Happy Summer Solstice! (A few days late.)

What do you bring to a summer solstice party? What says "summer" and "sun" and "light" and hippie dancing honoring Mother Earth? I have no idea. But "summer" and "sun" made me think "yellow," and yellow reminded me of these gorgeous dried pineapple flowers I had seen in Martha's mag a few years back. I knew I was saving all those cut-out recipes for a reason.

I also had a few black bananas lying around, which I typically use either for Low-fat Banana Bread or this cake (but there's nothing low-fat about it). It's buttery, dense, and moist. I typically eat it as-is, no frosting or nothin', but since this was for a party I decided to spiff it up with cream cheese frosting and add the dried pineapple flowers. The pineapples get much sweeter when they dry; their fresh sweetness mixed with the bananas and the frosting is the tropics in a bite.

Banana Cake with Frosting and Dried Pineapple Flowers
Adapted from Epicurious

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cups yogurt (drained if very watery)
3 large mashed ripe bananas (about 1 1/3 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a round 9-inch cake pan. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until blended. Add eggs and beat until fluffy. Mix in yogurt, bananas, vanilla, and lemon juice. Add dry ingredients to banana mixture and beat until well blended. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

The original recipe calls for 30 minutes of baking, but in my oven it took about an hour and 15 minutes, so watch it carefully. Bake cake until top is golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool completely on rack. Eat as-is, freeze, or frost. (Can also be frosted after freezing; just allow to thaw completely.)


Frosting
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

Beat ingredients in large bowl until well blended. Spread over cooled cake.

Dried Pineapple Flowers
From Martha Stewart

1 3- to 4-pound pineapple

Preheat oven to 225°F. Line two baking sheets with Silpat or parchment paper.

Peel pineapples (don't core!). Using a small melon baller or the end of a vegetable peeler, remove and discard "eyes." (Note: I thought this would be a pain but it went very fast. And it creates the uneven edges that make them look like flowers.) Slice pineapple very thinly; place slices on baking sheets. Cook until tops look dried, about 30 minutes. Flip slices; cook until completely dried, 25 to 30 minutes more. (I thought my slices were very thin, but it took more than 2 hours for mine to dry completely. So be sure to allot enough time.) Cool on a wire rack. Decorate cake with "flowers" before frosting has set; refrigerate finished cake up to 3 days.