Banana Crumb Cake (and the name of my home)
If you enjoy Southern Plate, please tell a friend!
This is the second tutorial photographed at my new home. I just love photographing things in the sun room. Yesterday I opened a few windows out there and had the most wonderfully scented early summer breeze flowing through as I prepared this cake and later worked on some emails and such in a chair by the window. I ended up spending just about the entire day there, even moving kitchen appliances in as I needed them!
This is a recipe I threw together and has been all the rage at my house! I love crumb cakes. Not too sweet, more filing than regular cake, and with that delicious crumbly topping, you just can’t go wrong. In my eternal quest to not waste food, I did this one up as a twist on the old tried and true banana bread as a way to use up those almost-too-ripe bananas. It has been a huge hit at my house and just about flies out of the pan the moment I remove it from the oven. My husband is completely over the moon when I make it now and Bradybug drives me bat crazy wanting to know when it is going to be done baking. I’ve made it twice this week, and it’s only Wednesday!
I try to bring you recipes first and keep my initial tangents to a minimum. However, after I bring you the recipe it’s Katy Bar The Door! on tangents so read down at the bottom to see the name of our new home and how it came about!
You’ll need: Sugar, bananas, milk, self rising flour*, brown sugar, margarine, eggs, and vanilla.
Banana bread is great for using up those darkening bananas. That is why we tend to make it so often! Bananas start getting good and ripe and no one wants to eat them anymore but they are super sweet and soft and just begging to be baked with!
You can use light or dark brown sugar, whichever is your preference or whatever you have on hand.
We’re not picky ’round here. 
If you have bananas going bad and don’t want to make banana bread right away, just peel them, smoosh them up with a fork, and freeze them in sealed baggies. Be sure you write on the bag how many smooshed bananas are inside! When you’re ready to make banana bread, let them thaw a bit and toss them in!
*If you don’t have self rising flour, see my FAQ page on how to make your own.
Peel dem nanners!
I am using four bananas but you can use just three if you like. Now most people mash their bananas up with a fork for this but we want our crumb cake to be positively infused with banana flavor so we’re gonna liquify these puppies!
Place your bananas and sugar in a bowl and turn it on for a few minutes, until you have complete banan-owy liquid.
ooh yum.
Place your softened margarine in with the bananas and beat that up really well.
Its important that your margarine be softened at room temp for a bit before making this.
Of course, if you look at my mixture after I beat my margarine into it you can see globs of margarine because I didn’t soften mine one little bit! Just took it straight from the fridge and plopped it in there.
Eh, I’ve done worse.
Now we’re going to toss everything else in there. Add flour and eggs…
milk…
And some cheapie imitation vanilla. Mix all of that up until well blended.
Spray two pans with cooking spray. I am using square pans but you can use two loaf pans, a 9×13, or whatever cranks your tractor .
One of the pans I am using is an 8×8 disposable aluminum pan because whenever I make this, I like to give one of them away. I made these yesterday and took one to a family that I’ve been campaigning to get adopted into for the past nineteen years .
I don’t reckon I won ‘em over yet but they sure did like my crumb cake and I spent the afternoon chasing geese and running over ant hills in their golf cart so I reckon I’m family enough. I also massacred a coke can in their back forty with a 22.
It’s fun to be a kid again. I didn’t have ammunition the first go around…
Back at the Duke place Daisy was a busy mixin’ up the crumb topping ingredients…
Place a cup of flour, a stick of margarine (1/2 cup) and a cup of brown sugar in a bowl.
You just take a long tined fork and moosh it all up together.
Keep stirring and mooshing. I like this part because its the time I go sit down and watch a little tv .
Check the news to see which side is winnin’ today…
Here is your finished product. Now at this point, it would be awesome if you added in some chopped pecans or walnuts.
I very seldom include nuts in my recipes because it adds a lot of expense and around these here parts, the sheriff (that’d be me) is a cheapskate.
~winks and grins~
Pour about 1/4 of your batter into each of your pans and top with 1/4 of your crumbs.
Get happy with it. You can always make more if you run out…
Top with the rest of your batter
Then cover with the rest of your crumbs. Bake this at 350 until done.
How long it takes will depend on the type of pan you use but to check for doneness just insert a toothpick. If it comes out clean, you’re good to go. If it comes out covered in cakey batter, let it cook a bit longer.
I baked my 8×8’s for forty five minutes.
My son just about drove me crazy. “Mama, is the banana cake thing done yet? Can we eat it yet?”
“I’m starving having to smell it!”
It is awfully good.
Banana Crumb Cake
- 2C sugar
- 1 C milk
- 1 C chopped nuts (optional)
- 2 C self rising flour
- 1 stick margarine
- 2 eggs
- 3 bananas
- 1 tsp vanilla
Crumb Topping
- 1 stick (1/2 c) Margarine
- 1 Cup brown sugar (dark or light)
- 1 cup flour (self rising or plain, whatever you have on hand)
Spray two loaf or 8×8 pans with cooking spray. Place peeled bananas in mixing bowl, add sugar. Mix until bananas are liquefied. Add margarine, mix until creamed together with banana mixture. Add all other ingredients and blend well.
In medium bowl, place all topping ingredients. Cut together with a long tined fork until well blended. Pour 1/4 of batter into each pan, top with 1/4 crumb mixture. Pour remaining batter over and top with remaining crumb mixture. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 350.
Cake is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Give one to a friend. Never hurts to be neighborly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Naming My Home
I have been tossing around a name for my new home for some time, ever since I first asked y’all for suggestions. I have loved every single one of the names you have suggested (Especially Southern Cabinet, because it’s the home of Southern Plate!) but the house didn’t seem to respond to any of them.
Now don’t go thinking I’m crazy because I wanted the house to respond. There are plenty of more valid reasons to doubt my sanity anyway. I just figured that when I came across the perfect name, it would kind of let me know.
The second night I slept in our new home, I was taking a shower and a name came to me. I get some of my best thinking done in the shower because that is about the only place the kids don’t follow me into, if I’m lucky. My son has come in a time or two to talk to me while I showered (I was behind the curtain!) and I have learned how to make him scatter real quick. I say “Alright, I’m done now. If you don’t want to be scarred for life you better get outta here”. ~snickers~ Boy does he ever leave a dust trail!
Anyway, I was trying to come up with a name and thinking about all of the wonderful things here at this home and how many wonderful things which have happened in my life lately. I remembered this old movie from the eighties called “A Trip To Bountiful” and it hit me just like that…”Bountiful”. It was like the name was spoken to me.
However, rather than trust that inner voice, I gave it the third degree, as we are prone to do. “I don’t think Bountiful works really. Maybe some play off of it though or something to do with Bountiful or Bounteous.” I went to sleep tossing the word around in my head, unable to let it go but unable to fully accept it at the same time. The very next morning I had an email from a reader named Tina ~waves at Tina~ and it absolutely stunned me.
I happily found your site when I was looking to perfect my sweet tea. My tea had a taste that must have been the scalded sugar. Thank you… my tea is now delicious! I have since tried many of your wonderful recipes. They evoke many wonderful memories!
When I read about your new home needing a name, the word that popped into my mind was “bountiful” for the delicious bounty that will come from within!
Blessings to you and yours,
Tina
Next time I’ll pay more attention to my inner voice and not require so much divine affirmation.
Bountiful it is.
The bounty just keeps on coming each day, too. I’ve always wanted hydrangea bushes and there are six of the most gorgeous hydrangea bushes I’ve ever seen right outside my windows in the back.
This one is directly beneath my bedroom window.
I have been anxiously waiting to see what color the blossoms were going to be. I know you can alter the color by adjusting the acidity of the soil but I wanted to see what I had to begin with. My hope was for blue. Blue hydrangeas are my absolute favorite… This week I found out what I had…
I think we got a good thing going here, Bountiful.
Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the devil says “Oh crap, shes up again”
Today’s quote was submitted just yesterday by Mary Jo. I’d just love for you to submit your motivational or uplifting quotes by clicking here. Thank you!
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Wow! Thanks for the great recipe, I will be trying it this weekend. And I looooove your hydrangea bushes! That last picture looks like it could go on a magazine cover. I really liked “Southern Cabinet” but “Bountiful” seems to fit perfectly, too!
Well now.. Ya hit the motherload with this one. I buy my dad crumb cakes to have with his morning coffee. At $3.00 a box it can get very expensive. It probably wouldn’t be so expensive if he weren’t a sweet freak in his old age. He will eat several during the day so when I slave over lunch, he leaves half of it… “cause I ain’t hungry”.
I can’t bring myself to say “You’ll spoil your dinner” to him. I guess at 83 years old he can eat whatever he wants.
This will help save money. Thanks!
Love it, perfect, absolutely the best!
Just love your web site and can’t wait to make your banana crumb cake. Love the way you write and it is just like talking with you.
God Bless you and your family. Yes, Bountiful is it!!!!
marinan
I like “Jordan’s Crossing” or spell it “Jordans X-ing”!
Love the name of your home–it fits!! Now for the banana crumb cake–my favorite homemade cake is a banana cake made with buttermilk–it is kind of involved so I don’t make it often–I think this will soon become a family favorite–can’t wait to make it. Thanks for the recipe. Sheila in NC
I can identify with Brady. I’m hungry having to look at it! 40 minutes to go ’til lunch…
Your new home sounds lovely! Glad you are enjoying it! BTW, the acidity and aluminum of the soil controls the color of hydrangeas. Most of our soil here in the South produces blue blooms. I have a “Lady in Red” hydrangea which is *supposed* to bloom reddish-pink, but mine is as blue as can be!
Nevermind, I see that you did mention the soil pH in your article. I can’t think straight when I’m hungry and I’ve been hungry for an hour now!
What a nice name! I think that’s so cool to name your house, I bet it would be too much to name our little apartment, lol! The cake looks fantastic I know my husband will be wanting some as soon as I tell him about it! Thanks for having such a wonderful blog and sharing all these great stories about your and yours. It really is a joy to read!
*You* and yours even, lol
I am going to try this cake out! My bunch love their “nanners.” I have an absolutely decadent recipe for banana pudding. I got it from my sister in law’s grandma, so it’s “Mamaw Ellis’s Nana Puddin’.” She was a wonderful, Godly woman who we miss like crazy. She survived a tornado at age 85, hiding out in her little pantry. When she opened the door after it got still, that pantry was the only thing left standing- the rest of the house was gone with just the slab left. There I go rambling again, you know us southern women are just a story waiting to happen! I would be happy to send you the recipe if you would like. Your website is such a blessing, when I am having a bad day at work it’s just like talking to a girlfriend.
God bless you, sweetie!
Jane in lovely Dallas
Dear Christy,
“Bountiful” what a perfect, glorious name for your haven! I wish you bountiful dreams come true, memeory-making days and joy in your new home!
All my best,
Maralee
Hey Christy!
I love the name and pics of your new home! The banana crumb cake looks wonderful too! I will be making it soon. I have made your banana bread several times and even sold some at my church bake sale. Thanks for the great recipes!!
Alisha
Bountiful is perfect because not only is your menu bountiful-so are your blessings, and so will be your memories as you make them. It is truly a winning name. The banana crumb cake looks like a winner too.
I just love your website–your writing, the pictures, and the recipes!! I never responded when you asked for names for your house, but ironically I was thinking “Southern Bounty.” “Bountiful” really fits your new house–and I wish you & your family bountiful blessings in your new home.
p.s. Can’t wait to try the Banana Crumb Cake. I have a few ripe ‘nanners just screaming to be used.
Your banana bread recipe has become my staple. Tried different recipes for years and every one of them would turn out burned on the outside but gooey in the center. Yours is perfect every time. So glad I found your blog.
Your crumb cake looks like another wonderful adaption. Because of something my husband said, I tried baking the banana bread recipe in 3 round cake pans and frosting it with cream cheese frosting. I do use nuts – lots of pecans – because we have trees and the pecan crop was abundant last fall. I still have bags and bags of them that won’t fit in the freezer. Anyway, we have taken the cake to potlucks several times and everyone is blown away. So thanks again for the recipe. I’ll have to try the crumb cake too.
The name for your home and the hydrangeas are beautiful.
I found your site a few months back through your husband’s SW site (he linked to your donuts recipe, I think) and just love it. It is wonderful how you surround the recipe with your stories, like we are all chatting over coffee at the kitchen table. And, my family has raved every time I’ve tried one your recipes. Thank you!
That looks so delicious! And hey, since it’s got bananas and eggs and milk, and looks similar to a coffee cake, that would be a totally acceptable breakfast, right? That’s if you don’t want to wait until snack time or dessert time.
I love using ripe bananas in baking. We usually just throw together some banana bread, but it might be time to give cake a try too.
I love the name Bountiful! It’s fittin’.
Can’t wait to try this cake, too. I was looking for something different to take when we go to my parent’s house in June. This will fill the bill perfectly.
Oh, that cake looks wonderful. I will try it soon. I can’t stand bananas alone, but go crazy for any kind of cake or pudding with bananas!
Oh my goodness that looks delicious! I have a big old bunch of bananas sitting on my counter right now, and I can’t wait for them to get too ripe to eat so I can make this! I’m thinking this will be on the menu for the weekend’s festivities.
I love the name that you’ve given your house – the Lord truly is bountiful to us! Your big kitchen sounds just wonderful. Like you, I am a lover of hydrangeas. I’ve already planted 5 this year and have 7 more sitting on my patio waiting to be planted. How fortunate you are to have some already established for you to enjoy!
Christy, thank you for this blog! I am a Southern girl and this cooking is so much like what I do for my family. We are always amazed at the popularity of various Meat-n-Three’s around our city. I think we just aren’t as easily impressed as some people because this is the kind of food that we eat all the time! I never realized how blessed I was with good country cooking until I got “out in the world” and saw that not everybody ate as well as we did. I’m thankful for my roots and am trying to raise my son to appreciate his too.
Thanks again, and I look forward to more posts!
okay…I love your recipes but everytime u send me one I end up at the grocery store buying way more than I need. Can not go in and get just a couple of things. Have two cakes in the oven now. One for my 91 year old mother and one for my 21 year old son. My crumbs were not very crumblely??? If that is a word? But I think they will turn out great. Thanks!
Christy, you are a very special woman. Your wit is always so funny. It’s wonderful in this day and age, to find things to laugh at. I think you sound just as sunny as your sun room. Not only good recipes come from you, but lots of laughs too. You are a treasure.
I am sure wanting to try this Banana Crumb Cake. Will make it even if I have to go to the store and buy some over ripe banana’s.LOL
Southern Plate is one of the bright rays in my life. Thanks so much.
Bountiful.
I cannot think of a more perfect name for your home, Christy!!!
I had some ripe bananas and was planning to make banana nut bread until…I seen your Banana Crumb Cake recipe. Oh My Gosh this looks soo yummy
) Thanks for sharing it and just in time to! I absolutely love your website!!
God Bless,
From a Canadian Gal with a Southern Heart
Thanks for this great idea. I’m off to try this recipe now.
Pat Bailey – Steubenville, OH
Your story makes me smile! I love it when everything just seems to go right!
Hydrangea’s are my favorite! So pretty aren’t they!? Banana Bread sounds quite tasty too! My husband (who is a school teacher) said his students were asking him to bring in the wife’s banana bread…maybe I will surprise them by making this!!!
awww Christy, I am so glad that the Lord has blessed you with a wonderful home! I am tickled pink for ya!
This cake looks delicious! I am going to have to make this next time my family gets together. Hope the unpacking is going well!
God Bless,
Vickie
Christy…waving back at you! Your hydrangeas are beautiful and the Banana Crumb Coffee cake looks delicious. I look forward to making it soon!
“Bountiful” blessings!
Christy,
I just can’t tell you how much I love reading all of your ramblings!You would make a great neighbor!
The name of your house, the hydrangeas and the banana crumb cake are all wonderful.
I made the banana crumb cake tonight and everyone LOVED it. Thank you so much for taking the time to teach us how to cook so many delicious things for our family. My husband could not believe how great this cake tasted and it made the house smell scrumptious!!!
Thank you so much…
-Stacy
That looks good but bananas never last long enough round here. Edward loves “lar-lars” as he calls them and eats 2 or 3 a day when we buy them. Matter of fact he gave his toothless 6 month old sister one last night. He also tries to feed her biscuits, cereal, and string cheese.
This looks so good and much better than regular cake!
Perfect Perfect Perfect!
What an absolutely perfect name! Bountiful….I love it!! We never named our house, ‘cuz it wouldn’t have come when we called it anyway.
How amazing that you had yet “another Divine moment” with Tina like you did with the Taste of Ga cookbook/Dixie Cornbread email from me. Just keep on doing what you are doing, girl. We all appreciate the lovely pics of the new flowers, sunroom, kitchen.
Honey’s staff loves banana nut bread, muffins when I send in food to the office. THIS is the next “to go” recipe and yes, I will make two. Weee.
Love ya!
Hey Christy…Bountiful is
A great choice. I am writing my first comment to you from my new iphone. Had to get a new phone seeing as my old phone got run over last week but that’s another story. Love the crumble cake. I make banana crumble regularly so this crumble cake is very similar. If I have over ripe bananas I also make a smoothie with some bananas,milk and a small amount of Greek yoghurt. Ok this just made me remember back to when I was a kid my friend and I dressed up as the Bananas in Pyjamas for our book fair. Well I hope you xan read this ok!
Oh I remember bananas in pajamas. Although I was in high school when they were popular I still had one because I thought they were cute.
Just perfect!!! Oh I really really want this cake now. It looks like everything is coming together for you Christy! I am Glad for you!
I dislike eating a mushy banana and I am lazy so I just pop them into the freezer just like they are…now I have a use for them..hehehe.
Your choice of the name for your house fits you perfectly.
I am in Idaho and going shopping for the necessary ingredients for dishpan cookies….grandma’s cooking!!
God Bless…
I’ve only been coming to your site for a short while, but I LOVE it! You do such an amazing job. This cake looks fabulous and I’m sure I’ll be making it soon…like maybe tomorrow? Haha.
But I also wanted to say that you just brightened up my day even more with the pictures of your gorgeous hydrangeas! These are my favorite too – they were also my wedding flower! My bouquet looked exactly like your last photo. It brought back such great memories! Thank you!
YUM!
This is a delicious looking cake That I’ll be making soon! Banana cake is hard to beat, so I see why your family is impatient for it to be done!
Well, I made this cake for my boyfriend (we had some bananas going bad and I am allergic to them so I made this all for him!!) and he loved it!! My crumb topping didn’t turn out so well because we only had the tub butter, but the boyfriend didn’t seem to mind it at all! He even said it was better than his Mama’s— a big feat for me!
And I think he took the second one to work today! I am anxious to find out what everyone thought of it!!
Christy, very happy that you are enjoying your new home! God is good! Hope your blessings continue to be bountiful… and can’t wait to try the banana cake recipe. Thanks for sharing!
I just got finished eating a big hunk of this cake… WOOO is it good! I added a little Saigon cinnamon in the batter and topping, used butter, White Lily flour (which I’m convinced always makes a difference), and a spoonful of Hellman’s mayo (my secret to never-fail moist cakes). Baked it in a 9×13 dish. Served it with some leftover strawberries from yesterday. I’ll be making this again- it’s a keeper! Thank you!
Okay, I made the banana crumb cake and took it to work for my co-workers to share. They went CRAZY it was so good! And I got to answer with “Why yes, I did make it form scratch!” Thanks Christy! They think I am a cooking genius. Ha ha!
I saw this recipe and had to make it and boy oh boy was it good!! Moist as ever and so much big banana taste that I love. Going to cut a big chunk now to have with my coffee this morning! Yummers!
Word of caution….
Don’t try this recipe during a thunderstorm. The barametric pressure wreaks HAVOC on it and it either won’t rise- or will fall in the middle!!
The outer edges will still be good tho!!!
YUM!!!
Made it. Ate it. Loved it. Had extra. Sent to City Dept. of Public Works with husband. Disappeared before 8:00 a.m. Thank you. Used half whole wheat flour. Made for a rich, chewy cake. Yummy!
I made this for my husband and child, and my cousin and her children, and everyone loved it including myself. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe.
I have ripe bananas that need to be used and this looks great!
I’m going to use a 9×13 pan… do I cook it for 45 minutes also?
Thank you,
Jan
Hey! It should be done in about the same time, just check it and if it’s wiggly in the middle, give it another ten or fifteen.
Doncha just love my technical terms!?
Gratefully,
Christy
Christy
I made the Banana Crumb Cake this week, it was a hit! Thanks for a great recipe.
I made this and it is wonderful!!!! My only question would be how do i store this without the crumb topping becoming mushy. I made this is in a 9 by 13 pan yesterday and today the topping is not crunchy like it was yesterday- not that it makes it taste bad, just i prefer the crunchy way, any storage suggestions?
In a 9 by 13 i cooked for 1 hours (in reply to the poster a few posts above me) … but it can cook for maybe 1 hour and 10 min also, just depends on the consistency you want. Mine is really soft and moist.
Hi, Christy! I just made this Banana Crumb Cake this morning. Perhaps it it too hot & humid here in “ol’ Virginny” today ’cause I could not get my crumb topping to “crumb”!! I finally gave up (it was sticky & in a “blob”), so I had to pinch it off in little “globs” & drop onto the batter. I used two loaf pans & they just came out of the oven, looking BEAUTIFUL!! Smells divine, too!! Also, I realized when I was gathering up the ingredients that I had very little milk, BUT I did have some leftover fat-free HALF & HALF so used that instead! Can hardly wait to sneak a bite before hubby comes in!!!
Does it freeze well? I would like to keep the 2nd one for guests who will be coming in this weekend. Thanks so much!!
This recipe looks like a winner! Can’t wait to try it!