Best Banana Cake

I baked this cake for a friends birthday. Well, not the actual cake you see here, but one just like it. The cake in these photos is the one I baked on 22-May-2014. You see, way back at the beginning of my blogging adventure (this is very first post I ever published) I shot the most appalling photographs. So I decided a while ago that when I had the time and the inclination, I would re-shoot it to do the Best Banana Cake I've ever made or eaten justice... This is also evidence that overripe bananas ran my life back then, as they do now.


Best Banana Cake

adapted from Belinda Jeffery's Mix & Bake

For the Cake:
225g plain flour (I used cake flour)
3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2-3 very ripe bananas (to yield 1 cup pureed bananas)
370g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into chunks
100ml buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Frosting:
250g cream cheese, room temperature and cut into chunks
125g unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into chunks
500g icing sugar, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Make the Cake:
Preheat the oven to 180C and butter and flour a 28cm cake pan. Set aside.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a large bowl and whisk them together. Set aside.

Put the bananas into a blender and blitz them until they are a smooth puree. Measure out one cup and pour it into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the sugar and eggs and beat to blend. Add the butter and mix on medium until the mixture is thick and creamy. Add the buttermilk and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to it's lowest setting and add the flour. Mix until just combined. Do not over mix. Pour the batter into the prepared tin.

Bake for 40 - 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 7 minutes then transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the Frosting:
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add the icing sugar and vanilla extract and beat until light and fluffy.

Assemble the Cake:
Cut the cake in half horizontally. Put four long thin pieces of baking paper around the edges of a cake plate to form a square to protect the plate from being splattered with frosting. Place the bottom half on the cake on top of the pieces of paper so that the edges of the cake are resting on the paper. Spread the whipped cream over it, almost to the edges. Place the top half of the cake on top. Dollop big spoonfuls of the frosting on top of the cake, reserving about 1/4 cup. Using a palette knife, spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cake and down the sides. Take the 1/4 cup of reserved frosting, spoon it into a piping bag fitted with a medium star tip. Pipe circles around the edges and one in the centre of the cake (or decorate however you want). Slide the paper out from under the edges of the cake to reveal a spanking clean plate.