Banana Bread Cockaigne

I long for the recipe of an old reporter friend: heavenly banana cake with a thin layer of sliced bananas. I ate it with a decadent banana frosting; I ate it without. I made it in a tiny kitchen in my old 420-square foot apartment in Dogtown. I took it to parties. Now the recipe is nowhere to be found, perhaps because I have moved three times since she handed it to me. So Joy of Cooking will have to do.

Tonight we are visiting friends with the cutest baby boy, and the husband is a real sweet-tooth, the kind that makes his own cookies because they’re so much better than store-bought. Takes one to know one. So despite the aversion to bananas some people have – you know who you are – I’m bringing this Banana Bread Cockaigne:

Preheat the oven at 350 and grease a loaf pan. Then whisk 1 ½ c all-purpose flour (I used 1 1/3 of wheat flour instead), 1 ½ t baking powder, and ½ t salt, beat in 2/3 c sugar (or Splenda), 1/3 c vegetable oil or butter, ¾ t grated lemon zest. Then beat in 1 or 2 large eggs, 1 ¼ c mashed ripe bananas, and ¼ c chopped dried apricots. Bake for an hour. Mmmm.

p.s. I was going to kvetch about my lack of motivation on the dissertation so far this summer, but then I looked up “Cockaigne” – the word basically means “land of plenty.” Hmm. Maybe so.

Cutest munchkin eating banana bread: