How to Make a Banana Squash Cake
Summer Squash Recipe

It's that time of year again - squash season. My neighbors gave me some summer squash, and Mom forgot to take her bananas on vacation, so I decided to play around with the ingredients and come up with something for dessert using bananas and summer squash.

You can use zucchini or any other summer squash to make this recipe, although I used yellow squash. The summer squash are the thin skinned ones that are season in the summer versus the harder ones (more like pumpkins) that are ripe in the fall, and there are many varieties of the thin skinned summer squash.

Ingredients You'll Need to Make a Banana Squash Cake:

3 eggs (beat until bubbly)

3/4 cups vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla (extract or flavoring)

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar packed down tight (light or dark are fine)

2 bananas (mashed up or mixed with a mixer until just lightly chunky)

1 cup summer squash grated (or chopped with a food processor)

3 1/2 cups flour (not self rising)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Optional But Very Good:

1 cup raisins or craisins (I like craisins in this cake)

3/4 cups chopped pecans or walnuts

Directions to Make Banana Squash Cake:

1. Mix together the fluffy eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla.

2. Add both the sugar and brown sugar and mix well.

3. Add grated squash and mashed bananas and again mix.

4. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking power, salt, and spices. Then add these dry ingredients a little at a time (about 1/4 of the amount per mix). Only mix until blended at this stage. If you mix too much, then you're likely to have tough cake.

5. Use a spoon to fold in the raisins/crainsins and nuts if you decide to include those.

6. Grease and lightly flour a long baking dish. You want to use a pan in the range of 11 x 13 or 15 inches. The batter should only be a couple of inches thick in the pan, or the center will be gooey when the sides are done. You could use two smaller pans and watch the baking time.

7. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

8. Bake the squash banana cake for around 40 minutes. Check with a toothpick in the center. The toothpick should come out clean. With the banana and squash in there, the times and vary a bit. The pan size also makes a difference.

9. Let the cake rest in the pan for 20 minutes or so. Then, it should cut and come out pretty clean.

You can frost the cake if you like, but it's rich and sweet without frosting. I like it best plain. One of my sons likes it warm with butter. He heats a slice in the microwave if the cake isn't just out of the oven.

You can freeze shredded summer squash for this recipe. If you do that, then you can make this cake year round. If you do freeze the squash, let it thaw in a colander so that the excess water drains off.