Tahini Recipe: Banana Tahini Marbled Snack Cake

I love to make homemade hummus. One of my favorite snacks is hummus with a few crackers and apple slices. The odd part of my loving hummus is that I do not like chick peas or tahini. But put them together and some kind of magic happens. I do often find myself with leftover tahini and wonder what I can do with it so I don’t know I am eating it. Rather like mothers trying to hide vegetables in their children’s meals. I was looking through one of my favorite cookbooks, The Perfect Cake from America’s Test Kitchen and there I found a recipe for a banana cake that used tahini. Of course I wanted to go a little further so I tweaked it a bit and came up with this a delightful tahini recipe. Read on to learn how to make Banana Tahini Marbled Snack Cake.

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Tahini Recipe: Banana Tahini Marbled Snack Cake

Serves 9

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 baking soda
4 TBS unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup tahini
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed, ripe banana (2 to 3)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup whole milk
3 TBS cocoa powder
1/3 cup finely chopped semi sweet chocolate
sugar in the raw for sprinkling on top of cake if desired
powder sugar for dusting

Spray an 8″ pan with cooking spray, line with parchment. Spray with cooking spray and dust with flour.
Preheat oven to 350
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside
In a stand mixer with the paddle attached beat the butter, tahini and sugar until light and fluffy. About 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl if needed.
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Then add the vanilla. Mix well
Mix in the bananas until well combined.
Add the flour mixture in thirds alternating with half the milk, beginning and ending with the flour.
Divide the batter in half.
Add the cocoa powder to one half and stir to combine. Fold in the chopped chocolate.

Pour the second half into the prepared pan. Add drops of the chocolate batter on top of the batter in the pan. Run a knife through the batters to create the marbled effect. Lightly tap the pan on the counter to settle.
Sprinkle with sugar in the raw if desired
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 – 50 minutes until the cake springs back and a tester comes out clean.

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Let cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes then remove from the pan to cool completely.
Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

How Was the Tahini Recipe?

I will admit I was just a little skeptical when I embarked on this recipe but I am now totally sold. The tahini is not forward in the snack cake. It’s like a bit of “what’s that” in the flavor profile. In fact, I didn’t tell the hubby that the cake was made with tahini and when I asked him how he liked it he said it was delicious.

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When I told him he was very surprised. I am now looking forward to finding another tahini recipe or two to use up what I have left. This is a delicious, moist cake that is perfect with a cold glass of milk. I will certainly add this recipe to my other favorite banana cake recipes like Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake or Chocolate Banana Cookies.

This really is my favorite cake cookbook.