Banana Split Bundt Cake #BundtBakers

If you are a fan of banana bread you are going to love this banana split Bundt cake. It’s banana bread pumped up by the addition of cocoa and cherries!

I haven’t been talking about it much because this kitchen renovation has been quite the challenge and I don’t like to complain. No one wants to hear that! My cooking space has been the laundry room with an Instant Pot and one burner electric hot plate so, no oven.

But, if you’ve been following along here for a few years, you know that early March is the time to make banana cream pie for my husband’s birthday. He’s not a big cake eater so that is his chosen birthday treat. I bought the bananas in anticipation but then the kitchen wasn’t ready yet. So, as those bananas got too brown for pie, I put them in the freezer.

With high hopes, a few days later, I bought more bananas. I am definitely a glass half full kind of person at the same time as I prepare for the worse. It’s a strange dichotomy. As you can guess from today’s recipe, banana cream pie still hasn’t happened. On the other hand, I think you all are going to love this banana split Bundt cake.

Banana Split Bundt Cake

All the things you love in a banana split - bananas, chocolate and cherries - are baked into this wonderful cake! You can totally serve it with scoops of ice cream as well. I would have but the current coronavirus lock down meant that I didn’t have any.

Ingredients
For the Bundt cake
2 cup or 250g all-purpose flour, plus extra for flouring the pan
1 cup or 200g sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
20 small bottled cherries (weight 65g), drained, juice reserved
4 oz or 113g pecan halves
3 very ripe bananas
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil, plus extra for greasing the pan
1/4 cup or 60ml milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup or 22g cocoa powder
1/3 cup or 110g cherry preserves

For the optional cherry glaze:
reserved juice from the bottled cherries (mine was about 1/2 cup or 118ml)
1 teaspoon butter

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup Bundt pan by brushing it with oil and coating the oil with flour. Decorate the bottom of your prepared Bundt pan with cherries and pecan halves.

 Then roughly chop the rest of the cherries and pecans.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the chopped cherries and pecans to the dry ingredients and stir to coat.

In another large mixing bowl, use a fork to mash the bananas. Mix in the oil, milk and vanilla until well combined while still leaving some lumps.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold lightly.

Add in the cocoa by spoonfuls and cherry preserves in dollops.

Gently fold them into the batter. Do not over mix. Ideally you still want to see small pockets of cocoa, cherry and banana.

Spoon the batter into your prepared Bundt pan.

Bake the Bundt in your preheated oven for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes then loosen the edges of the cake with your toothpick and turn the Bundt out onto the wire rack to cool completely. The cherries and pecans will be covered by the butter/flour coating but you can use the same toothpick to scrape that off so they show. Totally unnecessary but it makes the Bundt more attractive, in my humble opinion.

If you'd like to add a cherry glaze, cook the reserved juice of the bottled cherries for just a few minutes until it reduces by half and has thickened considerably. Remove from the heat and add the teaspoon of butter. Stir till the butter melts. Spoon the glaze over the Bundt.

Enjoy!

This month our Bundt Baker theme is cherries. Many thanks to our host Sue of Palatable Pastime! Check out all the other cherry Bundt recipes we are sharing today:

• Banana Split Bundt Cake from Food Lust People Love
• Black Forest Bundt Cake from Making Miracles
• Cherry Bourbon Bundt from Sweet Sensations
• Cherry Cake With Homemade Maraschino Cherries from Sneha's Recipe
• Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake from Palatable Pastime
• Cherry Jelly and White Chocolate Bundt Cake from Patyco Candybar

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers can be found on our home page.

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