Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
ingredients
For the cake:
1 1/2 cups bananas, mashed, very ripe (the darker, the better!)
2 tsp. lemon juice
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/8 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (substitute 1 cup milk plus 1 Tbsp. lemon juice)
Cream Cheese Frosting:
(Listed ingredients makes enough frosting to ice a two-layer cake. For a bundt or sheet cake, half the ingredients would be enough.)
8 oz. cream cheese, softened and at room temperature
1/4 cup butter, softened and at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups icing sugar
Optional Garnish:
Chopped walnuts
method
Preheat oven to 275° F. and grease a 9 x 13 pan, a bundt pan or two 8-inch cake pans.
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.
In a large bowl (or bowl of stand mixer), cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 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 the banana mixture.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven (You might want to put a drip tray underneath as this one almost over-flowed my bundt pan!) Bake until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. TIME WILL VARY. A 9x13 pan will take about an hour (maybe more). Two 8x8 pans might take a little less time. My bundt pan cake took a whopping 1 hour and 30 minutes! Be sure to test in several places in the cake to be sure it is thoroughly cooked.
Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove from pan, cover loosely in plastic wrap and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. Remove from freezer, remove plastic wrap and let rest on counter top until completely cool.
For the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.Beat in vanilla. Add icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.
Ice completely cooled cake with cream cheese frosting. Garnish with chopped walnuts, if desired.
Adapted from a Recipezaar recipe
http://www.fortysomething.ca/2009/05/banana_cake_with_cream_cheese_1.php