Banana Birthday Cake

For the past few years, I’ve been making my own birthday cakes. Mostly just as a chance to experiment with decorating (like this Pyramid Head Hello Kitty cake for my 15th birthday, a Batman themed cake for my 16th, and a rainbow cake for my 17th), but lately since I’ve been more into the culinary arts than I ever have been in my life, it’s also a way to learn more about how to make certain kinds of cakes. I had a bunch of different options picked out, but then finally got down to this one. I wanted a really big cake for my 18th birthday, but I think I actually made too much cake. Also, dowels would have worked better than lollypop sticks to keep the cake structurally sound, but it was all I had at the time and I didn’t anticipate the cake almost toppling over.

Things to note: I doubled the recipe for both the cake and the frosting, and added cinnamon to the frosting. It gave me four layers! The cake started to tip over so I had to put lollypop sticks through it to hold it up and as you can see, half of it fell over after it was cut. It basically tasted like a cakey banana bread with frosting, but it was very good. Super rich though, I could only eat a couple bites at a time.

Banana Cake

• 1 1/2 cups bananas, mashed, ripe
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/8 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups icing sugar

Garnish

• chopped walnuts

Directions:
Prep Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 1 1/4 hr

Preheat oven to 275°.
Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.
In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, 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 banana mixture.
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 place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist.
For the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Add icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.
Spread on cooled cake.
Sprinkle chopped walnuts over top of the frosting, if desired.