Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Hi Everyone! A miserable, rainy day like today definitely calls for a sweet treat, don’t you think? Instead of making my favorite Chocolate Chip Banana Bread with Greek Yogurt (or this Nutella Swirled Banana Bread!) with the very ripe bananas that were sitting on the kitchen counter, I made something a little more special (but just as quick and easy!); This Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting! Sure, you could just make the cream cheese frosting and eat it with a spoon (just kidding!) but it’s even better spread thick on this banana cake, topped with a handful of chopped nuts! The cake itself is so moist and delicious and makes for a great treat to go with your tea or coffee!

BANANA CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

*Makes one 8 inch cake*

YOU WILL NEED
BANANA CAKE
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil (or unsalted butter)
1 large egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup applesauce
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tbs baking soda
Optional: 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
4oz cream cheese, softened
4 tbs unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Topping: 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

DIRECTIONS

1. First, preheat your oven to 350 deg F, and grease an 8 inch square (or round) baking pan. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and oil (or butter if you’re using butter instead of oil). Next, add in the egg, vanilla extract, applesauce and mashed bananas, and mix until you have a creamy mixture.

2. Next, sift in the rest of the ingredients: all-purpose flour, salt, ground cinnamon and baking soda, and mix until you have a smooth batter (it’ll still have some lumps because of the mashed bananas, which is fine). Using a spatula, fold in the 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans if you’re using them, then pour the batter into your prepared baking pan, and bake for about a half hour, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. (If the cake begins to brown too much on top, you can cover it with a piece of foil to prevent it from burning.)

3. While the banana cake is baking, prepare your cream cheese frosting. This is my favorite cream cheese frosting recipe (it’s a Martha Stewart frosting recipe), and I use half of her original recipe for this cake. To make the frosting, make sure that both the cream cheese and the unsalted butter are at room temperature and completely softened, otherwise you won’t get a smooth frosting out of this! Using the whisk attachment on your mixer, mix together the cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla extract until completely smooth.

4. Once the cake is completely cool, (make sure it is COMPLETELY cool, you don’t want your frosting to melt off the cake!) spread the frosting on top using a spatula. I like to make it look very casual and just make frosting swirls using the spatula, but you can make it look as fancy as you like! I don’t go all the way up to the cake edges, but leave about a half inch border or so, because I think it looks pretty when you can see the cake! At the end, simply sprinkle with more chopped walnuts or pecans!

(*Recipe Notes: I tweaked and combined a couple of my favorite recipes to come up with this Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting recipe. You can substitute buttermilk, Greek yogurt, sour cream or plain yogurt for the applesauce that I used here, any of those would work well in a banana cake. You can also substitute butter for the oil that I used here. This cake isn’t overly sweet, which is why the cream cheese frosting works well with it (it’s the same cream cheese frosting I use in these Carrot Cake Cupcakes), but if you prefer a sweeter cake, add in extra granulated sugar, or even brown sugar to the cake batter! And the more ripe the bananas are, the more sweetness they will add to the cake! I make this cake in an 8 inch square baking pan, but you could use a round pan instead, and even double the recipe, and make it into a two layer cake for a special occasion!)

Happy Baking, Everyone!
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