Banana Cake #13

Banana Cake - made April 6, 2014 from Evil Shenanigans

I've decided I'm going to start numbering my banana cake experiments. It's much easier to track them by number than to call them all sorts of variations of "banana cake with cream cheese frosting". Let's see how many banana cake recipes I'm going to try in my quest to get close to the fluffy texture of the banana cake from Icing on the Cake.

This is number 13 and while it was good, it's looking like I'll be making a 14th attempt because the texture of this was typical of most banana cakes: moist and cakey but not fluffy enough. I made it in a 9 x 13 pan instead of as two round cake layers, both for ease of cutting and serving at work but also because it was easier and less time consuming to bake in one large pan than two smaller ones that I would then have to fill and frost. The taste was fine but the texture still wasn't right. Back to the drawing board.

1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla

Frosting (I only made a half recipe for the 9 x 13 pan)
8 ounces cream cheese, cool but not cold
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar (or less depending on your preferences to taste and consistency)
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare two 8 or 9" cake pans with parchment rounds or 1 9 x 13" pan lined with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Mash ripe bananas with a fork until mostly mush.
3. Pour buttermilk into the bananas and whisk together. Set aside.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until well mixed and lighter in color. Add the eggs one at a time and then the vanilla. Mix well.
6. Add the dry ingredients and the banana mixture in three additions, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.
7. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pan(s). Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed and pulls away from the sides of the pan and the toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
8. Allow the cake(s) to cool for 10 minutes in the pan(s) then turn out to cool completely on racks.
9. While the cake(s) cool, prepare the frosting: cream the cream cheese with the butter then add the powdered sugar and vanilla. When frosting is desired consistency, frost the cooled cake(s).