Food inspires me. I always find cooking inspiration in the strangest places. Yesterday's inspiration came from a lousy bunch of bananas I bought. They looked perfectly yellow and beautiful on the outside, but inside they were a hot mess. It looked as if the bananas had been dropped from a helicopter, twice. There were bruises and mushy parts on every one of them, but I was able to salvage enough to make my 2014 banana cake with cream cheese frosting, which was a tweak from this banana cake recipe posted in 2012. The banana cake is pretty much the same, but my photography has improved quite a bit!
Ingredients
- For the cake:
- 1½ cups bananas (mashed, ripe)
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 3 cups flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup butter (softened)
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1½ cups buttermilk
- For the frosting:
- ½ cup butter (softened)
- 1 8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3½ cups confectioner's sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan or two round cake pans.
- In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream ¾ cup butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla.
- Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
- Stir in banana mixture.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven a until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes or until cooled. This will make the cake very moist.
- For the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla.
- Add confectioner's sugar and beat on low-speed until combined, then on high-speed until frosting is smooth.
- Spread on cooled cake.
