This is a light, but moist cake, with a nice pure flavor and a great texture.  It doesn’t have an over-pronounced banana flavor.  It’s subtle.  And it’s tropical, with bananas, coconut and rum.     The secret to really good banana cake or banana bread, is to not use bananas that are too over-ripe.  We all have over-ripe bananas from time to time.  Admittedly, The Goddess has been known to let them get pretty dark, completely black, in fact.  But, she has learned that we pitch those onto the compost heap.  They just don’t make good banana bread/cake.  And who wants to waste time making a cake that isn’t delicious?  You want the banana to be nice and ripe, full of sugar and flavor, with great banana aroma, and soft, but not mushy.  The bananas pictured are perfect.  I mash the bananas with a fork, but you can toss them right into the mixer after you’ve added the eggs.  That works, too.

I placed a streusel topping on the loaves after they had finished baking, slid the under the broiler and browned and crisped the topping up.  Now, we’re going to have a teaching moment here, as The Eldest Progeny always tells me I can never pass up such a moment…but what does he know, anyway?!?  The loaf on the right, is perfect!  The Goddess was a powerhouse of focus when she was broiling this one.  Now, I do want you to remember, she didn’t have to show you this.  You may recall that in the past, The Goddess has mention, “don’t walk away from the stove when you’re broiling something”…remember those sage words?  The cake on the left is what can happen when you just step out, for less than a minute, to drop the garbage into the can.  Seriously, it can happen that quickly.  There’s lots of sugar and butter in that topping.  It’s a winning flavor combination, but it’s also a recipe for disaster, if you’re not paying attention.  And The Goddess wasn’t paying attention!

So, do we just pitch this cake out?  We do not!  No. No. No.  We can simply cut that too crispy topping off, top with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream and drizzle on some Bourbon Caramel Sauce or Caramel Apple Sauce with Bourbon.  No one but you will know.  Moment of truth???  The Goddess sort of liked that over-caramelized, almost-burned-to-a-crisp topping.  Yes.  It’s true.

The coconut helps keep the cake moist and it just so happens to be really delicious.  The coconut rum has a pretty decent coconut flavor, but you can use mango, dark, orange or whatever rum you want, except spiced rum.  Spiced rum has a tendency to over-power the other flavors.  You can add some ground cardamom, cinnamon, allspice or nutmeg if you want, but I wanted the pure banana/coconut flavor.

I combine the dry ingredients and set them aside.  I place the lime juice in a cup measure, then fill it with whole milk, stir it and set it aside to sour.  Later, I add the rum, vanilla and banana to the soured milk.  I beat the butter and sugar together until light, then toss in the eggs, beating well after each addition.  Now, this is where it’s just a tad different.  Just pour in the dry ingredients, then the soured milk/banana mixture and beat it just until it comes together, about 30 seconds.  Do not over-beat it.  Divide the batter between the pans, into the preheated oven and bake until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it.

This cake is delicious with a cream cheese frosting or a butterscotch frosting, but we’re not that into frosting, so that’s why I did the streusel topping.

This is also delicious sliced and lightly toasted, for breakfast.  It’s a good coffee cake-type cake…really nice with coffee.

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