Skip to main content

Real Sweet: Banana Layer Cake with Caramelized Coconut Sugar Frosting

Published Date
Author Aimee

by Aimee

Well, I had all week to prepare for Clara’s birthday – only I don’t mean party prep. I’m referring to the allotted time required for me to accept that she is another whole year older. Already three.

Today she climbed on a stool with my old Canon Rebel around her neck and declared she wanted to take pictures of her salad. Later she perched on my lap and helped me make the selections for my organic seed order. She “works” on her toy computer and is an utter wiz in the kitchen already. Chip off the old block? It’s looking that way.

She’s incredibly decisive; knows precisely what she likes and does not like, and declared today’s recipe “The best cake I ever ate.” Oh Clara, you’re ever the charmer.

Coconut Sugar Banana Layer Cake with Caramelized Coconut Sugar Frosting

Clara had an apple cake for her first birthday, a raspberry cake for her second, and we kept with the tradition of fruit for her third birthday: a splendid Coconut Sugar Banana Layer Cake with Caramelized Coconut Sugar Frosting. This marvellous creation is straight out of a beautiful all-new baking book written by cake and confection queen Shauna Sever.

Real Sweet: More Than 80 Crave-Worthy Treats Made with Natural Sugars is Shauna’s love letter to all-natural and organic sweeteners. It’s full of creative recipes we can’t wait to try like Ice Muscovado Caramel-Nut Blondies, Strawberry and Lemon Cream Puffs and Blueberry Maple Oatmeal Muffins.

The cookbook features many of our favourite sweeteners such as honey, turbinado and maple syrup (duh!) and introduced a few of new-to-me ingredients like the coconut sugar in this cake. It was no easy task to narrow down a cake choice for Clara’s birthday from Real Sweet, but in the end I was curious about the coconut sugar.

Coconut Sugar Banana Layer Cake with Caramelized Coconut Sugar Frosting

Real Sweet author Shauna says that because it’s not derived from sugarcane, the “brown” flavour of coconut sugar doesn’t come from molasses, and so it tastes quite different from other brown sugars. It’s a decidedly exotic, toasty flavour that pairs wonderfully with other tropical flavours, especially bananas, as this cake demonstrates.

Clara’s cake was delicious on the second day, and perhaps even more so on the third. Similar to banana bread, I think its flavour deepens as it sits, and thanks to all that fruit, it stays moist, too. The banana/caramel duo is absolutely killer, especially when paired with a cup of coffee (always!).

Shauna’s original recipe is a snack (sheet) cake – my real preference when it comes to cakes. It’s going to be a recipe that stays in our family repertoire for a long, long time. Coconut sugar? A new pantry staple.

Coconut Sugar Banana Layer Cake with Caramelized Coconut Sugar Frosting

I’m delighted to be able to share the recipe with you, complements of Shauna and her team at HarperCollins. Read on for both cake and frosting recipes. And if you love to bake treats with your children as I do, but prefer to use alternatives to white sugar, Real Sweet is well worth checking out. Psst! Shauna is giving away a few copies plus a basket of her favourite natural sweeteners on her blog (USA residents only).

Happy Baking!

Coconut Sugar Banana Sheet Cake
Print
Recipe type: Dessert
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves/Yield: 8 -inch layer cake
From REAL SWEET by Shauna Sever. Reprinted with permission from HarperCollins Publishers.
Ingredients
  • 2 cups (9 ounces/255 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled*
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1⅓ cups (10⅝ ounces/302 grams) mashed bananas (from about 3 very ripe medium ones)
  • ⅔ cup (5⅝ ounces/151 grams)
  • 2% Greek yogurt
  • ¼ cup (2 ounces/57 grams) coconut or canola oil
  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons
  • (6 ounces/170 grams) coconut sugar
  • 4 tablespoons (2 ounces/57 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 batch Caramelized Coconut Sugar Frosting (recipe below)
Instructions
  1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350˚F. Spray two 8-inch round pans with nonstick spray or butter them generously.
  2. Into a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the bananas, yogurt, and oil until smooth.
  4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the sugar and butter on medium-low speed until the mixture looks like dampened sand, about 1 minute.
  5. Add the eggs one at a time, giving the first about 30 seconds to incorporate before adding the second. Increase the speed to medium-high, beating until light in texture and much paler in color, 4 to 5 minutes (don’t skimp on the beating time, here—the significant change in color will be your cue that the sugar has begun to dissolve). Beat in the vanilla extract.
  6. Reduce the mixer speed to low. Stir in the dry ingredients and banana-yogurt mixture in five alternating additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, letting each addition fully absorb into the batter before adding the next. Finish folding the batter gently by hand to ensure it is well blended.
  7. Divide the batter into two prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool the cakes for 10 minutes in the pan, then invert onto a wire rack. To cool completely.
  8. Place one cake on a stand or platter. Cover only the top with half of the frosting and smooth it flat. Place the second cake onto the first and spread the remaining frosting over the top of the cake. Serve at once or wrap loosely in plastic and chill for up to two days. Serve at room temperature for rmaximum flavour.
Notes
One of the tricks of using coconut sugar successfully in baking is to find a recipe that has plenty of tenderizing, moisture-lending ingredients in it—such as mashed bananas or other fruit purees, oils, and buttermilk or yogurt—as coconut sugar tends to dry out baked goods.
3.2.2925

Clara turns 3 with cake
Coconut Sugar Caramel Frosting
Print
Recipe type: Dessert
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
From REAL SWEET by Shauna Sever. Reprinted with permission from HarperCollins Publishers
Ingredients
  • 9 tablespoons (4½ ounces/128grams) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons and softened
  • 3 tablespoons (2¼ ounces/63 grams) brown rice syrup (see note)
  • ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ¾ cup (4 ounces/113 grams) coconut sugar
  • ¼ cup (2 ounces/57 grams) heavy cream
  • 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan set over medium heat, melt together 4 tablespoons of the butter, the brown rice syrup, and salt. Add the coconut sugar and stir with a heatproof spatula. Bring to a gentle boil and clip a candy thermometer onto the pan. Cook to 248˚F, about 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and carefully stir in the cream and vanilla extract. Cool for 10 to 15 minutes.
  2. Whisk the remaining 5 tablespoons of butter into the caramel, a tablespoon at a time, letting each knob of butter absorb into the caramel before adding the next. Don’t rush this step—you’re not only setting yourself up for a nice emulsified frosting, you’re also slowly cooling the caramel, both of which will make for a smooth, creamy final product.
  3. Scrape the caramel into a mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer. Chill until the caramel is cool to the touch all the way through, about 20 minutes. Using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or a handheld mixer on medium speed, whip the caramel into a lush, creamy frosting until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. (If it still looks like caramel sauce after 1 minute of beating, chill further before whipping again.) Use immediately, or store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, bringing it back to room temperature before giving it a quick rewhipping.
Notes
Although the liquid sweetener here obviously adds sweetness, its main functions are to keep the caramel flexible and add a beautiful gloss to the whipped frosting. Shauna like to use something very neutral in flavor, such as brown rice syrup, to allow the coconut sugar flavor to really shine, but you could also use light agave, mild honey, or even coconut nectar, if you have it, which will give a much deeper color to the frosting and make it a bit sweeter as well.
3.2.2925

  Real Sweet: Banana Layer Cake with Caramelized Coconut Sugar Frosting is a post from Simple Bites

© 2010-2014 Simple Living Media, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of SimpleBites.net subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please contact kyle@simplelivingmedia.com to let us know. Thanks.