How to make a banana split cake

The banana split cake was an accident.  A nice accident.  We had some banana-nut bread batter left over from making individual loaves.  Not enough to pour into a loaf pan, but too much to throw out.  I considered making muffins, but it was Saturday, and they would be sitting out or frozen until Monday, when they would no longer be fresh.

 We poured the batter into muffin top pans (and you thought they just cut the tops off muffins...).  They look like little cake pans you might make baby cakes out of.  Like the kind I used to make in my Easy-Bake Oven when I was about eight years old.  Then we brushed the little cakes with rum (the official reason was to keep them from drying out...).  At this point, they sat all wrapped up in plastic) in the freezer for a while, until last week when we took them out and piped a generous amount of caramel icing between two cakes, topped the stacked layers with swirled vanilla buttercream, then drizzled warm ganache over the entire cake, and garnished the dessert with chopped nuts and a candied cherry. These little babies needed a nice presentation, so they were placed on individual gold boards.

We made 18 cakes, which sold out in a couple of hours.  I knew we had a winner when one of our customers called back a few days later to say how good they were.  This is a guy who is always brutally honest, especially if it hurts.

All of these recipes are in our new cookbook, but you can use any recipe you like.  For this dessert it is all about the assembly.

Banana Split Cake Ingredients

• Banana-Nut Bread Batter
• Caramel Icing
• Buttercream Icing
• Ganache
• Chopped  Pecans
• Candied Cherries
• Individual Cake Boards

You will also need the following specialty baking and decorating tools:

• Muffin Top Pans
• Pastry Bags
• Large Star Tip

Assembly Instructions

1. Bake the banana-nut bread in muffin top pans, using a 2-ounce scoop (or disher) to neatly and evenly scale out the batter.
2. Make the buttercream, ganache and caramel icing. We whip the caramel icing until fluffy to make it easier to pipe.
3. When the banana cakes are done and out of the pans, brush each generously with rum using a pastry brush.
4. Pipe about an inch-worth of caramel icing on half of the cakes, using a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip.
5. Place an un-iced cake layer  on top of each iced layer.
6. Pipe a generous amount of buttercream on top of the stacked cake, using a large star tip.
7. Drizzle some warm ganache on top of the iced cakes and top with chopped pecans and a candied cherry.

Or, if you live in the Tuscaloosa-Northport area, call us and we'll make some for you.