Banana Spice Ring

You know those recipes that you clip out of a magazine or newspaper and tuck away and somehow over time they become one of your tried and true recipes that you make again and again?  That's how I feel about my banana spice ring recipe.  I clipped it off the back of a flour bag years ago and have made it literally dozens and dozens of times. 

It is my standard banana bread that I make when having people for tea, or visiting them, or if someone's sick or if there's a potluck.  It seems to pop up for all occasions, partly because it uses up some of the millions of frozen overripe bananas that I have in the freezer, partly because I could make it in my sleep, but mostly because it tastes so good and looks really cool when you bake it in a bundt pan. 

A couple of weeks ago my friend Barbara was having her annual baby pool party and invited us to come.  It is always a blast, the babies soak in the pools while the Moms fill our faces with delicious food and drink wine in the sun.  It has become a favourite summer memory of mine two years in a row now!  I was struggling with what to bring for Barbara and then just plum ran out of time to make anything amazing, so I quickly whipped up a banana spice ring that morning.  It was a huge hit with the kids at the party especially, so I was glad in the end that I made it!

Here's the recipe, hope you try it! The combination of spices make it especially delicious!

Susan's Banana Spice Ring

2 1/2 cups flour, sifted
1/2 cup softened butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about four medium ripe bananas)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 2.5L bundt pan or a 9 inch springform pan.  In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar.  Beat in eggs one at a time.  Add sour cream and vanilla.  Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, spices and salt.  Fold into creamed mixture alternately with bananas.  Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes.  Turn cake out of pan and cool on rack.  Dust with icing sugar.