Banana Cake with Brown Sugar Buttercream, by Request of My Sister

To begin with, I apologize most profusely for the late post. I went to a writing conference this weekend and was deprived of the internet for that time. But believe, I'm making it up to you with this recipe.

My sister is a bit of a pinterest fiend. I'll often check my facebook to find that she has left a recipe on my wall demanding kindly requesting that I make it for her. This recipe was just one of those finds. It was a bit of a chore to make, but the result was delicious.

What you need...

For the cake:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
2 egg yolks
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
3 crushed bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg whites, beaten

For the frosting:
1 cup milk
5 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease, line with parchment paper and flour three 8 or 9 inch round cake pans. In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar and butter. Add the egg yolks and beat on high speed, creaming the mixture until it is light and fluffy.

In a medium bowl, combine all of your dry ingredients, whisking until they are well combined. Add to batter in three additions, alternating with the milk but beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until your batter is nice and fluffy.

Thoroughly crush the bananas and add to batter, along with vanilla. Mix until the banana is distributed throughout batter.

In a separate bowl, beat your egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold them into your batter, trying to keep them light and fluffy.

 Divide batter evenly between the three prepared pans. Bake for 28-35 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean with very few crumbs clinging to it. You don't want to overbake these either.

Let cool in pans for about 10 minutes. Release from pans and cool completely on wire racks. Meanwhile, let's get the frosting started.

Stir together the milk and flour in a small saucepan. Place over medium heat and whisk constantly until the milk mixture has thickened into a cream. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Meanwhile, cream the butter, brown sugar and salt until fluffy and very few grains of sugar remain. Be patient. This process takes awhile, especially if using a hand mixer.

Stir in the cooled cream and stir until well mixed. The frosting is deliciously sweet and buttery, but try not to eat too much of it before frosting the cake, or you might come up a little short!

 

Tada! I have to say, this turned out to be one of the nicest looking cakes I've ever made. The layers turned out nice and even and it looked incredibly pretty. A bit of warning, if you live in a warm climate like mine, you may want to store your cake in the fridge. I had to do this because the frosting started to get a bit melty if I left it out for too long.

 Pretty close to perfection I must say. This cake is RICH. I was stuffed after eating only a small piece of it! But the texture is really light and the combination of banana and buttery frosting is simply divine.

Good luck and happy baking!

Rosie

Sources: Cake: How to Cook Like Your Grandmother, Frosting: How to Cook Like Your Grandmother