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Banana Cake (Eggless)
1 cup white sugar ½ cup butter 1 cup sweet milk 2½ cups Five Roses flour 2 teaspoons baking powder Lemon flavor Banana Cut banana in layer and place between layers of cake and on top of cake when baked.
The original gives ingredients and an assembly note but no mixing method, pan size, or oven heat. What follows fills those gaps and flags the two things most likely to disappoint: a batter this lean needs careful creaming, and cut bananas do not keep.
- Method, since none is givenCream the butter and sugar thoroughly, then add the sifted flour and baking powder alternately with the milk, finishing with flour. The eggless crumb depends entirely on air beaten into the butter and on the baking powder, so do not shortcut the creaming, and get it into the oven as soon as it is mixed.
- OvenBake at 350F. Two 8-inch layers take about 25 minutes; a single 8-inch square pan takes 35 to 40. The cake is done when it springs back and a skewer comes out clean.
- Sweet milkSimply fresh unsoured whole milk, specified to distinguish it from the sour milk or buttermilk used in soda-leavened recipes. Whole milk, not skim, since there is no egg to add richness.
- Five Roses flourA Canadian flour milled from hard spring wheat and sold for general household baking; Canadian all-purpose flours of this type tend to run a little stronger than American ones. Ordinary all-purpose works; measure by spooning into the cup and levelling, as scooping packs the cup appreciably heavier and can make an eggless batter tough.
- Baking powderTwo teaspoons to two cups of flour is about the standard rate, though eggless cakes are often given a little more. Check that yours is fresh, since it is the only leavening here.
- Lemon flavorAbout a teaspoon of lemon extract, or the grated zest of one lemon. Start with less if using a concentrated commercial extract.
- The bananasSlice them only at the moment of assembly and use ripe but firm fruit. Cut banana browns within an hour and weeps liquid, which will soak the crumb, so this cake is made to be eaten the day it is filled.
- What holds it togetherNo frosting or cream is mentioned, but sliced fruit alone will not adhere well to a layer cake. Whipped cream between the layers and over the top is one common period treatment and would keep the banana from sliding.
- YieldEnough for one two-layer 8-inch cake, serving eight to ten.
The Five Roses Cook Book was published by the Lake of the Woods Milling Company of Winnipeg and Montreal, first appearing in 1913 and distributed in enormous numbers to Canadian households who bought the company's flour; it became one of the most widely owned kitchen books in the country. Eggless cakes appear throughout books of this type not as a curiosity but as economy: eggs were seasonal and expensive, and scarce in late winter, so recipes leaning on baking powder and generous butter were a practical alternative rather than a substitute for a "real" cake. The banana itself is the more modern element here. Improvements in shipping from Central America are generally credited with turning the fruit from a luxury into something more widely available in these years, and cookbooks of the decade are full of banana fillings, salads and layer cakes advertising that fact.