Brown Butter Upside Down Sticky Banana Date Cake

& I've entered nesting mode

Hi! Welcome to “good mood food” from Kale Me Maybe’s Carina Wolff. If you’ve made it here and aren’t yet a subscriber, come join! You can expect recipes, musings, and faves in your inbox every Wednesday! Paid subscribers get even more on Fridays — right now I’m doing a 30-minute budget meal series! Learn more about the paid tier of my newsletter here. You can also try a week for free!

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“Prep” is the theme of my life right now. Prepping a nursery for the baby. Prepping for our baby shower this weekend. Prepping recipes for when baby comes. Prepping by body for labor. Prep, prep, prep, prep, prep.

One thing that I feel like has needed the least prep, surprisingly, is my mind. I’m amazed at this sense of calm I have despite all the work around me and unknowns ahead. Thank god, because I can handle hard work and physical labor, but there is no worse feeling than my mental state being in a bad place. And I’m so grateful that’s not the case for me right now.

There’s something about this stage of life that’s making me tune out the noise more than ever before. It sounds woo-woo, but I do feel like I’m tapping into my intuition and trusting my capabilities with confidence. Gah, it feels cringey to say, but I do trust myself when it comes to my resilience and ability to figure things out.

I’ve also enjoyed entering nesting mode and checking off the tasks in our home that have been lingering for a long time. We’ve been purchasing items we have been putting off, and I’ve been cleaning out all our closets. I really hate cleaning and organizing, but I love the feeling when it’s all done. I want my space to feel homey and nurturing and as soothing as possible, and we’ve made great strides in getting there. Will share some of these details as they come together!

There’s a lot going on, but I’m enjoying it all!

THINGS I’M LOVING!

It’s no secret how much I love Fruit Riot, and as a major Warheads fan as well, I was ecstaticcccc to see that they did a collaboration together! These are frozen grapes with a sour watermelon coating, but unlike traditional Warheads, there are no artificial dyes, hydrogenated oils, etc. Also, I much prefer these to the regular Fruit Riot grapes. This is the best way to live out your sour candy dreams!

One of our nesting endeavors has been fixing our rug situation. We moved our living room rug into our bedroom, and we replaced it with this Revival Rug that felt like just the right amount of color while also fitting in with the muted, earth tones we have in the space. I love the 70’s feel and that it’s 100% wool without being expensive.

I LOVE Birkenstocks. Their popularity aside, I find them to be so incredibly comfortable — I can wear them walking for HOURS with no problems. I’ve been wanting another pair of their slides, since the ones I’ve had I’ve been wearing since 2020, but I couldn’t land on a color. Then I saw that Staud did a collaboration with Birkenstock on a Woven Leather design, and I was sold. I used the 15% off first time discount on the Staud website to bring the price down!

ACTIVE DISCOUNT CODES!

*** NEW CODE ALERT: EVA POLAR ***

Supplements

• KALEMEMAYBE25 gets you 30% off your first order with Ritual!

• Use my link to get up to 45% off Grüns gummy vitamins!

• KALEMEMAYBE gets you 15% off Armra Colostrum!

Food

• KALEMEMAYBE gets you 10% off Fishwife products!

• KMM10 gets you 10% off your first purchase with Ground Up Nut Butters

• DRIZZLE gets you 20% off Little Zing Mustard

• KALEMEMAYBE gets you 15% off Kola Goodies tea lattes

• CARINA20 gets you 20% off Primal Kitchen products

• KALEMEMAYBE15 gets you 15% off Flour & Water products

• CARINA15 gets you 15% off Juliet Wine!

• CARINAWOLFF gets you 40% off your first order with Hungryroot!

• CARINA20 gets you 20% off of Algae Cooking Club

Other Products

• CARINA10 gets you 10% off Starter Kits from Branch Basics!

• CW15 gets you 15% off Bon Charge Red Light Therapy

• CARINA15 gets you 15% off East Fork Pottery

• CARINA20 gets you 20% off at Eva Polar (energy efficient personal air cooler)

RECIPE!

Apparently, I started a whole fried banana and date trend with my ice cream I posted in early April, and it has been so funny to watch! I was riffing on another trend going around where people were frying dates in butter and eating them on ice cream with olive oil, and then I just threw in some bananas and cinnamon to make it a little different.

Now, so many people making date and banana ice cream bowls, yogurt bowls, oatmeal bowls — I even saw a burrata toast with the combo. So fun!

I’m continuing the trend with an upside down cake, and this may be my favorite version yet. My sister said to me, “You make so many upside down cakes,” and you know what, she’s not wrong. It’s something I feel comfortable baking, but they are also so delicious for minimal effort. And the banana and date combo slaps!

Brown Butter Upside Down Sticky Banana Date Cake

Ingredients (makes 1 cake)

Sticky Banana Date Layer

• 2 medium bananas

• 4-6 medjool dates, roughly chopped

• 6 tbsp unsalted butter

• 1/3 cup maple syrup

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

Cake

• 1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter

• 1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1 ½ tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

• 1 tsp salt

• ¾ cup granulated sugar

• ½ cup brown sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• ⅓ cup milk of choice (I used oat)

EDIT THE BELOW

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Start by browning your butter for the cake batter. Add 1 stick of butter to a small saucepan on medium heat, and cook until the butter turns brown and the milk solids begin to separate, stirring frequently. Remove from heat immediately, and transfer to a bowl to cool.

2. Line a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment paper, and spray with oil or grease generously. Lay the bananas and dates down in alternating spirals.

3. Prepare the caramel sauce by melting the 6 tbsp butter in a small saucepan. Turn the heat to high, and add the maple syrup and 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Bring to a boil, and cook for about 3 minutes until frothy and caramelized. Immediately pour the caramel mixture over the bananas and dates, covering everything evenly.

4. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, pumpkin spice, and salt.

5. In a separate medium bowl, mix together cooled brown butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and milk.

6. Mix your wet mixture into your flour mixture until evenly combined. Spread the batter evenly over the bananas and dates.

7. Transfer to the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and the top springs back when lightly touched. Let cool for 10 minutes, and then loosen edges with a paring knife. Place a plate on top of the cake, and invert them both at the same time. Serve warm or at room temperature!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!

Last week, paid subscribers received a recipe for “Creamed” Spinach Eggs & Za’atar Baked Eggs! This one was part of my 30-minute budget meal series, and the cream actually comes from Greek yogurt, which is one of my favorite hacks that I use incessantly.

Just a reminder!!! Aanytime you become a paid subscriber, you get access to ALL of the past recipes in the archive, plus one exclusive recipe a week! You can always do a free 7-day trial as well!