon iodized salt

Grease and flour Bundt pan. With a mixer set on medium speed beat butter for 2 minutes. Add sugar and beat 5 minutes more scraping down bowl with a rubber spatula halfway through the time. Add vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating just until the yellow disappears. Massage bananas in the peel until mushy then remove peel and add to batter. Mix until incorporated. Stir flour, baking powder and salt together. Reduce mixer speed to low and add half of the flour. Scrape down the bowl and add the other half of the flour. Scrape down the bowl again and mix briefly to make sure everything is incorporated.

Pour half of batter into the Bundt pan. Evenly spread streusel over the top of the cake batter. Pour the other half of the batter on top of the streusel and spread evenly with a rubber spatula. Take a plastic knife and make 8 crescent shape cuts in the batter from the middle of the pan to the outside of the pan.

Bake 350 F for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. To prevent cake from becoming too brown, cover the top of the cake with foil after 30 minutes baking time. Remove cake from oven and set the timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes remove cake from pan and wrap in plastic wrap. After cake has cooled, remove plastic wrap and place cake on a serving plate. Drizzle glaze on top.

Brown Sugar Streusel
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup pecan pieces

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl with a fork.

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
1 to 3 tablespoons of milk

Sift powdered sugar and place in a medium bowl. Pour in vanilla extract and butter flavoring. Start with 1 tablespoon of milk then add more to achieve a consistency that is thick. Drizzle glaze on top of cooled cake.

Published in The News and Neighbor on March 7, 2015