Grandma's Fried Banana Cakes with Warm Jasmine-Infused Honey

I am still roaming about in Thailand, having so much fun that I've half forgotten I have a blog. My blog isn't the only thing that suffers from neglect, though. I've been spending so much of my time outdoors that sometimes fresh fruits and vegetables, purchased with the best of intentions, wither and die, one by one, on my kitchen counter or in the fridge. It's all my fault, really.

For example, I bought these bananas last week with the intention of eating half of them fresh and simmering the other half in heavy syrup with coconut cream drizzled on top - a Thai dessert I had not made or eaten in a long time. Then I just plain forgot about these bananas only to find them sitting on the countertop thoroughly dotted with brown spots and furiously sulking. They had become too ripe to be enjoyed as they were and, for sure, too ripe to be cooked in syrup wherein they would just disintegrate.


Then I thought of what my grandma often did when stuck with overripe bananas. She would turn them into these mildly sweet griddle cakes which are brown and crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. They may sport the looks of old-fashioned silver dollar pancakes, but the texture of these fried banana cakes is, though soft and moist, a tad dense as to be expected of something that contains no leavener of any kind. But the fact that they are not spongy does not mean that they don't readily soak up the honey. They do.

I don't think these fried banana cakes are a traditional Thai snack as none of my compatriots whom I have asked seems to know of, have seen, or have eaten them anywhere. Looking back, I think this was just something my grandma concocted as a way to use up overripe bananas and, after a successful first batch, continued making them. Nothing wrong with that.


There's no recipe for this. After all, don't you just hate it when you search for ways to use up the 4 overripe bananas in your kitchen and all you find are recipes that call for 3 or 5 bananas? For these banana cakes, you don't need exact measurements; you just need to know the ratio.

Start off by mashing up the bananas and measure the amount of mashed bananas you end up with. Then add to the mashed bananas coconut milk which measures 1/4 of the total amount of the mashed bananas. To the same bowl, add rice or glutinous rice flour (I prefer the latter since it produces chewier and crispier cakes, but grandma used both types of flour interchangeably) the amount of which is twice the amount of the mashed bananas. A pinch of salt is added to bring out the natural sweetness of the ripe bananas and prepare the cakes for the dousing of warm honey that is to come.

The batter then gets dropped by a tablespoonful onto a pan or griddle with either vegetable oil or melted butter, sizzling over medium-low heat. Once one side is browned, flip the cakes. It should take less than a minute for both sides of the banana cakes to brown and crisp up and for the inside to get cooked.

Remove the fried cakes from the pan and keep warm. Repeat the process until all of the batter is gone.


To serve, arrange the banana cakes on a plate. Warm up some honey and drizzle it over the warm cakes. Grandma often infused the honey with fresh jasmine flowers from our garden, but this is entirely optional. If the idea of introducing a floral element to the honey appeals to you, you can do the same if you have access to fresh jasmine. In the absence of fresh flowers, a very tiny amount of rose essence can also be added to the honey.

Recommended Posts