Mardi Gras season has begun here on the Gulf Coast. I always have lots of festive company during Mardi Gras, and I love it. But as you know, festive times require festive foods. And, boy howdy, do I ever love Mardi Gras party food!
The most emblematic Mardi Gras foods along the Gulf Coast, of course, are King cakes in New Orleans, and moonpies in Mobile. Traditional New Orleans King cake is a flat yeasted pastry laced with cinnamon, or, more recently, filled with a cream cheese, praline, or fruit filling. There is always colored sugar glued down with white icing on the top. King cakes have a tiny pink or gold baby Jesus hidden somewhere inside. Finding the baby in your piece of King cake indicates good luck and prosperity. It also means you’re buying the next King cake.
MoonPies were invented in 1917 at the Chattanooga Bakery, and have long been a Mobile Mardi Gras staple. They’re made of graham crackers with a marshmallow filling, and dipped in a flavored coating. MoonPies don’t have a baby inside, and we don’t have to buy them. The crewes at the parades throw them at you for free.
As fun as both King cakes and MoonPies are, neither is outstanding taste-wise, and that’s okay. If I want something delicious on the sweeter side of Mardi Gras fare, I make Bananas Foster Cake with Dark Rum Glaze instead. It has everything you expect from bananas foster–bananas, spice, brown sugar, rum–and you don’t have to set it on fire.
I’m not much of a sweets baker, as either of my kids will tell you. But Bananas Foster Cake is a bundt cake, and no more difficult to make than a batch of muffins. The recipe does include an optional cream cheese filling, but it’s totally up to you whether to use it or not. The hardest thing about Bananas Foster Cake is checking to make sure you have 3 more tablespoons of dark rum in the liquor cabinet. Oh, and using a big enough bowl. As you can tell, that took me two tries.
Sometimes I have company for brunch during Mardi Gras. No problem. With or without the cream cheese filling, Bananas Foster Cake makes a fantastic coffee cake. And no one will complain if you can stick a pink plastic baby in there somewhere!
Bananas Foster Cake with Dark Rum Glaze
Ingredients
Filling
- 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 T. dark rum
Cake
- 3 cups flour
- ½ t. baking soda
- 2 t. cinnamon
- ½ t. nutmeg
- 1½ t. salt
- 2 sticks butter at room temperature
- 2¼ cups packed brown sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 1 cup overripe banana, mashed (about 2 large bananas)
- 1 cup full-fat buttermilk
- 1 T. dark rum
- 1 t. vanilla
Glaze
- 3 T. butter
- 3 T. brown sugar
- 1 T. dark rum
- ¾ c. powdered sugar
- 1 T. buttemilk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°. Grease and flour a bundt pan.
- Make the filling: combine the filling ingredients and mix well with an electric mixer. Set aside. Rinse the beaters.
- Make the cake batter: whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and brown sugar using an electric mixer. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the banana, buttermilk, rum, and vanilla. Gradually beat in the dry ingredients.
- Pour half the batter in the prepared pan. Using a teaspoon, add the filling by dollops halfway between the side of the pan and the center tube. Don't allow the filling to touch the pan. Spoon the rest of the batter evenly on top.
- Bake for 70-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. If adding a king cake baby, insert it now. Allow the cake to cool in the pan 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a baking rack to cool completely.
- When the cake is cool, make the glaze: melt together butter and brown sugar. Off the heat stir in the rum, powdered sugar, and buttermilk. Pour over cake.
Oh my goodness! I’m going to make this very soon! Sounds delicious!
‘Tis the season!