1. Why the cake? Well this is my birthday month. Yup, a quarter of a century old. First I'll define for you 'Cockaigne' as given in the Joy of Cooking: "in medieval times (it) signified 'a mythic land of peace and plenty'"...ok, on to the recipe. First mix 2 & 1/4 cups (cake) flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder and 3/4 tsp baking soda (or, if all you have is baking powder, guess what...it still works with 1 & 1/4 tsps), 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup butter or margarine, and 1 & 1/2 cups sugar. Cream the butter in until it's crumbly.

2. Add 2 eggs 'one at a time' the recipe suggests. If you're less lazy than me it might help but for me, I just toss 'em in.
3. ALERT: Fun part-mashing 2 large bananas or 4 tiny ones as seen to the right. You can sort of roll them around and mash them in the peel. Then...
4. ...squeeze the mush out. Squish, squish.
5. Drop in the banana mushy goodness and add a tsp of vanilla and 1/4 cup yogurt or buttermilk (or powdered milk like the birthday boys prefers). Mix until it looks like the pic.
6. Drop a little over half the mix in a greased sufuria (or baking pan-for cakes a smaller sufuria is preferable because the cake doesn't rise and it will keep the heat closer to the top in your makeshift oven) and then chop up banana chunks to create a surprise layer of bananas like Steph did back in May for Chidya Movie Night. Add the rest of the batter on top of this.
7. Create your oven and...
8. ...BAM! Banana Cake (Note: The white spot is because I left it covered too long and water dripped on the cake.) Now you may be disappointed that I had to bake my own cake but we all know the cook gets kissed so...
9. ...I got all the kisses! Why isn't there a tradition of the birthday boy or girl getting kissed? I would've gotten double kisses.
10. Since I celebrated by myself I didn't have to be embarrassed of my voice while singing 'Happy Birthday'. "Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to..."
11. ...forget it, let's eat!
12. Another reason I wasn't sad: I got to eat all the cake...actually I took it over to Geofrey's and we all enjoyed it but scenes like that to the right are not uncommon in my house.
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