PBB&B Cake

Heather Jones

This is an unusual recipe for this channel (not from a cookbook, modified by me, etc), but my husband insisted I share the recipe I made for his birthday cake this year! It's a banana cake topped with peanut butter frosting, garnished with bacon for a little extra savory crunch.

Original cake recipe: http://www.hermodernkitchen.com/bananas-foster-cake/

Original frosting recipe: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/salted-caramel-frosting/ Plus, you can watch Sally make it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnrHx47W3-Q

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hi guys and welcome to cooking the books
[00:07]: with Heather today we have a very
[00:09]: different kind of recipe so generally
[00:13]: we've been working from cookbooks and
[00:15]: chefs recipes but it was my husband's
[00:20]: birthday and he really wanted a
[00:23]: particular cake that I made around
[00:26]: Christmastime I had some leftover
[00:28]: bananas and he suggested Bananas Foster
[00:31]: cake and so I found a recipe online so
[00:33]: we're gonna go from that of a cake is
[00:36]: not different from what I found online
[00:38]: this is recipe is from her modern
[00:40]: kitchen calm
[00:42]: it's called salted caramel Bananas
[00:44]: Foster cake featuring dollop gourmet
[00:46]: frosting so I'm gonna do the cake which
[00:48]: is a recipe which is what the recipe is
[00:51]: and then she uses some pre-made frost
[00:54]: salted caramel frosting but what I'm
[00:56]: gonna do is make a sort of caramel
[00:59]: peanut butter frosting that I kind of
[01:02]: made up from a couple of other recipes
[01:04]: and I'm hoping I can reproduce because I
[01:08]: did not take notes and I just sort of
[01:10]: threw things together and everybody
[01:11]: thought it was delicious and wonderful
[01:12]: and so now I have to try to make it
[01:16]: again
[01:16]: but so now we're gonna make the cake and
[01:18]: the first step is really simple we just
[01:21]: have the dry ingredients here and I will
[01:24]: link the recipe down below so if you
[01:26]: want the full recipe always check below
[01:29]: I've got my flour measured out and then
[01:33]: we're supposed to add the baking soda
[01:35]: baking soda baking powder and salt so
[01:39]: I'm just gonna make sure we get all that
[01:40]: out and then some cinnamon and some
[01:45]: nutmeg my cinnamon is from pens ease my
[01:48]: nutmeg I just graded it on a microplane
[01:53]: from the sin the nutmeg pod seed nuts
[01:59]: it's probably not and I just sort of
[02:03]: estimated the the amount there which I
[02:05]: usually do when it comes to nutmeg that
[02:08]: is everything here and we're just going
[02:10]: to whisk this to
[02:11]: this is a good substitute for sifting
[02:18]: dry ingredients if you just put them in
[02:20]: a bowl and whisk them together that sort
[02:21]: of gets all the lumps out and adds some
[02:23]: air and gets them all mixed together all
[02:29]: right so that's pretty good and now I'm
[02:33]: gonna set up two with the mixer to do
[02:36]: the sort of creaming of the butter and
[02:39]: sugar and eggs and all that to get that
[02:41]: so one second so now we get to the
[02:45]: creaming the butter step this is some
[02:48]: unsalted butter that has been softened
[02:50]: and all I'm gonna do is turn on the
[02:52]: mixer on sort of medium and get it all
[02:56]: sort of starting to get aerated before I
[02:58]: add the sugar okay so now I'm adding the
[03:02]: sugar and in this case it's brown sugar
[03:04]: and we're just gonna keep creaming those
[03:08]: together I'd like to stop and stir down
[03:14]: the sides occasionally just to make sure
[03:17]: I get everything especially when it's
[03:19]: sticky butter kind of sticks to the
[03:21]: sides so get everything all mixed up
[03:23]: together as you can tell this process
[03:29]: kind of takes a while just to get the
[03:32]: the mixture creamy we're starting to get
[03:36]: there though when we let it go for just
[03:38]: a little bit longer I think this doesn't
[03:42]: matter quite as much when you're talking
[03:45]: about like a cake batter as it does
[03:46]: cookies but okay I'm gonna call that
[03:52]: good and now I think we add our eggs one
[03:58]: at a time to get those incorporated so I
[04:02]: also took these eggs out and they're
[04:04]: kind of at room temperature now there's
[04:07]: a take them out when I take out my
[04:08]: butter and that helps some incorporate
[04:09]: butter I think
[04:25]: these don't take nearly as
[05:04]: so I'm just gonna scrape down the bowl
[05:06]: one more time we've got all of our eggs
[05:10]: incorporated and then we're gonna add in
[05:17]: our vanilla and rum extract here wrong
[05:21]: because Bananas Foster in vanilla is
[05:24]: because everything's good with enough
[05:36]: should open that first
[06:01]: okay so next we add in the mashed banana
[06:06]: I had a couple of bananas that were very
[06:10]: over right and I just peeled those and
[06:12]: put those in the refrigerator earlier
[06:14]: and then I have one more that was a
[06:15]: little bit less right but I'm instead of
[06:17]: mashing them in a bowl for converting
[06:21]: something else up I'm just gonna use
[06:23]: this bag that I had the bananas in in
[06:24]: the refrigerator trying to get most of
[06:51]: the big chunks Master
[06:56]: yeah I'm just going to put this in here
[07:01]: and mix it up
[07:24]: just get those incorporated
[07:33]: and now we have we have our mixture that
[07:43]: we made earlier way with the flour the
[07:46]: dry ingredients and we have some milk
[07:51]: and we're gonna alternate these
[07:54]: alternate adding these and sort of just
[07:56]: stirring them in you don't want to beat
[07:58]: them too much once you start putting the
[07:59]: flour in
[08:11]: [Music]
[08:55]: trying to do this in about thirds miss
[09:04]: the bowl a little bit and I asked my
[09:10]: husband if I should make this pretty and
[09:13]: make it a layer cake this time because
[09:15]: last time I just it she says to do it in
[09:18]: a 13 by 9 pan I think last time I did it
[09:20]: into sort of eight by eight or nine by
[09:24]: nine pans but he said no just do it in a
[09:30]: plain sort of sheet cake style so that
[09:32]: is what we're doing I already have my my
[09:38]: pan greased I used the butter wrapper so
[09:41]: once the butter was softened you take
[09:43]: the butter out of it there's usually
[09:45]: some some enough butter left on to to
[09:50]: grease the pan so that's what I did and
[09:59]: [Music]
[10:01]: and we're going to just pour this in the
[10:06]: greased pan pan is all greased I'm just
[10:16]: gonna pour this in and that is it
[10:41]: okay
[10:45]: cake is all ready to go in the oven it's
[10:49]: 40 to 50 minutes and a 350 oven which is
[10:52]: already preheated so we'll be back after
[10:55]: that so our Bananas Foster cake has been
[11:01]: in the oven for a little over 40 minutes
[11:04]: and it looks done to me from you know
[11:08]: the outside but the way to test it is to
[11:10]: put a cake pin or toothpick into the
[11:15]: center and see if it comes out clean so
[11:17]: I will tell you if it's done in the
[11:18]: middle that's clean so we're done we're
[11:26]: gonna let this cool and in the meantime
[11:28]: well as soon as I go to the grocery
[11:30]: store and get a few more ingredients
[11:32]: we're gonna make some frosting so stay
[11:35]: tuned so I have let the cake cool I've
[11:39]: gathered all of my ingredients for the
[11:41]: frosting replenish the things I was out
[11:44]: of and we're gonna start making this
[11:46]: frosting it is originally salted caramel
[11:50]: frosting that I got off of a website
[11:52]: called Sally's baking addiction that
[11:55]: baking addiction yes addiction and I
[11:60]: will link that below but I have made
[12:02]: some adjustments to the recipe and we're
[12:05]: gonna see if I can recreate the
[12:08]: adjustments that I made last time I made
[12:10]: this so starting off see we have a stick
[12:16]: of butter a cup of brown sugar I have
[12:21]: light brown sugar because that's what I
[12:22]: usually keep around and I'm pretty sure
[12:24]: that's what I used last time
[12:25]: and some salt I'm supposed to wait to
[12:29]: put that stuff in until the butter is
[12:31]: melted but I didn't I am gonna wait to
[12:33]: put the heavy cream in until it's all
[12:35]: melted together just because and really
[12:39]: the only thing that's in this recipe are
[12:42]: those ingredients plus some plus some
[12:46]: confectioner sugar so it was a pretty
[12:48]: easy recipe and the the frosting as it
[12:53]: stood
[12:54]: really good it was just not exactly what
[12:57]: my husband wanted for for this cake so
[13:01]: we went a different direction but so
[13:04]: whichever you prefer is fine but I'm
[13:07]: going to let this butter melt and we're
[13:10]: gonna bring it up to what a boil
[13:14]: basically allow it to bubble for a
[13:17]: couple minutes so all of the sugar is
[13:20]: dissolved in the butter and the cream
[13:22]: and we're gonna cook it I don't know
[13:27]: what stage it comes to but for a couple
[13:29]: minutes is probably kind of like a soft
[13:31]: ball stage but that doesn't really
[13:33]: matter because we're gonna make a nice
[13:34]: thing out of it it's all sort of melted
[13:40]: together so I'm gonna go ahead and add
[13:41]: two tablespoons of the heavy cream
[13:43]: there's more in this recipe later after
[13:48]: this mixture has cooled but for now just
[13:53]: the two tablespoons
[14:03]: so in the cake I used whole milk you
[14:07]: could probably substitute that for
[14:09]: whatever kind of milk you normally keep
[14:12]: in the house but for this recipe the
[14:16]: heavy cream is really required for the
[14:20]: the flavor and the fat content I'm
[14:27]: supposed to whisk this constantly until
[14:31]: it comes up to a bubble so so you can
[14:39]: see now the texture is starting to
[14:41]: change everything it's not as grainy and
[14:44]: it's a little more fluid so it's
[14:47]: starting to come up to temperature but
[14:48]: still not Boley yet okay so if you can
[14:57]: see it's starting to bubble a little bit
[14:59]: around the edges I wouldn't call this
[15:01]: really bubbling yet but it's getting
[15:03]: really close
[15:17]: okay so this is finally at the stage
[15:20]: that I would call bubbling it's not like
[15:23]: a full roiling bubble but it's it's
[15:27]: almost there so I'm gonna call this
[15:28]: bubbling and we're gonna go for about
[15:30]: two minutes stirring whisking every 30
[15:34]: seconds or so I think just to make sure
[15:36]: it doesn't stick and burn we're gonna
[15:46]: call that two minutes turned off my
[15:49]: burner just with together and this is a
[15:54]: basic sort of caramely sauce recipe
[15:58]: usually I make it with white sugar and
[16:00]: add sugar this is kind of a cheater
[16:05]: caramel in my opinion I'm gonna transfer
[16:11]: this now to my heat proof mixing bowl
[16:16]: that goes with my stand mixer and we
[16:19]: have to let this sit for about 30
[16:22]: minutes until it's no longer you know
[16:24]: super hot because we don't want to we
[16:29]: don't want to want it to be all hot and
[16:31]: we want to add air to it and it won't do
[16:32]: that when it's hot so we'll be back in
[16:36]: about 30 minutes so our salted caramel
[16:40]: frosting the caramel part has been
[16:42]: cooling for about 30 minutes that bull
[16:44]: still feels warm but it's it's cool
[16:47]: enough and so here's where I deviate
[16:49]: from the actual recipe as stated I am
[16:53]: going to start by adding some peanut
[16:57]: butter to our caramel mixture and yeah
[17:01]: it does look a little grainy don't worry
[17:04]: about that that would be perfectly fine
[17:06]: for this for this icing
[17:11]: so this is my mixer with a whisk
[17:14]: attachment and I'm just going to whisk
[17:16]: in the peanut butter it's smooth peanut
[17:20]: butter I use like Jeff natural whatever
[17:23]: you like is fine you probably want
[17:25]: smooth for this particular recipe but
[17:34]: I've got the peanut butter all mixed in
[17:38]: and it's still a little bit warm but a
[17:40]: little bit cooled off because I've added
[17:42]: the room-temperature peanut butter and
[17:44]: I'm going to add most of this two and a
[17:47]: half cups of confectioner's sugar it's
[17:50]: calls for sifted I kind of mix it a
[17:53]: little bit with my whisk earlier but
[17:55]: that's about it so we're gonna get this
[17:60]: in there
[18:06]: mix that up
[18:18]: see it's not looking like a frosting
[18:21]: just now but we still have heavy cream
[18:27]: to add and that'll help it all come
[18:28]: together which I have neglected to take
[18:36]: out of the refrigerator so while this
[18:37]: mixes up a bit that was three
[18:43]: tablespoons of heavy cream which doesn't
[18:47]: look like it's gonna be enough cuz it's
[18:48]: still very thick
[19:00]: I'm gonna start adding just a tablespoon
[19:03]: at a time see how that goes was an extra
[19:12]: six tablespoons instead of the three and
[19:19]: it's still not quite the texture that I
[19:23]: want and this is the problem that I
[19:27]: dealt with last time that I just kind of
[19:29]: started throwing things in so we're
[19:32]: gonna see what we can do about that in a
[19:38]: controlled way where I can measure and
[19:40]: make notes this time and have the video
[19:44]: to confirm what I actually did
[19:57]: up to ten yes I wasn't it that was
[20:01]: another four so up to ten and you know
[20:04]: it's just not it's definitely more
[20:08]: liable but it's not quite what I want so
[20:11]: I'm gonna try adding some more of the
[20:14]: confectioner sugar I think I did that
[20:17]: last time so it's still not quite what
[20:23]: I'm looking for
[20:32]: [Music]
[20:46]: [Music]
[20:52]: to look still not a super creamy icing
[21:03]: consistency or frosting consistency I
[21:06]: use those pretty much interchangeably
[21:09]: let's see what it tastes like
[21:11]: I check to see if there's enough peanut
[21:23]: butter you know all that my taste tester
[21:27]: says it tastes good I'm gonna mix it up
[21:32]: a little bit more just see if I can get
[21:35]: it a little fluffier so probably good
[21:37]: let it go a little while and see what
[21:38]: happened think we're probably good with
[21:48]: this yeah that seems for reminding me of
[21:53]: what it was last time so I think we're
[21:59]: gonna call it good and stop messing with
[22:01]: it and I'm going to ice the cake I've
[22:08]: already made some bacon I usually bake
[22:10]: my bacon for garnish and so I'll get
[22:15]: pictures of it for you guys when it's
[22:17]: all done there we are
[22:29]: on this episode of cooking the books
[22:32]: with Heather you saw me make a birthday
[22:35]: cake for my husband's this sort of a
[22:37]: bonus episode it's not coming out of a
[22:39]: particular book it's sort of cobbled
[22:42]: together recipe from other things I
[22:43]: found on the internet and modified
[22:45]: myself so it's not what we usually do
[22:47]: here but I thought I'd let you know how
[22:51]: it turned out
[22:52]: the cake was delicious as usual I
[22:56]: probably could have used a little bit
[22:57]: more banana the recipe calls for three
[22:59]: large bananas my bananas weren't that
[23:00]: large probably should have put another
[23:02]: sort of medium one in there but it was
[23:03]: still really good still very banana
[23:05]: flavor probably because two of them were
[23:07]: very very ripe when I am when I use them
[23:10]: the peanut butter frosting turned out
[23:14]: pretty much exactly like it did when I
[23:16]: made it before
[23:17]: which is good because I know that I
[23:20]: didn't do exactly the same thing but it
[23:23]: turned out well so that's good
[23:26]: and I know that that frosting will last
[23:29]: in the refrigerator for a while there's
[23:31]: a lot of sugar in it it doesn't go bad
[23:33]: very quickly so if you make too much
[23:36]: feel free to use it on something else I
[23:38]: used it all on that one cake though so
[23:40]: and my husband is calling this his PB
[23:44]: B&B cake because it's peanut butter
[23:48]: banana and bacon so it's definitely
[23:54]: something I will probably make again
[23:56]: because my husband loves it so much
[23:58]: we just garnished it with a little baked
[24:00]: and I didn't really show how to do that
[24:03]: but it's just some cooked crisp bacon
[24:05]: and it just adds a nice little salty
[24:09]: taste accent to the sweet cake with the
[24:14]: sweet icing so we really enjoy it with
[24:16]: the bacon
[24:17]: if you don't let bacon it's fine to
[24:18]: leave it off so I hope you enjoyed this
[24:22]: special episode of cooking the books
[24:24]: with Heather and if you did please click
[24:26]: Subscribe and let me know if there's
[24:29]: anything else that you'd like me to make
[24:30]: anything any use particular books or
[24:32]: chefs that you are interested in
[24:35]: you look at or me watching me cook from
[24:37]: let me know in the comments down below
[24:39]: and come back next week for another
[24:43]: recipe from cooking the books with
[24:45]: Heather Thanks
[24:48]: [Music]