I have a problem…with sweets. They are my absolute weakness and I honestly cannot control myself when it comes to desserts. Last Friday, I made a batch of brown sugar butter cookies…they were SO good, I ate all of them…by myself…in 3 days…except for the three that Brendan managed to eat. I’ve also been known to eat entire sleeves of Thin Mints and Oreos on my own…Brendan pointed out that I would have had to have eaten about 5-6 cookies a day for it to make sense that they were totally gone by Tuesday…yikes. Hey, I’m feeding a baby. I need the calories! However, I felt pretty badly that on Tuesday night when he asked for a cookie for dessert, I had to reveal that I had eaten the last one (or 5) that day.
Cookies are a little more time consuming and tricky to make when you have a 7 month old crawling all over the place, so I decided to make a cake. No time for an intricate layer cake, I made what is referred to as a “snack cake.” Simply put, a basic cake you make in a one layer pan. No frosting, nothing fancy. I looked in my cupboard and saw the large container of Nutella that I had been spoon feeding myself over the past few weeks, and decided this would make a fantastic addition to my cake. I made a basic vanilla cake with some banana, and swirled in Nutella before placing it into the oven. I’m pretty sure this will make up for me being a cookie monster.
Vanilla Cake with Banana and Nutella Swirls
- 3 cups of all purpose flour
- 2 cups of granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups of whole milk
- 1/2 cups canola oil
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ripe banana
- Nutella
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 13 inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Add in the milk, oil and vanilla, and combine using an electric mixer.
Add in the egg and banana, and beat with the electric mixer until well combined, about 2 minutes.
Place the cake in the oven for about 5 minutes to slightly warm up the batter and pan. Remove from the oven. This helps the Nutella “melt” into swirls a little easier.
Using a large spoon, drop dollops of Nutella around the pan…you can use as much or as little as you like!
Using a butter knife, swirl the Nutella throughout the cake. Be sure to thoroughly swirl the Nutella in, or it will just sink to the bottom of the cake.
Place back in the oven for 50-60 minutes. (depending on the pan you use as well as your oven)
The Simple Elements 