Banana Cake

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

So I finally got done doing dishes and baking, cooking and making lunch for the hubby (for tomorrow). And I wanted to show you what I made from scratch tonight.

I am not a cake eater, but I do love to make them. I was going to make two round cakes and stack them, but decided because I have a family of four plus any other kid that decides to stop in, that I would just do the quick and easy but not always pretty 9x13 pan. And I am leaving off the nuts. We have enough of those in this family we don't need to add anymore. Ha! Yes I am very lame when it comes to my jokes.

I did two hours of dishes tonight. And I baked for about an hour, plus I did have to do some final touches to tonight's dinner, even though my daughter started it in the crockpot. So basically I have been on my feet since I got home at 415pm. That is 5.5 hours my time. Ugh. But I do love my family, and I love to make stuff for them to eat, although I must say, I haven't felt much like doing anything lately. But this week, I am scheduled to make certain dinners and so far, I am doing well with the set up.

Here is the recipe for this cake 

(by Sweet Revelations, which they adapted from Food.com)

Best Ever Banana Cake

Note: the recipe on Food.com recommends immediately putting the cake in the freezer after removing it from the oven.  I did not follow this step.

• 1 ½ cups bananas , mashed
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• generous pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• ¾ cup unsalted butter , room temperature
• 2 1⁄8; cups sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 ½ cups buttermilk, room temperature

Preheat oven to 275°.  Grease and flour 3 6 inch cake pans.  You can also make this in a 9 x 13 inch pan.

 

1.  In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside.  In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda , nutmeg and salt; set aside.

 

2.  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, then add in 2 tsp vanilla.

 

3.  On low, add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.  Stir in banana mixture.

 

4.  Pour batter into prepared pans and bake in preheated oven for one hour and 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.   Unmold on to wire racks and cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

*this makes just enough for two of the cakes

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 pound cream cheese softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 pound sifted powdered sugar

For the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.  Beat in the vanilla.  Add icing sugar and beat on low-speed just until combined.  Don’t overbeat.  Sprinkle chopped walnuts over top of the frosting, if desired.

A side note, I don't buy buttermilk, it's way too expensive for the amount I am going to use, so I made my own, sort of. 1 cup of milk plus 1 tbsp of vinegar = buttermilk. Set it aside after you combine it for 5 minutes, it will turn on it's own, then just add it to the recipe. It worked very well and the cake turned our super moist. The milk I used was skim and even though this is a dessert, I like to cut down on the calories as much as possible. I didn't skimp on the butter or the sugar though and this recipe has a lot of that in it!

Thank you for visiting my blog.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Time to go do more laundry. :(