The World’s BEST Banana Cake & Cream Cheese Frosting!

Funny story alert! 

Admittedly on Black Friday I went a little nuts shopping online.  I couldn’t possibly ignore all those great deals, and the more you spend the more you save, let’s just say the temptation to shop was hard to resist. 

When I visited my family over the weekend I was bragging to them about how I was such a savvy shopper, and how I saved a $100 bucks on this and 20% on that because the more you shop the more you save. 
My dad then said I should spend within reason, but I interrupted him and reminded him that it was BLACK FRIDAY and the deals were awesome!  He said, “regardless, you should always be prepared for rainy days.”  Understood!
My niece, Jasmin, completed ignored the context of what my dad said and proceeded to say, “I love rainy days!”  My entire family burst out laughing. 
I hope you got the joke, if not, I must be a really pathetic storyteller.  Well, I found Jasmin’s comment to be very funny.
And now I leave you with the world’s best Banana Cake that I made for my sister and her family in California.  Just do yourself a favor and bake this cake for the holidays, your family and friends will not only love you, you will be the star of the night, and they’ll be begging you for more. Just.Do.It!

NUTRITION: Besides the bananas which are a very good source of Vitamin B6 and a good source of Vitamin C and Fiber, there is absolutely no other nutrition in this cake.  I am going to work on making a slightly healthier version of this cake in the future.


MODIFICATIONS I MADE:

• I modified the frosting and used Reduced Fat Neufchatel cream cheese instead of regular cream cheese.
• I only used ⅔’s of the original recipe making a 2-tier cake.
• Used less sugar.

APPROXIMATE NUTRITION PER SERVING (yields 16 slices):

• Calories: 371 cals
• Fat: 15 g
• Saturated Fat: 9 g
• Carbs: 57 g
• Protein: 4.4 g
• Fiber: 0.4 g

BANANA CAKE (adapted by Food.com)
~ yields 16 slices @ 275 degrees using a 2 round 9" baking trays baked for 1 hour
or
~ yields 17 to 18 cupcakes @ 275 degrees baked for about 40 minutes, give or take.
~ fat and calories were reduced in this recipe since I only made ⅔’s of the original recipe.  fat reduced by

INGREDIENTS (used ⅔’s of the original recipe):

• Banana (ripe & mashed) – 1 cup (you’ll need about 2 ½ medium bananas)
• Lemon Juice – 1 ⅓ tsp
• Flour – 2 cups
• Baking Soda – 1 tsp
• Salt – ¼ tsp
• Unsalted Butter – 1 stick (½ cup), softened
• Sugar – 1 ¼ cups
• Eggs – 2
• Vanilla Extract – 1 ⅓ tsp
• Buttermilk – 1 cup

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees, yes 275 degrees.
2. Grease 2 round 9 inch baking trays with butter.
3. In a bowl mash the bananas.  Add lemon juice, mix, and set aside.
4. In another bowl, combine all the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.
5. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. 
6. Add the eggs one at a time.  Add the vanilla as well.

7. Now alternate adding the flour mixture and buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour.  Do this in 3 batches, if possible.

8. Add the banana mixture and combine.
9. Pour the batter into the baking trays, distribute evenly.
10. Into the oven for 1 hour, however I’d start checking after 45 minutes, the results vary oven to oven. 
11. Remove from the oven and place into the freezer for 45 minutes.  This results in a very moist cake.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING (REDUCED FAT)
INGREDIENTS

• Neufchatel Cream Cheese (⅓ reduced fat) – 1 8 ounce bar
• Unsalted Butter – 1 stick
• Confectioners Sugar – 3 cups
• Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp

DIRECTIONS:
1. Combine the confectioners sugar, cream cheese, butter, and vanilla extract in large bowl.  Note the cream cheese and butter should be at room temperature.
2. Mix.  Taste, if it’s not sweet enough for you, add confectioners sugar in ½ cup increments.  In my opinion, 3 cups of confectioners sugar is more than enough.
3. Now start frosting.  Here is a how-to tutorial- scroll down about half way.

4. Garnish with walnuts.

FROSTING RATING: 5 / 5
Cream Cheese frosting is one of my favorites and despite using reduced-fat cream cheese, the results are sweet and delicious.


OVERALL RATING: 5 / 5
One word, phenomenal!  Whoever invented this cake is a genius.  I happened to find the recipe on Food.com because I was in search of a banana cake recipe that used buttermilk.  I have a personal preference towards using buttermilk when baking since it adds a ton of moisture to a cake without the fat.  I have found buttermilk to work really well in most southern style cakes, including this very moist, delicious, and phenomenal Banana Cake.  Additionally, this cake isn't overly sweet, I cut down on the sugar and it was perfect.
Go ahead and make this mouthwatering cake this holiday season, your guests will rave about what a great baker you are. 


TELL ME: Did you go crazy shopping this Black Friday?  If so, what did you buy?  Weren’t the deals just amazing?