I never know what to do with bananas that get too ripe. Some people say to 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. I decided to make up a new recipe to use some of the bananas. 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

Cake Batter
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3 cups granulated sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
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
Struesel (recipe below)
Glaze (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a Bundt pan. Add butter to a mixing bowl of a stand mixer. 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. Beat 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 (recipe below) over top of 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 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 completely cooled, remove plastic wrap and place cake on a serving plate. Drizzle glaze (recipe below) on top.

Brown Sugar Streusel
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup pecan pieces (Toasted in an 350ºF oven for 3-5 minutes)

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 enough to not run down the sides of the cake and pool on the plate but thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle glaze on top of cooled cake.