Oh, baby.
And –
Are you ready for this?
This recipe is low fat, low sugar, and really, really good for you.
I’ll give you a moment to gather yourself. Are you still with me? Are you ready to make it? Are you chomping at the bit, screaming into your monitor, “What are the ingredients already?!?”
Apples, bananas, flour, sugar, honey, eggs, flour, spices, salt and baking powder. That’s it. No butter, no oil, no kidding. And you wind up with a dense, delicious flavor-filled cake, and you don’t even have to feel guilty about going back for seconds.
So the next time you’re about to melt a stick of butter to make banana bread, put it back in the fridge, and pull out this recipe. You’ll be glad you did.
Apple Banana Cake
INGREDIENTS
2 large, very ripe bananas
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
Pinch of salt
2 large golden apples, sliced
Additional honey, for drizzling
DIRECTIONS
Arrange the sliced apples on a baking sheet and drizzle honey over them. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until apples are moist and tender. Remove the apples from the oven and lower its heat to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, mash bananas and sugar until combined and creamy. Add the honey and eggs and continue to beat until well combined. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, and mix until combined.
Grease an 8″ round cake pan, and arrange one layer of apple slices on the bottom of the pan (use a little less than half the apples). Pour the banana batter into the pan, and arrange a second layer of apples on the top, in an overlapping pattern. Bake the cake in a preheated 350°F oven for one hour and ten minutes.
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23 responses so far ↓
1 Bridget // Jun 6, 2009 at 5:15 pm
That cake is absolutely gorgeous! Wow…and healthy, too! Amazing!
2 Aparna // Jun 7, 2009 at 5:06 am
Looking at your cake, its not easy to believe that there’s no oil/ butter in it.
Like the pattern the apple slices make on the top.
3 Kem Elliott // Jun 7, 2009 at 11:40 am
I cannot wait to try this cake! It looks amazing
4 adele // Jun 7, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Huh. And I thought oil was the secret to a good banana bread/cake. Who would have guessed?
5 Kristen // Jun 8, 2009 at 7:14 am
looks gorgeous!
6 stephchows // Jun 8, 2009 at 11:18 am
I love making banana bread sans the oil and butter. Love your version!
7 Nick // Jun 9, 2009 at 1:52 pm
That’s a beautiful lookin’ cake if I’ve ever seen one!
Nice work.
8 Jess R. // Jun 9, 2009 at 2:25 pm
This looks SO good, Katy. I’m going to make this this weekend I think… time to get some bananas.
9 BobMarche // Jun 10, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Thanks for the useful info. It’s so interesting
10 Heather // Jun 11, 2009 at 7:01 am
Amazing! Can’t wait to try it
11 Lori @ RecipeGirl // Jun 15, 2009 at 6:02 am
I’m loving this recipe. It’s a good thought for a post, really, since there are loads of us around who are absolutely tired of making plain old banana bread with our aging bananas. Delicious!
12 jmc // Jun 23, 2009 at 10:37 am
loved the looks of this dish, tried it, was disappointed in the outcome – inside was underdone, outside edges was over done, not enough apples for top and bottom and i sliced them thin…has anyone else had issues or just user error?
13 aj // Jul 17, 2009 at 6:24 am
JMC – I am thinking of doing it… I am not sure if any of the people who posted got a chance to make it. but you stated that when you made it the inside was underdone… U think It might be due to temp?
14 jmc // Jul 17, 2009 at 6:56 am
i really don’t know…i almost feel like if it was in a bigger round pan..so maybe it wasn’t so deep? but i def would have used more apples so i would have had more for the bottom and the top…i guess i sliced them too thin on my mandolin b/c baking them with the honey they basically just tasted like dried apples adn didn’t look ANYTHNG like the picture, i was disappointed.
15 aj // Jul 17, 2009 at 10:58 am
JMC – I am going to try it this weekend. I will let you know how it comes out.
16 wendyb964 // Jul 18, 2009 at 3:57 pm
hmmm, how about using a tube pan?wouldn’t look as elegant, however. bet it would also be great with canned pumpkin instead of the bananas. haven’t tried it yet though i always have those extra bananas in the freezer. i’ve found that using a flat instead of a loaf pan for the very low fat breads seems to work better. i shake powd. sugar over the top.
17 Intan // Jul 21, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Tried and have died and gone to heaven! I used a rectangular loaf tin instead (I haven’t got my round cake tins at the moment) and it solved all issues of apple shortage.
18 Sean // Aug 24, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Oh man…I’m tempted to just let these bananas I have sitting here to blacken just to make this.
Great presentation with the apples!
19 oneshotbeyond // Aug 25, 2009 at 12:18 pm
it sure is beautiful!!!
20 Sonia // Aug 28, 2009 at 10:34 am
I finally got the chance to make this one yesterday and everyone in my family (plus a few friends who wanted it since they found out I made it) thought it tasted AMAZING!! It was soooo good!
21 janet // Oct 5, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I agree, this was a fabulous cake. It was as tasty as it was pretty.
I used 3 apples based on the reviewers’ feedback and found it was plenty.
22 Apple Banana Cake: A Triple Threat « the taste space // Oct 18, 2009 at 4:50 am
[...] Adapted from Sugarlaws [...]
23 Nikki Rappaport - The taste of fall // Nov 6, 2009 at 3:13 pm
[...] recipe is adapted from Sugarlaws. Mine doesn’t look as pretty, but I’m sure tastes just as [...]
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