Vegan Banana Cake

Hurray, I just found another vintage cookbook! I didn't find it at a used bookstore or a flea market, I found it in my kitchen!

Our kitchen cabinets do not go to the ceiling; I collect milk glass so this is the perfect place to display some of my pieces. As such, some of my pieces are small so they need a boost to be seen. This is the third time I have painted my kitchen and I knew I had put books under some milk glass, so I wasn't surprised to find cookbooks up there. This one cookbook caught my interest though because of the Japanese title.  My daughter took Japanese in college and loves Japanese food, so this was one book that I put into retirement from propping up milk glass.

There is no copyright date, but I do know this was my mother's cookbook.  It looks like a group of women pooled their recipes to make their own cookbook. All the recipes are not Japanese though, but most are easy to convert to vegan.

This banana cake reminds me of Sara Lee's banana cake, which I loved as a child; my husband also agrees. When we took our first bites of the cake we looked at each other and said, "Sara Lee."

The cookbook didn't offer a frosting recipe, so I made my own.

Enjoy!

Ingredients for cake batter:

1 1/2 cup organic pure cane sugar
1/2 cup non-dairy butter
2 tablespoons of organic flaxseed soaked in 6 tablespoons of warm water
2 1/2 cups organic whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon non-gmo, non-aluminum baking powder
3/4 teaspoon organic baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 lightly mashed organic bananas
1 teaspoon organic pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup organic almond milk
1/2 teaspoon organic apple cider vinegar

Frosting:

2 cups organic confectioners sugar
1/2 cup non-dairy butter
1 teaspoon organic pure vanilla extract

Line a 8x8 cake pan with unbleached parchment paper, set aside.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

First, soak the flaxseed in a small nowl with warm water and let sit until jelled.

Mix the almond milk with the apple cider vinegar, let sit 5 minutes to curdle.

Cream non-dairy butter, add sugar and gradually add the flax mixture, and beat thoroughly.  Sift dry ingredients and add alternately with bananas, vanilla, and curdled milk.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Let cool in pan before removing.

While cake is baking, let's make the frosting.

Mix sugar, butter, and vanilla together until creamy. Set aside until cake is cool enough to frost.

This banana cake will become one of your favorite dessert recipes!