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Banana Pudding Cake

"This cake is a very moist banana cake that travels well to pot lucks or picnics. It can also be baked in a 9x13 pan or an angel food cake pan. It is a family favorite."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Banana and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,430 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

1 - 10 inch Bundt cake
Prep30 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Lightly grease a 10 inch Bundt pan with a little of the vegetable oil.

  2. In a large bowl, beat the yellow cake mix, instant banana pudding mix, eggs, water and vegetable oil on medium speed for 2 minutes until smooth.

  3. Fold in the mashed bananas and the chopped walnuts, if using.

  4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the thickest part comes out clean and the eggs are fully set.

  5. Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack and let it cool completely.

  6. Whisk the confectioners' sugar, milk and vanilla extract until smooth. Add a splash of water only if the glaze is too thick to pour.

  7. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake and let it set for about 15 minutes before slicing.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Banana + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Banana + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,464 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Vanilla + walnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,730 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the walnut

The recipe marks walnut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (banana, egg, sugar, milk, vanilla):

  1. Pecansbetter flavor fit
  2. Cocoabetter flavor fit
  3. Almondbetter flavor fit
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against banana, egg, sugar, milk, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).