Layered Banana Cake

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were both doing our own thing in the same room. I think I was actually just sitting there pondering and he was putting away dishes or something productive. I was deep in thought and after quite awhile of silence, I loudly announced, “I want to make a truly amazing dessert! I want it to be pretty and taste so good you can hardly stand it!” He looked at me, chuckled, and said, “That was what you were so deep in thought about all this time?”

Its its true, I may have looked like I was thinking about something deep or profound, but I was, in truth, thinking about dessert. Which took more mental effort than you might think. You see, since I have been pregnant, most foods, including sweets, just don’t sound that good to me. I am not nauseas or anything, I just don’t like the thought of most foods. Which may be why I have failed to post as frequently as I used to. It has seriously hampered my creative foodi-ness. So, trying to think of something truly amazing, was a hard feat when everything sounded blah.

I left my quest for a truly amazing dessert alone for awhile and continued on with my life. When one day I was blind-sided by a pile of over ripe bananas that were on sale at the grocery store. I saw them sitting there for 20 cents a pound less than the normal price and I knew we were meant for each other. I immediately thought, “You, my friends, are going to be a part of a cause far bigger than yourselves. You are going to be the driving force to a truly amazing dessert.”

Can I just say: Holy. Cow. Batman. I am glad I didn’t inherit my grandma’s banana loathing genes (and I know, grandma, you will be the one person who will gag at the thought of this cake), because this cake was out of this world. I knew my search was done, for now, because I had successfully created a beautiful, delicious, and truly amazing dessert. After so many flops in the kitchen, I needed a success. In all fairness and not to take all the credit, I was working with the advantage of butter. Five cubes of it! How could something this bad for you taste yucky? It couldn’t! This is one of those once a year cakes, because if you make it too much more than that, you are probably going to have a heart attack at 25. The bananas do not, whatsoever, make this cake healthy. But you are allowed pretend that the bananas make it healthy as an excuse to eat a second piece. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

Cake:

• 1 1/2 C. (3 sticks) butter, room temperature
• 2 1/2 C. sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 3 3/4 C. all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 3 C. coarsely mashed bananas, very ripe and mushy (This will take quite a bit of bananas, depending on the size. I used two bundles of fairly small bananas)
• 3/4 C.  sour cream

Frosting:

• 1 C. (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
• 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 4 C. powdered sugar
• 1/2 C. heavy cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 2 bananas, ripe but not mushy

Directions:

1. Prepare your cake pans by cutting out two circles of either parchment paper or aluminum foil to fit perfectly inside the bottom of a round cake pan (8”). You can trace around the bottom of an upside down cake pan. Set the circles aside. Grease the cake pans with butter or baking spray on the bottom and sides. Place the circles down in the bottom of each pan and lightly spray the top of the circle, too. Set the pans aside and preheat the oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer (If you don’t have an electric mixer and are using a hand mixer, make sure you use a very big bowl because it makes a lot of batter), cream together the butter and sugar for about 2 or 3 minutes. It is important that the butter is room temperature and not too soft or hard. The best way is to take it out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for about 20-30 minutes. It should still be firm, but easy to bend the stick.

4. After the butter and sugar look kind of like mashed potatoes, add in one egg at a time, completely incorporating each egg before adding another.

5. With the mixer on low, gradually add in the flour mixture. Scrape the sides of the bowl when needed.

6. Mash the mushy, ripe bananas in a large 4 cup measuring cup until it fills 3 cups. There will be chunks of bananas. This is a good thing. Add the bananas to the batter and beat to combine. Incorporate the sour cream.

7. Divide the batter between the two cake pans. I actually had extra batter that I poured into a muffin tin and baked later. Bake the two cakes for about 50-55 minutes. Check a little early, though, in case you have an oven that cooks hot. If you feel like the tops and edges are burning and the middle is still gooey, cover the pans loosely with tin foil. Let cool for at least 20 minutes in the pans on wire racks.

8. Make the frosting: Rinse out the bowl of the electric mixer and beat together the butter and cream cheese. With the mixer on low, gradually beat in the powdered sugar. Add the cream, vanilla, and salt and beat until fluffy. Try to make the frosting in a cool kitchen, so it doesn’t get all melty. I actually baked the cake one day and made the frosting and assembled the cake the second, so my frosting stayed perfect the whole time.

9. To Assemble the Cake: This part is all about patience. If you don’t have the time or patience to let the cake cool completely, your cake will just fall apart. Run a knife around the edge of each cake pan and invert. Pat and shake gently until the cake slips out of the pan. Let cool even longer. Do not try to assemble the cake unless the cake rounds are completely cooled off. They should not even be slightly warm. If you want, throw them in the fridge or freezer for awhile.

10. Slice off the rounded top of one cake so that it is level. Place the second cake on top so that it’s bottom is touching the top of the first cake. With a sharp knife, trim around the edges of both cakes so that they line up and any burned or brown edges are gone.

11. Remove the top cake and set aside. Place the bottom cake onto the plate you wish to serve it from. Spread about a cup of frosting onto the top of the cake. Slice up your remaining two bananas (ripe, but not mushy) and lay them on top of the frosting, covering the top of the cake.

12. Place the second cake back on top. There is no need to trim off the top of the second cake unless it is too brown or slightly burned. Frost the whole cake with a thin layer of frosting. This is called the “crumb coat”. It locks in all the pesky crumbs so they don’t mess up what ever pretty frosting technique you want to use. After applying the crumb coat, place the whole cake in the freezer for about 20 minutes.

13. Take the cake out of the freezer and frost with the remaining frosting using which ever frosting technique you wish to use. I don’t think mine has a name. I just made small peaks all over the cake by applying a thick layer, then pressing the knife/spatula against the frosting and quickly pulling it away, leaving a peak.

Store in the fridge. Cut a very large piece. And eat with a big glass of milk. Enjoy!

Recipe highly adapted from Bon Appetit Magazine from my large binder of recipes ripped from magazines.