Species 013: Banana Layer Cake with Chocolate Ganache Filling & Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream
I don’t mean to show my cards here, but I am a complete social media dunce and am not so by accident. Social media and I never really clicked—I had a Facebook for a few years in high school because I needed one for my lacrosse team, decided that I hated what it brought out in me, quit in a huff, proceeded to be an admittedly uppity social-media-antagonist, and vowed never to join another social media platform again. But with a little bit of age and experience, I’ve come to realize that the world is not so black and white, and extreme judgements like the one I made in high school are almost always based on an oversimplified picture.
For all my stubborn, priggish notions about social media, I know deep down that there is something to be said for entering your email, creating a password, and, within minutes, finding a community of people that you identify with, or re-connecting with old friends you lost touch with, or being exposed to other people’s thoughts and ideas and gaining inspiration from them—or at least a little bit of empathy. When I get down from my high horse, which I try to challenge myself to do more and more, I know that social media has its beautiful side as well as its ugly.
“What does this have to do with cake?”, you may ask. Well this cake was what I like to call a frankencake—a hodge podge of leftover filling and hand-me-down frosting and uh-oh-these-bananas-are-about-to-go-bad cake. I didn’t think much of it—I made it, snapped a couple shots, posted it, and ate it as happily as I eat any other cake.
Now, Instagram completely befuddles me, though I am trying hard to understand it. But when I posted this cake, I finally saw some sense in it all— people liked this cake! I was so very happy to have a clear sign from the Instagram universe that I decided to write up the recipe despite the face that it “developed” out of pure happenstance and wasn’t really intended for sharing. If you’ve been following along on the web, I normally go through the “Primary Traits” of a recipe and my rationale behind crafting each one—but I didn’t craft this at all, so I won’t pretend any thought went into it beyond, “I have some leftover ganache, chocolate buttercream, and a bunch of really ripe bananas… guess I’ll throw together a cake to use it all!”
Regardless of its slapdash nature, it’s a delicious cake, and I’m glad that a slightly-larger-than-normal group of Instagram users liked it. Enjoy!
Until next time,
The Culinary Darwinist
Banana Layer Cake with Chocolate Ganache Filling & Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Makes a four-layer 10x7" rectangular cake
Ingredients
For the banana cake
For the chocolate ganache filling
For chocolate swiss meringue buttercream
Method
Make the cake
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Place the bananas, unpeeled, on a sheet pan and roast for 20 minutes, or until the bananas are dark and bubbling. While the bananas are still hot, use two forks to split the skin and scrape the fruit out, keeping the juices. Discard the skins. Mash the bananas and set aside to cool completely.
- In a small saucepan on medium-low heat, melt 4 T (half a stick) of the butter and cook until it's a deep golden brown. Pour into a small bowl to cool completely in the freezer before proceeding (about 30 minutes should do).
- Decrease the oven temp to 350º and grease a 9x13" cake pan. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together the softened butter and cooled browned butter until well combined and fluffy (1 min, high speed). Add in the sugar, brown sugar, and salt and beat until fluffy again (2-3 min, high speed). Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and vanilla, making sure you get to the fluffy point after each addition (1 min after each egg, high speed). Beat in the roasted banana mix. Don't panic—the mix will look gross and curdled at this point.
- Mix in half the dry mix, then the yogurt, then the rest of the dry mix. Pour the batter into the greased pan, smoothing the top and tapping the pan on the counter to release any air bubbles. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out just slightly glistening. Let the cake cool completely.
Make the chocolate ganache
- Scald the heavy cream in a saucepan or microwave (heat it until it is hot but not simmering) and pour over the chocolate, salt, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. Cool in the fridge as the cake bakes and cools.
Make the buttercream & assemble
- Melt the chocolates over a double boiler and set aside to cool while you prepare the buttercream.
- Heat the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of your standing mixer over the double boiler. Stir constantly, and heat until the mixture reaches about 170º, or until the sugar is completely dissolved (about 10–12 minutes). Transfer to the stand mixer and whisk on high speed for 10 minutes, or until stiff peaks form and the bowl is warm to the touch, not hot.
- Incorporate the butter one tablespoon at a time, while whisking at high speed. Once all the butter is incorporated, add the salt and vanilla and continue to whisk. The buttercream should be light and fluffy but firm—if it looks soupy or curdled, throw the bowl and whisk into the fridge for 10 minutes at a time and then continue whisking like crazy. Add the cooled melted chocolate and whisk until smooth.
- Cut the cake in half along the short side, creating two rectangles. Split each rectangle in half, so you have four layers. Alternate filling the layers with ganache and buttercream, starting with the ganache. The ganache is a little thin, so it can be helpful to pipe a rim of buttercream around the ganache to keep it in. Frost and decorate however you please! ∎
