Banana Boom Exposes Miseducation

Huelo Point, Maui: Expectations were high as rack upon rack of ripened bananas were harvested from the banana groves at Hale Akua Garden Farms. As happens often with the banana harvest, when it rains it pours and farmers could be seen discussing their fruitful bounty with mixed feelings of excitement and worry. The pressing question: what to do with all these bananas so as not to waste the fruits of their labor? Two days passed, yet another ripened rack was discovered and the farmers found themselves unable to stomach another plain banana. Lulu McAllister remembers the conundrum well, "there were more bananas than even a monkey could handle," she recalled. She and another farmer, Chelsea Coleman, set about handling the surplus with a simple and delicious solution: cake. They settled on two recipes: one vegan and one with eggs. Coleman recalls her hesitation in tackling a vegan cake recipe, "I always figured there was no sense in pretending you were something you're not. You know?" she mused with a hearty chuckle. Yet, there were vegans on the farm and Coleman and McAllister wanted to share because sharing is caring. So they made sacrifices: a dash of vinegar replaced the acid in buttermilk or yogurt, an extra banana made up for a lack of eggs, and coconut oil was substituted for butter. To her and McAllister's shared delight, the vegan recipe was a fluffy and moist success. "It was really good," observed a resident vegan and farmer, Joe. By the end of the evening, the two had disposed of an entire rack of bananas, created two cakes, and whipped up some banana fritters. When remembering the boom, Coleman is most likely to recall her life-time of vegan prejudice and miseducation. "I really learned a big lesson that day," she said, "vegan baking doesn't have to taste like flax seed oil [and therefore toilet water] and can be astonishingly cake-like."

Vegan Banana Cake with Coconut/Rum Glaze:


2 C All Purpose Flour
1.5 tsp Baking Soda
2.5 tsp Baking Powder
3/4 tsp Salt
3/4 C Brown Sugar
1/2 C Coconut Oil
1/3 C Orange Juice
1 C Almond/Rice/Soy Whatever Milk
3 Tbs dark rum
8 very ripe and mashed apple bananas (or 4 standard bananas)
1 C nuts (pecans or mac nuts work well)
2.5 Tbs apple cider vinegar

Glaze:

1 C powdered sugar
1/4 C coconut milk
1 T dark rum

Preheat oven to 320 F and grease an eight or nine inch square cake pan.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside.

Mix coconut oil, orange juice, rum, almond milk and bananas in the blender like a smoothie.

Combine dry ingredients with banana mixture. Mix in nuts.

When the oven is heated, pour the vinegar into the batter, mix well and immediately throw in the oven.

Leave it there for 40 minutes or until the center bounces back from the pressure of your finger and the edges have pulled away from the side.

Spread glaze over cake after it has cooled a bit.

Delicious.

Chelsi Mangiabene writes for herself. She has contributed previous articles to this publication.