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The Banana
No. 1. Spread sliced bananas over the layers and on the banana place lemon or apple jelly.
No. 2.
No. 3.
Instead of the jelly substitute a plain icing.
Substitute whipped cream for the jelly.
No. 4. The pulp of six bananas may be beaten up with a pint of whipped cream or the stiff-whipped whites of two or three eggs and a little sugar. The cream or egg may also be used on top of the cakes.
This is a set of variations on a filling rather than a standalone recipe: the assumption is that you have already baked plain layer cakes and are deciding what goes between them. Read all four numbered options as alternatives, not steps.
- The missing cakeThe original assumes a companion recipe for plain layers elsewhere in the book. Any butter or sponge layer cake works; two or three 8-inch layers will take about three bananas sliced thin for option No. 1.
- Slice thin, assemble lateCut the bananas no thicker than a quarter inch and lay them down within an hour of serving. Banana slices weep and brown between layers, and a cake filled in the morning for an evening supper will have grey fruit and a damp crumb.
- What the jelly is doingThe lemon or apple jelly in No. 1 is not just flavour. Its acid slows the browning of the cut fruit and its pectin holds the slices in place. A firm jar jelly, stirred smooth first, spreads better than a soft preserve.
- "Plain icing"In books of this kind the term usually means a simple uncooked confectioners' sugar glaze made with water or milk, beaten until it will just hold a line, rather than a rich buttercream — though the term was used loosely and could also cover a simple boiled icing.
- The banana cream, No. 4Six bananas mashed into a pint of whipped cream makes a great deal of filling, enough for a three-layer cake with plenty for the top. Mash or sieve the pulp until smooth and fold it in at the last moment; overworking collapses the cream.
- Raw egg whitesThe alternative in No. 4, stiff-whipped whites with a little sugar, is an uncooked meringue that never sees heat. Use pasteurized whites if serving children, older guests or anyone pregnant.
- SweetnessNo quantity of sugar is given anywhere. Ripe bananas are already sweet; start with two tablespoons per pint of cream and taste.
- KeepingNone of these fillings holds overnight. Refrigerate the assembled cake, serve the same day, and expect the fruit to darken at the cut edges regardless.
Bananas were still something of a novelty ingredient in American home cookbooks when compilations of fruit recipes like this one appeared. Regular steam shipments from Central America and the Caribbean, and refrigerated rail cars moving inland, are generally credited with making the banana a fruit a general grocer could stock, and cookbook writers responded with pages of ideas for using it. The character of this entry is four terse variations on a filling rather than a full recipe. The pairing with lemon or apple jelly reflects a practical instinct as much as a culinary one, since acid was the household defence against cut fruit turning brown long before anyone wrote about enzymatic browning.