Banana and Butternut Buttermilk Cake—Secret Recipe Club

I had the pleasure this month for The Secret Recipe Club of making something from Marla’s blog, Family Fresh Cooking!  Sheesh, if you haven’t seen her blog, check it out and imagine trying to pick one thing to make and post.  I spent a lot of time browsing her entire blog and it became quite the challenge deciding what to make because everything looked and sounded so good.  I’ll be back to her blog to try more of her recipes!  I finally settled on a cake—Banana and Butternut Buttermilk Cake.  I was instantly sold on the banana and had some buttermilk I needed to use up.

Believe it or not, I also had a butternut squash that had been in my pantry since last fall and it was still in good condition and waiting to be used.  I decided this was it—banana buttermilk cake with a little butternut squash puree thrown in.  My mind was instantly drawn to my favorite cake--Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake and I knew this one would be good because I love squash and also thought of another favorite cake--Marbled Chocolate Sweet Potato Cake.  I knew the flavor in Marla’s cake would be good—and it sure was!

First thing I did was cut up and peel the butternut squash and then roast it in the oven in little 1/2 inch pieces—simple enough.  After that and a quick gathering of the rest of the ingredients and I was in business.  I love that the cake has cardamom and cinnamon.  Marla suggested throwing in some nuts and/or chocolate chips if you’d like and well, I like!  I added 3/4 cup of toasted, chopped pecans and 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips.

This cake had great flavor with just the little added butternut squash (1/2 cup pureed squash) and of course banana, nuts and chocolate.  I used half whole wheat pastry flour and half all purpose flour—which is the same as Marla used.  The cake was baked in a 9-inch springform pan and took 48 minutes.  I would suspect this cake would make a nice breakfast treat, I never had some for breakfast, but it was sure easy to keep snitching from at other times!  Check out Marla’s cake!  Make it!

You can check out more info about The Secret Recipe Club on the link I’ve left above.  Join in.  We are randomly given another blog to choose a recipe from and make it and do so only once a month.  It’s fun.