Recipe: Banana Bars with Rum Icing

Jorge has been doing all of the cooking for the past three week while I recovered from eye surgery. I’m pretty much back to normal now and decided it was time for some baking. Since there were some pretty ripe bananas on the counter, I scoured Pinterest for an interesting banana recipe. These Banana Bars with Rum Icing caught my eye.

Ingredients for the cake:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup mashed bananas (I used a bit more)
• 1/2 cup dairy sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• NOTE: In the original recipe, 3/4 cup of chopped almonds and grated nutmeg are also used but I I’m not a nut lover and didn’t have any fresh nutmeg so I left these out.)

Ingredients for the icing:

• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon rum
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Milk
• NOTE: I don’t like a lot of frosting, so I split this in half besides the rum which was the full amount. I also left out the butter completely so it was more like icing.)

Start by preheating the oven to 350F / 180 C and grease a baking pan. The recipe recommends 15 x 10 x 1-inch. It also recommends using a mixing bowl throughout, which I don’t have so I did everything by hand. First, whip up the butter until it becomes creamy.

Then mix in the sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt until they are well combined.

Mash your ripe bananas. The healthy bit!

Once you finish, add the bananas, egg, sour cream and vanilla and mix everything together.

Add the flour.

Spread the mixture evenly into the greased pan.

Pop it into the oven for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

ICING

 To make the icing, the recipe recommends starting by whipping up the butter (I skipped that part). Mix in half of the powdered sugar, rum and vanilla.

Add the rest of the powdered sugar and a touch of milk for consistency.

Spread it on as thick or thin as you like.

And voila! Cake!

Cut it up in slices and enjoy.

It’s great with tea and a magazine.

And it’s also pretty fantastic with strawberries and blueberries on top.

Overall? Definitely satisfies the sweet tooth, but if I have ripe bananas hanging around and I need a banana recipe, it doesn’t top my old standby, the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread recipe.