Honey Cashew Banana Cake

Honey Cashew Banana Cake is a perfect Summer treat! It’s subtly sweet, full of banana and honey flavors, and gluten free too! 

 It was my brother’s and my mom’s birthdays this last week, which is always an excuse for cake.

Before heading off to St. Louis to celebrate with my mom (brother was doing his own thing, turning 21 and partying with his frat), I decided to make some special mini cakes for her. 

These cakes are really simple if you have a stand-by favorite banana bread recipe (if not, totally use the one I linked, from Blackbird Bakery’s cookbook). I used honey roasted cashews as a sweet swap for the traditional pecans or walnuts and carried that into the frosting too. 

 

This cake is so yummy. So moist, tender, and not so rich that you can’t go back for seconds (the important things).

 

A fun day of brunch, grocery shopping, burgers on the grill and a kitschy ’60s cover band concert at the dock was a wonderful way to spend the weekend, celebrating mom. But, you know, cake. Yay!  

HONEY CASHEW BANANA CAKE

METHOD: 

1 recipe for gluten-free Banana Bread or Banana Cake – I used Blackbird Bakery’s recipe (from their cookbook, or linked here).
CHANGES I made – use 3 overripe bananas instead of 4
~use chopped honey roasted cashews (from the bulk bin in Fresh Market) instead of pecans
~use 1/2 cup coconut sugar and 1/2 cup granulated Stevia instead of 1 cup granulated sugar 
~use almond milk plus 1 tsp vinegar instead of buttermilk
~bake in small ramekins or small cake molds to make mini cakes; let cool completely before frosting and stacking

Frosting: grind 1 cup of raw cashews and 1/4 cup honey roasted cashews until you achieve a thick, smooth butter
In a bowl, mix (with a hand mixer or your stand mixer) together 1/2 cup of your cashew butter, 2 Tbs. softened butter, and 1/4 cup powdered sugar until smooth. Last, add 2 tsp. of raw local honey and mix until blended (add the honey last and blend until just mixed or else the frosting may seize). 

Crumble: chop up honey roasted cashews, white chocolate, and cacao nibs (you’ll want about 1/3 – 1/2 cup total, an equal mix of the three)

Assembly: Cut your banana cake into even layers. Spread and stack layers of (1) cake, (2) frosting, then (3) crumble for as many layers as you’d like. 

Notes: Cake can keep, wrapped with plastic wrap and in the fridge, for 5 days. Or freeze assembled cakes until you need them, thawing them for a day or two in the fridge before throwing a killer party. 

[treats with a twist]