Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting - made February 8, 2014 from The Food Mentalist

I had been letting a bunch of bananas ripen on my counter for a good month or so. Holiday baking wiped me out of overripe bananas and I had to start over. I gauge the passage of time by the ripening state of my bananas. When they had finally blackened enough to my satisfaction, I went looking for a recipe to use them with. I'm still on my never ending quest to make a banana cake like the one from Icing on the Cake; it's been a good 6 months (at least) since I last had that cake so I was due for another seemingly futile experiment to try and replicate it.

I tried out this one from The Food Mentalist. Initially I was concerned the baking temperature was a bit low as I don't normally bake cakes at temps below 300 degrees F. But I went with it because if it didn't turn out, I didn't want it to be because I screwed up and didn't follow the directions. It turned out pretty well and my coworkers liked it when I brought it into work but it still didn't have the fluffy texture I was going for. I think that was more my fault than the recipe's though as I could've baked this a trifle longer than I did. The toothpick came out clean, I turned the oven off and let it continue baking for another 5 minutes but it was still a bit heavy in texture rather than fluffy. The flavor was fine but you can tell from the pictures (and for the life of me, I couldn't take a good one) that it was a bit dense and moist rather than cakey and fluffy. Maybe that's a sign that I need to go back to Icing on the Cake and get myself a piece of their 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

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• Frosting:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 275°F /135C.
2. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.
3. In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
5. In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy.
6. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla.
7. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
8. Stir in banana mixture
9. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
10. Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist.
11. For the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
12. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla.
13. Add icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth
14. Spread on cooled cake.

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