Tropical Whole Wheat Cake

When life hands you brown bananas. . . 

Grandma must have really liked this recipe. I know that because there were two copies in her box. At the top of one, she wrote, "good," and at the top of the other, she wrote, "this is a moist cake." With all that compelling evidence in its favor, I looked forward to testing this cake. However, there had to be an occasion for a big cake.  

The occasion arrived when the personal shopper for my pick-up order decided to send me a bunch of brown bananas.  

Really? 

I was tempted to dash off a nasty review, but instead, I decided the time had come for this cake. You know the saying--when life hands you brown bananas . . . .. Okay, maybe that's not the saying, but life had handed them to me, so I made Tropical Whole Wheat Cake. 

How to make Tropical Whole Wheat Cake

Fortunately, I had all the ingredients for this recipe on hand. Mostly. It called for a 15-ounce can of crushed pineapple. (The other card called it a #2 can). But the can I had was slightly bigger at 20 ounces. 

Rather than measure out 15 ounces, I decided to use the whole can, knowing that such a paltry amount of leftover crushed pineapple would have sat in my fridge and eventually gone to waste. Better to include it in the cake and see how it went. 

I added the oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla and whisked them all together. 

I added the two kinds of flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda to a bowl, but hesitated over the cinnamon. Was cinnamon really appropriate for a so-called tropical cake? I thought back to a farm tour I took on the Big Island of Hawaii, to the cinnamon trees we say there, and decided that, yes, cinnamon should go in. 

I whisked those ingredients together, then, using my Danish Dough Whisk, (Not an affiliate link. I just love the thing.), I stirred it into the pineapple mixture along with the brown bananas, which had been coarsely smashed.  

One thing differed between Grandma's two copies of the recipe. The one at the top of this post contains the inserted line, "I added 1/2 cup chopped nuts." 

Of course she did.  And so I did too. 

Just like that, the batter was done, and it had taken only minutes. One copy of the recipe was more precise than the other about the pan size. It said to use a greased Bundt or tube pan. It also said to bake the cake for 60 minutes, while the above copy said 50-60. I spread the batter into a Bundt pan and placed it in my preheated oven.   

I set the timer for 60 minutes, but when the cake was done, I wondered if I should have taken it out earlier. It was quite brown. 

However, I'd been concerned about too-brown cakes in the past, and they had been fine. 

The next question was the topping. The recipe called for a simple glaze of orange juice and powdered sugar, which, to be honest, sounded boring. Sure, I would test it, but I also wanted to try a frosting recipe I'd seen on a pineapple cake in Grandma's box. That cake was similar enough to Tropical Whole Wheat Cake that I saw no point in testing them both. However, the frosting had cream cheese, and cream cheese is hardly ever a bad idea. 

First, though, the orange glaze. I combined two tablespoons of orange juice with a cup of powdered sugar. That amount was a guess because there was no quantity listed on the card. The resulting glaze was fairly thin.   

I drizzled it over half the cake. Over the other half, I piped lines of Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting. 

Even though I'm not skilled at piping, that side of the cake looked much more appealing than the glazed side. However, the taste would be the deciding factor, for both the cake and the topping. 

The Verdict

Grandma was right. This was a moist cake. 

You can almost see the moist texture in these side views, along with the chunks of nuts, pineapple, and banana. Definitely a fruit-and-nut-lover's cake, and yes, Grandma, it was very good.  

As you might have guessed, the winning topping was the Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting. The orange glaze wasn't bad, but, as one of my daughters pointed out, it tasted like part of the cake instead of a topping meant to enhance the flavor. We also liked that the tang of the cream cheese cut the sweetness of the cake just enough. 

One note about the whole wheat flour in this cake--I'm a fan. I love the nutty flavor that whole wheat flour adds to baked goods. Then again, I have easy access to outstanding whole wheat flour from Lehi Roller Mills. If you don't, and you're not a fan of whole wheat flour, you wouldn't have a problem using all-purpose flour in its place. 

If life has handed you brown bananas, give this moist and fruity cake a try. You'll enjoy it. You might even call it the next best thing to a tropical vacation.