Dulche de Leche Banana Birthday Cake

tHE STORY:
For my birthday, my mum wanted to make dessert and I felt like something caramel-y rather than chocolate - but not something super-sweet. She did some internet surfing, and then got really excited and secretive, and kept dropping hints for the next two weeks about how much I was going to love dessert! Normally when I eat baked goods - even when they are really delicious! - a small part of my brain is thinking through what I would do differently. Not here; this is a Perfect Cake. The texture, the level of sweetness, the tiny bit of salt; there is nothing I would change (though check the comments because my mum actually did one significant addition to the original recipe).

Source:
http://www.hummingbirdhigh.com/2014/03/banana-bundt-cake-with-salted-dulce-de.html

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups very ripe bananas (about 4 medium bananas)
1 cup sour cream
----
Flaky sea salt
Dulche de Leche

Directions:

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 10-inch bunt pan by covering the inside very well with oil, shortening, or butter.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat the unsalted butter on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Add the sugar and continue beating on medium-high speed for at least 5 minutes, until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to its lowest setting.
4. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then vanilla extract and bananas. Continue mixing until just incorporated.
5. Finally, add half the whisked-together dry ingredients until just combined, before adding the sour cream until just combined, and then the remaining half of the dry ingredients. From the original recipe: "It's important to mix until just combined — DO NOT OVERMIX, or your cake will be dense and tough and I will cry. It's even better to stop the mixer before the last addition of the dry ingredients is fully incorporated and to continue mixing by hand — 1 or 2 flour streaks left in the batter is totally okay."
6. Transfer the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Use a rubber spatula to smooth out the top and give the pan a good whack on a hard surface a few times to get rid of any air bubbles. 
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 65 to 75 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
8. Transfer the cake to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes, before unmolding onto the rack to cool completely. When ready to serve, drizzle with dulce de leche and flaky sea salt.
9. Devour, preferably with tea!*

COMMENTS: 

CHANGES

The bananas didn't ripen fast enough, so to sweeten the cake my mum chopped up some dates and mixed those in, too. They were really soft ones, so they just melted in with the texture. I don't think this would work with older or tougher ones. The taste went really well with the banana flavour.

QUANTITY

This makes a lot of cake. Both of us were able to nibble away at it for the better part of a week. This could probably be halved quite easily and still have a good aount to share. The recipe calls for a 10-inch, 12-cup bundt pan, but if you don't need to impress somebody, I would probably make this in 9x5 loaf pans or cupcakes...but not a round springform. The cake is very moist and I imagine by the time the middle was done, the outside would be burnt. 

Photo to come once I find my cable!

*It's all finished now, but if I had any left I imagine it would go deliciously with election results, too. :)