Vegan banana caramel cake with candied pistachios

It’s about time I posted another layer cake. “Cake” is in the goddamn name of the blog—I can’t be misleading you people by posting pancakes and dumb shit all the time just because I’m lazy oh and because I’m hoarding recipes to possibly write an e-cookbook (there I said it). So here you are. A banana layer cake. With caramel and candied pistachios and shit. Fancy as fuck.

But sometimes I feel like Cookie Monster sitting on a toilet heating up some packaged cookie dough on a spoon with a lighter. source

Especially since I have recently acquired two—yes, two—new cake cookbooks for my arsenal. It’s faintly ridiculous no actually really ridiculous, but I swear to god I am going to make good use of those cookbooks. Having some Amazon credit to use up, we bought Decorated by April Carter and Lomelino’s Cakes by Linda Lomelino (who also writes the fabulous blog Call Me Cupcake). Both cookbooks feature the most gorgeous photography and inspiring recipes. I had to fan myself while flipping through them. Kind of.

So today, I have for you a relatively simple cake inspired by a recipe from Lomelino’s Cakes. I’ll admit, it’s not as beautiful and flawless as the one in the cookbook—not that there was ever a chance of my cake baking up to her standards—and I did change the recipe a tad bit for veganizing and also my own obsessive need to tweak flavors for the sake of *originality*, and I only have two photos because it was nighttime and I was hurriedly making this cake for an occasion early on the morrow, and the frosting caked up a bit because I had frozen the cake to speed up the process of cooling and—

All right I’ll stop making excuses. Here it is, in all its glory.

Supremely meh, isn't it?

Regarding the appearance, that is—don’t let any physical flaws deter you from this glorious banana caramel cake. I really loved how Miss Lomelino included caramel sauce in the actual cake, giving it a nice golden-brown crust and adding more depth of flavor to the plain old banana cake. There’s also caramel sauce in the frosting. I may have gone overboard with this, as I ended up running out of sauce to drizzle on top.

Or maybe that was just me, nibbling on the caramel while the cakes baked. You never know. 

Mildly relevant comic. source

ANYWAY. Here is the recipe.

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Vegan banana caramel cake with candied pistachios

Makes one double-layer 6-inch round cake

Adapted from Lomelino’s Cakes

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Caramel sauce

Ingredients

200 grams • granulated sugar • 1 cup

60 grams • water • ¼ cup

11 grams • light corn syrup • 1 ½ teaspoons

122 grams • full-fat coconut milk • ½ cup

4 grams • vanilla extract • 1 teaspoon

1 gram • fleur de sel • 1/4 teaspoon

Directions

In a medium saucepan, bring sugar, water, and corn syrup to a boil over high heat. Cook until sugar is dissolved, but do not stir. After about six minutes, an amber caramel will form; remove from heat and drizzle in cream slowly while stirring.

Remove from heat and mix in salt and vanilla. Transfer caramel to a bowl; let cool completely before using.

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Banana cake

Ingredients

165 grams • light brown sugar • ¾ cup

150 grams • granulated sugar • ¾ cup

98 grams • coconut oil, softened • ¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons

110 grams • silken tofu • ½ cup

340 grams • all-purpose flour • 2 ½ cups

4 grams • baking soda • 1 teaspoon

198 grams • bananas • 2 large

244 grams • nondairy milk • 1 cup

80 grams • caramel sauce (see recipe above) • ¼ cup

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease two 6-inch round baking pans and line the bottoms with parchment.

Place brown sugar, granulated sugar, and coconut oil in the bowl of an electric stand mixer; beat until light and fluffy. Add tofu and beat for another couple minutes until fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and baking soda. In another bowl, mash bananas and whisk in milk. With mixer on low speed, add about 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by half of the milk and banana mixture. Repeat, and finish the batter off with the remaining flour mixture.

Divide batter evenly between prepared baking pans. Drizzle 40 grams • 2 tablespoons caramel sauce on top of each pan; stir in gently with a fork. Bake for about 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out with moist crumbs attached. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

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Caramel buttercream

Ingredients

112 grams • coconut oil, softened • ½ cup

106 grams • caramel sauce • 1/3 cup

300 grams • powdered sugar • 2 ½ cups

30 grams • full-fat coconut milk • 2 tablespoons

2 grams • vanilla extract • ½ teaspoon

Directions

Place coconut oil in the bowl of an electric stand mixer; beat until smooth. Add caramel sauce and beat until smooth once more. With mixer on low speed, spoon in powdered sugar. Add coconut milk and vanilla, increase speed, and beat until light and fluffy.

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Candied pistachios

Ingredients

7 grams ● coconut oil ● 1 ½ teaspoons

25 grams ● sugar ● 2 tablespoons

1 grams ● salt ● 1/8 teaspoon

1 grams ● cinnamon ● ½ teaspoon

50 grams ● pistachios ● ½ cup

1 grams ● vanilla extract ● ¼ teaspoon

Directions

Start by placing parchment paper on a baking sheet. Set aside.

Then, melt coconut oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sugar, salt, and cinnamon and stir to combine. Add pistachios and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar caramelizes and the nuts are toasted.

Remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour pistachios on prepared baking sheet and use a fork to separate nuts into a single layer. Let cool completely before using.

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Assembly

Ingredients

Banana cake

Caramel buttercream

Candied pistachios

Directions

Place banana cake on a work surface; level off each layer with a serrated knife. Frost one layer with caramel buttercream, then top with the other layer. Frost the entire cake with remaining buttercream. Sprinkle candied pistachios on top for garnish.

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Not the prettiest thing, but still tasty.

Here are some other banana-y, caramel-y recipes to take a peek at while you’re here.

Caramelized banana bread muffins with coconut cashew filling. The caramelized bananas in the batter will blow your mind.

Dark chocolate strawberry banana bread muffins. So delightfully...cubical.

Salty sweet bourbon pecan pie bars. I totally brought these to school and no one even knew.

Salted bourbon caramel sauce. Amazing on ice cream.