Banana Pudding Cake
By: The Duo Dishes
Published: Saturday, December 5, 2009 - 5:54pm

Ingredients




Cake
7 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups vanilla wafers, finely ground
3 cups vanilla wafers, crumbled
3 large bananas, sliced
Pudding
3 egg yolks, beaten
 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dash of salt
Whipped cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla

Preparation

1 In a large bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar and set aside. 2 In bowl of an electric mixer, whip egg whites until stiff. 3 Add baking powder, processed wafers, and cocoa to egg yolk mixture. 4 Drop about 1/4 of egg whites into larger bowl and fold lightly.  Fold in remaining whites carefully. 5 Line a jellyroll sheet pan with parchment paper covering all sides and spray paper with non-stick floured baking spray.  Spread cake batter onto paper, so it covers the entire pan. 6 Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. 7 Let cake cool completely on sheet (at least 30 minutes to an hour).* 8 As cake cools, mix sugar, flour and salt in top of a double boiler.  (If you don’t have a double boiler, a larger saucepan on top a smaller saucepan with water boiling works just fine!) 9 Blend in egg yolks and milk. Cook, uncovered, over boiling water, stirring constantly for 10 to 12 minutes or until thickened. 10 Remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla. 11 When cake is cooled, carefully lift the parchment paper, remove from pan and place on a flat surface.  Starting from the short end, cut into three even pieces. 12 Place first layer of cake on a serving platter.  Spread half of the custard over the top of the cake, then cover with one third of the banana slices.  Take about one third of the crumbled wafers and sprinkle over custard-banana layer. Top with next piece of cake and repeat, being sure to reserve a few bananas and crumbled cookies. 13 Spread the final amount of custard onto the top layer of cake, and refrigerate the whole cake for at least 2 hours or until ready to serve. 14 Just before serving, make whipped cream topping.  Combine all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until cream thickens and becomes stiff. 15 Spread whipped cream on cake and top with remaining banana and wafers.* 16 You can even spread the whipped cream on the final cake layer and refrigerate all together.  We suggest not topping the cake with the fresh bananas and cookies until you are ready to serve, however.  Otherwise, the bananas will brown.  Keep them fresh by sprinkling with a bit of lemon juice and placing them in an airtight container until ready to use.

About


Remember the Chocolate Pecan Mint Roll from our February Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 post?  Well, if you don’t, you should reacquaint yourself!  What’s so great about that cake is that it’s flourless and butterless (who wouldn’t like that?), and it’s insanely versatile.  And when we say versatile, we mean versatile.  You can really do just about anything to it, and it turns out so light and delish every time.  It even surprised us just how easy it is to alter the recipe to whatever flavor, taste, or food combination you want–the possibilities are endless!  Many readers may know that the Duo is comprised of two friends–Chrystal and Amir.  Amir loves bananas!  Chrystal, not so much.  There are aspects of banana based recipes that can still be enjoyable–the soft bread and crunchy nuts of banana bread, the caramelized brown sugar and rum on bananas foster and the creamy pudding of a banana pudding.  When you deconstruct the recipe, it’s the individual flavors that really pop.  It’s guaranteed that even a banana hater could potentially enjoy banana pudding in a cake form for sure. Hence, our desire to make an original creation based just on that idea.
We needed a vanilla wafer flavored cake, and this adaptable cake recipe immediately came to mind.  Some alterations and additions made for a great dessert that plays on the traditional banana pudding recipe.  We knew we had a winner when the female half of this Duo took delighted bite after bite of this cake.  The bananas themselves, however, remained on the plate, which reminded us that you can’t make everyone like everything.
This could be slightly labor intensive for some, but it’s worth it!  Break up the steps and make the cake and pudding ahead of time–the night before if you prefer.  From there, it’s just a matter of assembling.