Banana Pecan Breakfast Cake

After a very long sabbatical (and by sabbatical I mean lack of motivation and time) from cooking, I've recently begun taking baby steps back into the kitchen. And considering that desserts and all culinary variations of it have always been one of my favorite "food groups" it's hardly surprising that I would celebrate the return to blogging with something sweet.

I've long been a fan of Monica Holland's website "Lick the Bowl Good" since I found out about it through another online baking group when I first started my own blog. However, like the majority of the books in my cookbook collection, I pretty much gazed upon her baking from a distance and never tried a single recipe. I've yet to understand this phenomenan apart from the fact that I am a culinary paradox. But, when I found out there was a facebook page that was baking their way through her first book, it took me nearly 2 minutes to decide that I wanted to be a part of it. And even more surprisingly, only a few days before I actually cooked from the book.

As recipes go, this was a fairly simple one which is always a powerful motivator for someone who needs to strengthen their culinary muscles again. Most of the ingredients are ones you're likely to have in your pantry already and can be in the oven within 20 minutes or so. Because of some food sensitivities to gluten and dairy (the latter is something that I'm mourning in particular), I had to make a few changes to the recipe by substituting Pamela's gluten free flour for the all purpose flour, apple sauce for the butter and a mix of rice milk and vinegar for the buttermilk called for in the recipe. And although I'm sure this made some changes to the overall flavor, the texture of the cake was amazing. Given that I wasn't able to cream the butter and sugar together, the crumb and height of the cake was perfect for me and I loved the hint of sweetness that the apple sauce bought to the cake was well. Definitely a cake I would bake again, although I think next time I would like to toast some pecans and add them into the batter to compensate for some of the flavor that might have been lost by removing the butter.

Although this month I'm not including the recipe for this particular post due to lack of time ( a choice between typing up the recipe and finishing an assignment for one of my classes- and the class won this round)  the recipe itself can can easily be found in many bookstores such as Amazon or even in your local library. Look for "Lick the Bowl Good: Classic Home-Style Desserts with a Twist" and turn to page 151. You'll thank me later.