If there was one baked good where variety didn’t appeal to me, it was banana bread. The only banana bread I really liked was my mom’s recipe. For me, her version was the ne plus ultra of banana bread. I loved it so much, I converted the recipe to gluten-free for my cookbook. I really never had any desire to try another recipe. Banana bread and me? The very definition of “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

The selected recipe was Lots-of-Ways Banana Cake. After skimming mom’s recipe, I was reminded that there really isn’t much of a difference between banana bread and banana cake. It’s sort of like the difference between a cupcake and a muffin– icing! Also, banana bread is usually baked in a 9×5 loaf pan; banana cake in two rounds or a 9×13. While people calls this recipe a “cake”, I came to think of it as a bread because I decided not to ice it. The recipe doesn’t include the phrase Lots-of-Ways for nothing. Throughout the recipe notes that substitutions are welcome.

Don’t have brown sugar? Use granulated! Can’t find coconut milk? Use milk or sour cream or yogurt. You get the point; this recipe can be altered to suit your tastes—or whatever you have in the pantry.

After glancing at the recipe, I was intrigued that coconut was one of the ingredients. Coconut plus bananas? Yum! In addition to sweetened coconut, I suggest that unsweetened coconut milk can be used in the recipe. Well, I didn’t have coconut milk on hand. Okay, that’s not true. I did have coconut milk in the fridge. I also had mold in my coconut milk. Down the drain it went. Since my coconut milk was spoiled, I decided to use sour cream. My version of mom’s Cake ended up being a Sour Cream Banana Coconut Cake. Even I had to admit, it sounded pretty good. I used a combination of white rice flour, cornstarch and sweet rice flour in the recipe. The thick and creamy batter was gorgeous! Since I didn’t want to ice the cake, I decided to bake it in a 9×13 inch cake pan because I love sheet cakes. There is just something wonderful about a cake you can leave in the pan, on the counter, and let folks lob themselves off a slice when they feel like it. Out of the oven came a beautiful cake. I couldn’t wait to try it. After snapping a few pictures, it was finally time for me to try a new banana cake! And, as you might have guessed, I loved it! The coconut and spices combined with banana is just perfect! The texture of the cake is really moist without being gummy.

Sour Cream Banana Coconut Cake

• Ingredients
• Directions