Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Bananas aren't just for banana bread.  They make a fantastic cake, nestled under a blanket of cream cheese frosting and topped with fun sprinkles.

Ingredients
Yield: one 9" layer cake
Recipe from Lauren's Latest

• For the cake:

• 1¼  cups (approx 3) overripe bananas
• ½ cup (2 sticks) butter
• 1¼ cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup buttermilk (or 3 tablespoons powdered buttermilk and ¾ cup water)

• For the frosting:

• 10 oz cream cheese
• ½ cup (2 sticks) butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 lb powdered sugar
• optional but too fun to pass up: nonpareils for topping

 Ingredients

Back when we made banana bread I talked about my banana management strategy.  I stockpile overripe bananas in the freezer until I get the urge to bake.  We use overripe bananas because they are sweeter than ripe bananas.  Granted, they are ugly, but this is the first step of a journey to a beautiful place.

 Extract 1¼ cups of banana.  I ran these guys through the blender to fully liquefy them.

Combine the dry ingredients and measure out the buttermilk.  I'm using powdered buttermilk, so I added the mix to the flour and have a water chaser on the side.

Start mixing.  First cream the butter and sugar for a few minutes, and then add the eggs and vanilla.  Follow up with the banana.

Stir in half of the flour mixture and follow with half of the buttermilk.

Add the 2nd half of each, stirring until just combined.

Divide the batter between two greased cake pans.

Slide them into a 350° F oven.

Bake for 25 minutes or until they pass the toothpick test.

Let them cook in the pans for about 10 minutes, and then flip the cakes out.

Let the cake cool fully before frosting.  That was the limit of my baking time for the day, so I wrapped the layers and stored them in the fridge until the next day.

For the frosting, beat the butter and cream cheese together to form a base, then add the powdered sugar and mix for a few minutes to fluff. 

Add the vanilla and beat until smooth.

Add a protective framework of waxed paper to the plate.

 Set the bottom layer on the plate and load up with frosting.

Smooth into an even layer.

Top with the 2nd layer.

Spackle the crack and start to build up a thin layer of frosting on the sides.

Continue by adding a thin layer to the top before piling on the rest of the frosting and smoothing.

Time to have some fun...

Slide the waxed paper pieces off the plate.

And eat 'er up.