Photo by Marta Bartolomei Edmonds.
There are many reasons to celebrate this month. Today is our 8th year anniversary of moving to New York City from small town Bozeman, MT. Our company, Smatter Inc., incorporated three years ago this month. And, next Friday is the one year anniversary of this blog. However, this cake does not celebrate any of these events. This cake celebrates a little girl's first birthday this month.
Banana cake is a wonderful summer cake and makes an ideal birthday cake. If you are planning a party, you can make the cake a day or two ahead of time, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, refrigerate, and then frost it the day of the party. It's great even without frosting. I recommend serving it cooled rather than at room temperature.
The recipe was adapted from RecipeZaar's Best Ever Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. In the original recipe, they recommend you freeze the cake after it comes out of the oven. I find this step unnecessary and the results are still moist and wonderful (not to mention that placing a hot pan in the freezer can be potentially damaging to other items in the freezer). The recipe will yield one large sheet cake or a double layered round cake.
This cake is delicious, so, find a reason to celebrate in August and try it out for yourself.
Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
1 1/2 cups ripe bananas (about 3 bananas), mashed
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 cups cream cheese frosting
chopped walnuts (optional, for garnish)
1. Preheat oven to 275°. Grease and flour two 8" round cake pans (or one 9" x 13" cake pan). In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice and set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla.
3. Beat in the flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let it sit in the pan for about fifteen minutes. Remove the cake from the pan by inverting the pan and cool to room temperature in a cooling rack. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours or up to three days before frosting.
5. Frost the cake and refrigerate for one hour to allow the frosting to harden.
Makes 16 servings.