Banana Bread Roll

I’ve made and remade this recipe so many times I’ve lost count. I could not for the life of me figure out why I couldn’t get the cake to roll up neatly like the pictures. Turns out, you have to respect the banana measurement. Oh.

I would make this recipe anytime I had ripe bananas to use up and would just throw them in, no matter how many (or few) I had. Welp, that was my problem. So when I had two small bananas that measured out to 2/3 cup when mashed, my cake finally rolled neatly. The problem when adding more of the banana is that while the flavor would be great, it’s just too dense and sticky for a cake. And when it comes to rolling a cake into a spiral, the lighter the cake, the easier the roll.

This particular banana bread roll is delicious. It’s much more like cake to me, with the addition of cream cheese frosting. It’s soft and spongey, which is surprising in a banana bread. The texture is so much lighter than you’d expect. And the flavors are dynamic. The sweet banana, the warm spices, the tart cream cheese frosting.

If I can roll up a cake, so can you. The trick, aside from following the recipe’s banana measurement, is generously sprinkling the cake with powdered sugar when rolling (so it doesn’t stick to the parchment paper), and to not over-bake the cake. If you can do all that, you’ll be golden. Like this cake. 😉