🍌 Chapter 2: How to Ripen Bananas — FAST
Before we cook, we coax.
🔥 Method 1: The Oven Cheat
Place whole bananas (with peel) on a baking sheet.
Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 15–25 minutes until the peels are blackened and fruit inside is soft.
Let cool, peel, and use as “ripe” bananas.
🍯 Pro Tip: This caramelizes the sugars and intensifies banana flavor — perfect for baking.
🍎 Method 2: The Fruit Bowl Hack
Place bananas in a paper bag with apples or avocados. Ethylene builds up and ripens them naturally in 24–48 hours.
But we’re not waiting 48 hours, are we?
Let’s roast those rebels and turn them into the best banana cake ever.
🎂 The Recipe: Roasted Banana Brown Butter Cake (With Maple Cream Cheese Frosting)
This cake is not banana bread. This is banana luxury — the kind that fills your kitchen with cozy aromas and your soul with joy. We’re pairing roasted bananas with brown butter, cinnamon, and a frosting that feels like autumn hugging you in July.
🍌 Ingredients – Banana Brown Butter Cake
For the roasted bananas:
3 medium bananas, unripe or just under-ripe
1 tbsp brown sugar
Pinch of salt
For the cake:
¾ cup unsalted butter, browned
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
½ cup buttermilk (or Greek yogurt)
🍁 Ingredients – Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup pure maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1½–2 cups powdered sugar
👩🍳 Instructions – Step by Step
Step 1: Roast Those Bananas Into Submission
Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).
Place unripe bananas (in peel) on a baking sheet.
Bake for 15–25 minutes until skins are black and shiny.
Remove and cool. Peel and mash with 1 tbsp brown sugar + a pinch of salt.
🍌 They’ll smell like banana pudding and caramel. You’re winning already.
Step 2: Brown That Butter
In a saucepan, melt ¾ cup butter over medium heat.
Stir continuously — it will foam, sizzle, and then turn deep golden brown.
Remove from heat when you see golden specks forming at the bottom.
see next page 💕👇
