What's for dinner? - Cinnamon Banana Breakfast Cakes

Today I tried a new recipe - Cinnamon Banana Breakfast Cakes. The recipe came from "The Prepared Pantry" online book that I received via email. I was skeptical at first because I have tried so many different banana bread recipes - some good,some bad - that I did not really expect much. However, I was not disappointed. This is by far the best banana bread/cake/muffin recipe that I have ever eaten.

I was planning on making the recipe for breakfast but did not get around to it. Savannah and I decided that we would make it for an afternoon snack. The recipe is as follows:

Cinnamon Banana Breakfast Cakes

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed over-ripe bananas (approx.3 large)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2/3 cup buttermilk

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

bananas for slicing

2 Tbsp. melted butter for brushing tops of cakes

mixture of three tablespoons sugar and two teaspoons cinnamon for sprinkling

Directions:

Prepare some baking pans or muffin tins by greasing well and flouring the bottoms or by lining with parchment paper. Large muffin tins work well. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and continue beating. Add the bananas, vanilla, and buttermilk.

2. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon together.

3. Add the flour mixture to the butter-banana mixture and fold in.

4. Spoon the batter into the prepared molds.

5. Slice the remaining bananas and arrange them on top of the dough. Use as many slices as desired. (Remember, the dough will expand in the oven while the banana slices will tend to become smaller.)

6. Brush the tops with the melted butter and then sprinkle them with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes depending on the size of the baking molds. A toothpick inserted in the center of the cake should come out clean. Cool on wire racks.

I did not have any buttermilk on-hand so here is a trick...I put about 1/4 tsp. of lemon juice (or you can also use vinegar) in the bottom of my 2/3 cup measuring cup and then filled it the rest of the way with milk. The mixture needs to sit for a couple of minutes to coagulate and make the "sour milk." I use this method with any recipe that calls for buttermilk because I never have it around. You can also buy the powdered buttermilk that you mix in with your dry ingredients and follow the directions on the package. The powdered version can be found at most grocers.

I used part of the batter to fill 12 muffin tins 2/3 full. I had enough left over to make an 8" loaf and a Pyrex small pan of bread. I used previously frozen bananas for the batter and fresh bananas for the topping. I overlapped the banana slices so that when the bread puffed up they spread out nicely. I used Blue Bonnet light margarine in the batter and real butter to brush the tops. It took about 35 minutes for the muffins to cook and about 55 minutes for the loaves to finish baking. The finished product was sweet and delicious. It smelled scrumptious while baking, too!