THE cake (not just, the cake)

It’s freezing. Again. Wtf. I will tell you that two days ago my children were running around in bathing suits begging me to turn on the air conditioning, and today I have a sweater on and wore one of my winter jackets outside. How awesome.
This is a day that calls for cake. A good, rich and decadent one. And there is no cake more fitting than this one. Banana cake is just the god damn greatest. I have been making this cake for years but I never found a frosting or glaze that was the ultimate compliment to it until maybe year or so ago. And to the one who had to test all of the options, ganache, cream cheese, vanilla buttercream, caramel buttercream, maple buttercream and oh, I don’t know what else I asked you to try (how I didn’t turn you in to a fatty as we loved to say them I’ll never know), you fell in love with this one and so did I, and it will forever be what goes on your favorite cake.I first saw the idea for melting candy bars on pinterest. There was a cake with a Mars Bar ganache, which sounded interesting, except I didn’t know wtf a Mars bar was…turns out it is almost exactly like a Milky Way, and I know exactly wtf a Milky Way is. Melting the candy with some simmering cream and whisking in a lil air when cool makes a rich, smooth and very sweet chocolate caramel ganache that couldn’t compliment this cake better. The cake itself is not really sweet, it is probably more of a breakfast cake I suppose, but tell me what wouldn’t become something magical when you pour on a few candy bars on top?

Banana cake with Milky Way ganache
for the cake…
1 ½ cups of flour
¾ cup of sugar
teaspoon of kosher or sea salt
1 ½ teaspoons of baking soda
8 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter (if you use salted, decrease salt above to ½ teaspoon)
three overly ripe bananas, mashed
three tablespoons buttermilk
one egg at room temperature
½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste

for the ganache…
one bag of the individual size Milky Way candy bars, cut in to small pieces
one cup of heavy cream

Heat oven to 350 and place a rack in the middle of the oven. Butter and flour an eight inch cake pan.
Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
In a small bowl whisk the mashed banana, buttermilk, egg and vanilla paste. Slowly add the melted butter and whisk to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry mix and whisk just until combined. Pour into the cake pan and bake for about 35-40 minutes until center springs back when gently pressed.
To make the ganache, gently heat the cream on medium heat in a heavy bottomed (or the cream and candy will burn) sauce pan until simmering, add the candy bars and turn heat down a bit. Whisk together until the candy bars are completely melted and incorporated with the cream. Cool completely. When cooled, the ganache should be thickened slightly. I like to use my stand mixer, but you can use a hand mixer, or just whisk if you feel like getting a hand workout, and beat the ganache for about ten minutes or so until it become slightly thicker and lighter in texture. Spread the ganache over the cooled cake. This cake can be refrigerated, as the ganache will not set super hard like a straight-up chocolate ganache, but it is best at room temperature.