First of all, a big thanks to Mighty Goods for featuring the MOOPocket on their site today, and go check out my Etsy shop for a whole crop of new fabrics!

So the weather has finally chilled out a bit and made baking seem a little more in the category of an appropriate activity for a sane person. You'll recall that Casa Splatgirl remains an AC free zone for what seem like completely ridiculous reasons when it's 95 and humid for weeks on end but that is a completely different story. Anyway, you'll also recall I mentioned the arrival of a "cookbook" I received as a gift for renewing my subscription to Bon Appetit magazine. And I hesitate to call it a cookbook just because it's really just a pamphlet. But, despite the somewhat underwhelmingness of this free gift, particularly in comparison to the previously mentioned free apron, there were a few recipes that happened to catch my eye. One of these, Banana Cake with Caramel Cream and Pecans, just wouldn't get out of my head, and I decided I had to make it despite the insane Barefoot Contessa-like amount of cream it calls for.

So bake Banana Cake I did, but I got kind of a late start on the recipe which put me into a bit of a rush which meant I didn't let the caramel cream chill as much as I should have which meant the whole cake got a little bit wonky and unpleasant looking (not that it would have been pretty, anyway). And Boy, who was so patiently waiting for his promised slice of banana cake for most of the evening finally gave up on waiting for it about 9pm and made a bowl of popcorn, which meant we ended up eating the damn cake for breakfast the next morning.

Shhhhh.



And no, we didn't finish these crazy huge slices!



Turns out it's more the kind of cake that you really only need the tiniest sliver of to be happy with, but a big piece looks so much more enticing in pictures, doncha think?

It was OK overall, and probably not worth the effort. Like I said, it's not very pretty which is important to me when it comes to the high-effort dessert category. And the cake part is kind of eh, the whole thing is too sweet for my tastes and I was hoping for more banana flavor. The caramel cream by itself was AMAZING. Imagine bananas foster flavored whipped cream, and that'd be about it, and I can completely see using it as a filling for other things. And the salted nuts add do a fantastic contrast, particularly if you are one of those peeps who craves the salt element. So it's not like the recipe is that horribly conceived but more that it just didn't do it for me. But honestly, If I had thought to look this up on the epicurious website and read the reviews before I decided I was going to make it, I might not have, because they're not great. And I thought of aborting and choosing a different banana cake recipe after I checked, but I was so annoyed at all the reviewers who completely DO NOT FOLLOW THE RECIPE and then complain about how bad it turns out (a chronically annoying thing about epicurious.com, and if you are one of those people who don't follow the recipe AT ALL, STOP POSTING REVIEWS..please!), that I had to try it if only to prove them wrong. They were mostly right, but I still think that the majority of the bad review were completely due to the fact that peeps don't follow directions.
So, if you're hungry for a piece of good but not great banana cake, please feel free to stop by!