These first few weeks of kindergarten have proven to be a little more challenging than we expected at the Little household.  Our little guy is having some trouble adjusting to the schedule and has had a few rough days in terms of behavior.  It’s not been anything serious, but we’re pretty strict about conduct when it comes to school.  Nonetheless, he had a great day yesterday and as we were sitting watching television last night he made a comment about how tired he was.  When we inquired about why he was so tired, his response was simply perfect.  “I wasn’t tired yesterday because I got in trouble.  Today I’m tired because I was good.  It’s hard work being good,” he said.  “It’s easy being bad.”  It was an amazing proclamation from my favorite five-year-old, especially being that it was an answer to something I’d been contemplating for the last few weeks.
Recently I seem to have been overwhelmed at the amazing amount of negativity on social media and just in general.  With the events in Ferguson, Missouri and the hype about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, I’ve seen lots of folks complaining and being incredibly critical of one another.  At what point did it become a problem that folks have differing opinions?  And why is it okay for us to verbally attack one another just for being different?  If you don’t feel like being a part of a fundraising effort, don’t be a part of it.  Why must we be critical of people for having convictions? What happened to that famous idea of keeping your mouth shut if you don’t have anything nice to say? It almost seems that our ability to be compassionate to one another is eroding over time.
My little boy, in his infinite wisdom, answered it all for me.  The truth is, it is easy to be negative. The challenge of being nice means we sometimes have to censor ourselves, which isn’t easy.  But regardless of how difficult it is, it’s something we should do.  It’s something we MUST do. We’ve got to learn to be kinder to one another.  It seems that for many folks, social media has eliminated the filter between their brains and their mouths.  They think it and post it – regardless of who it might hurt.  People obviously feel safe behind a keyboard.  But here’s my challenge for y’all:  If you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, don’t say it anywhere else. Make the effort… be nice.
Y’all this Banana Pineapple Cake is so delicious! It’s perfect for dessert and works great for a quick breakfast, too! I just know you’ll enjoy it just as much as my family does.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 bananas diced
- 1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple (with the juice)
- 1 ½ cups vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the icing:
- 4 ounce cream cheese softened
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons or more milk or heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease and flour a Bundt pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the bananas, pineapple with the juice, oil, eggs, and vanilla and stir until combined.
- Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan before removing.
For the icing:
- Combine the softened cream cheese, vanilla, sugar, and 2 teaspoons of milk or heavy cream in a medium bowl. Stir until combined adding more milk or cream to get the icing to the consistency you want. It should be thick but pourable. Drizzle the icing on the cake once it has cooled and been removed from the baking pan.
* If nutritional values are provided, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands used. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, I recommend grabbing your favorite brands and plugging those ingredients into an online nutritional calculator.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 bananas diced
- 1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple (with the juice)
- 1 ½ cups vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the icing:
- 4 ounce cream cheese softened
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons or more milk or heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease and flour a Bundt pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the bananas, pineapple with the juice, oil, eggs, and vanilla and stir until combined.
- Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan before removing.
For the icing:
- Combine the softened cream cheese, vanilla, sugar, and 2 teaspoons of milk or heavy cream in a medium bowl. Stir until combined adding more milk or cream to get the icing to the consistency you want. It should be thick but pourable. Drizzle the icing on the cake once it has cooled and been removed from the baking pan.
* If nutritional values are provided, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands used. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, I recommend grabbing your favorite brands and plugging those ingredients into an online nutritional calculator.
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Absolutely delicious. Never even made the icing. My bananas were very ripe, not black just good and sweet.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Hi
For the bananas did you use ripe bananas or overripe bananas.
Either will work. Enjoy!
I just made the cake haven’t tried it yet but looks delicious and also very pretty.I’m sure it’ll be great like all the other recipes of yours I’ve tried Also sounds like you’re bringing your son up right sounds pretty smart already at a young age.
Thanks so much, Joe! I appreciate those kind words!
I just made this cake. It’s so good. The only thing I did different from the recipe was swap an equal amount of melted butter for the vegetable oil.
So glad to hear it turned out great for you!
Can’t wait to make the banana/pineapple. Pound cake.
Hope you’ll enjoy it!!
Love this post! ???? Glad to know there are others thinking the same things I am! More need to have the guts to say it!!! It baffles me as to WHY, some people feel the need to scream their views out on FB. I keep wonder if they think they’ll change beliefs, or what?!… As a retired elementary teacher, I SO enjoy hearing about your son in kindergarten. He is exactly right! It IS hard being good at school! Sounds like he’s got a kind, caring parent to guide him. He will be just fine!
I absolutely love making pound cakes. I must have made my mother’s chocolate pound cake a hundred times and it always turns out great. This cake sounds delicious and I can’t wait to try it.
Thanks too for your thoughtful comments. Sadly since you posted this back in 2014, things have not improved; in fact, they have deteriorated into a world I don’t understand. Instead of being Americans who care about each other, we have become divided into different camps that can’t agree on the time of day. Forget respecting some one else’s opinion. Too many act as if they want to kill you if you don’t agree with them, no matter how ridiculous their stance might be.
We have been having some problems with our 11 year old grandson; he has a record of getting in trouble at school. I remind him that he has choices and no one else can make them for him. Thankfully he has had a couple of week of staying out of trouble; we hope it continues. I remind him that he has a good wolf and a bad wolf and the wolf he feeds, wins. I hope eventually the good wolf will win. Maybe he needs to feed him some of this wonderful cake!
Thanks, Nancy. There’s so much truth here!
This cake was awesome! However, I added 1 cup of pecans to the batter ,and 2 tablespoons of pineapple to the frosting.
Sounds amazing! So glad you enjoyed it!!
Your son is so right, and that truth is right out of a Binle page. I plan to quote him???. As for the recipe, you have made me happier “by the pound.” I’m just getting back to baking recently. And I’ve decided that pound cakes will be my specialty. Thanks for posting the wisdom and the recipe! Have a grand day!
Lol ….. Bible
I think that sounds like an excellent specialty to have!
So well put. 😉 I totally agree with all of the comments above. I love how positive and wonderful your website is. I always have a smile on my face after visiting your site because it makes me happy to receive a wonderful, delicious recipe and kind words. Keep up the good work. 🙂
Thanks so much, Denise! Your kindness means a lot!
Dear Stacey,
What a great recipe, moist and crumbly. Thank you for the great recipe!
,
So glad you enjoyed it!
You made my day, Stacey! The recipe sounds delicious and the story about your little boy gave me a big smile and a chuckle, which I needed today. Thanks for both!
Thanks, Virginia!
5 year olds have a ton of wisdom! The cake looks amazing, I need to try this. Anything banana and baked is the best.
Thanks, y’all!
AMEN brother! We all need to realize that everyone is dealing with some issue and try our best to always be nice and only communicate kind words wheather spoken or written. I have worked as a pediatric nurse for 30years and have learned so much about life and how to live well “from the lmouth of babes”. Loved your post, thanks for sharing your little guy’s insight.
Thanks, Debbie
Fabulous post. There is too much negativity and it has so many outlets in today’s world. Negatively is so loud. It can drown out so much. We need to turn down the volume on the negative noise. Your post is,a great step towards that goal.
Thank God For The Beautiful Comments Listed Above.
🙂
Thanks, Lori!
I do understand people are kind of tired of the Ice Bucket Challenge. I get that. Here’s the thing- It has brought awareness and donations for ALS. My mother is in the nursing home right now in the end stages of ALS. Until you have seen how unbelievably horrible it is, you will never know. Imagine being trapped in a body that will not cooperate in any way and not being able to talk, and tell someone what you need or if you are uncomfortable No scratching an itch or smacking at a fly. Constant pain and muscle contractions. Imagine the only food you get is through a feeding tube. ALS is hereditary as well. Now I will have to worry that my children, future grandchildren or myself will have ALS. So yeah, as silly as the ice bucket challenge has gotten, it has raised awareness and maybe they will find a cure or better treatment for this awful disease. Thanks for the article, Stacey!
Hi Stacey, I just found your site and am loving all the wonderful information and real southern recipes! I can’t wait to try them. I too live to feed my family and also to the demise of their waist lines, but it’s all in the name of love!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you for putting what I have been trying to instill in my girls heads for years now about social media and the lack of filters to paper and how posting in such a way can come back to bite you in the backside in the future. Quoting one of my favorite Disney characters, “if you can’t say nothing nice, then don’t say nothin at all.” I will be forwarding this particular cake to my bestie back in San Diego.
Thanks!!!!
Chay
It’s so true, Chay! Welcome to the family!
This looks and sounds delicious and so easy! Will have to make this real soon. When I used to have to take my elderly parents to the Emergency department of our local hospital , the department had a sign on the counter which stated “Kindness Matters” . Amen and Amen.
We all need signs like that around our necks!
Out of the mouths of babes! Great post Stacey! Cake looks delicious!
Thanks, Tina!
Thanks, Stacey! I think the filters between some folks’ brains and their mouths don’t get used because of lack of accountability. What’s gonna happen to them for what they say on the internet? After all, it doesn’t really hurt anyone (oozing sarcasm, tongue firmly in cheek). Some of the most negative people on social media may be the nicest people you would ever want to meet in person. That’s the saddest part to me. You have a wise young man there and he’ll soon learn that all that hard work being good will be worth it in the long run. It’s just awfully tough to see to the long run sometimes! 🙂
And, of course, the cake looks delicious. I may have to throw a pecan or two on top. 😉 Although, I bet it would still be great with no icing at all. It looks super moist. Thanks again and take care!!!
Pecans would be GREAT in this! Thanks, Jackie!
Great comments! Love it! The world is a very angry place these days. Thanks for having the guts to say what you did!
Amen! Well said! I no longer read comments for many websites because people are so rude and cruel. Kindness matters and our society seems to be forgetting that.
I totally agree with everything you said. There use to be a day when people could agree to disagree. I believe that concept has been lost in this whirlwind of social media. Your little guy is so smart! It is hard to be nice at times. I try to treat everyone with respect, but there are times when I am tested. I just need to keep praying asking God to give me guidance on how to handle difficult situations. Thank you for your post! 🙂
Well said and thank you for sharing about a little guy and his wise words.