I’ve been making banana muffins for years (aka “happy cakes”) but have been craving a good banana cake that is light and slathered in butter cream icing (NOT cream cheese icing! There is a time and place for that, but it is way overdone, if you ask me—kind of like balsamic vinegar). And since it was my birthday recently, and given that my oldest daughter who sometimes offers to make a cake for me has never touched or eaten a banana in her life and would not dare start just because her mom turned 51, I thought I would make it myself. And so, I did. It wasn’t pretty, but it wasn’t as ugly as other cakes I’ve made. And because I made it on Martin Luther King Day and I was home off from work, my babysitter and cleaning lady watched me make it. They gave me lots of icing tips (AFTER the fact) that I will share on my next blog and try on my next cake.
Light and Fluffy Organic Banana Cake
Ingredients:
- ½ cup butter
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 2 ripe bananas
- 1/3 cup buttermilk (or plain milk with ½ teaspoon white vinegar)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Take the butter out of the fridge and let it soften.
- Sift the flour into a bowl and mix with all the dry ingredients.
- Add all the wet ingredients (eggs, bananas, milk, vanilla, softened butter).
- Mix with an electric mixer for 3 to 5 minutes. It will seem a bit dry.
- Put it into one or two pans for baking (oiled and floured). If you put it into one pan, cook it a bit longer. I cooked it in two round pans and they cooked in 15 minutes!
Banana Buttercream Icing
I was feeling super banana-y, so I took this basic buttercream icing recipe and added a half of a ripe banana. YUM!
Ingredients:
- 4 cups sifted confectioners sugar
- 2 sticks softened butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- ½ ripe banana
Directions:
Put it all in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer until it’s light and fluffy.
OK, now this looks & sounds absolutely delicious. And I refuse to think about the 3 whole sticks of butter that are in it. *haha* Thank you for sharing the recipe!!
–Andrea
XOXO
Hi
Americans don’t think much about people in other parts of the world. But 2 sticks of butter !!!! What is the weight???
We never get butter in less than 500 gram packs. Our butter in New Zealand is great stuff, not like the USA. It is from grass fed cows, that is all we have anyway. So we get omega and all the goodies in our butter. It is actually good for you.
Can’t wait to try this (without the frosting)!
I make banana walnut loaf with sour cream. my mom who always baked from scratch baked into her 80’s, loved adding sour cream to pound cake and the banana walnut.
i am going to try your recipe!
Kathy Sadler
quakertown PA
Delicious!! Made it last night with the sad old bananas that were just about ready to give up and drop off their hangar in exhaustion. Baked my two pans a little longer – maybe 20 minutes or so – and I didn’t have a banana for the icing but other than that, followed your easy and yummy recipe. Cheers all around from the crowd!
My daughter and son-in-law’s wedding cake at their Maui wedding was a banana cake. To this day, it remains one of my favorite cakes.
Can’t wait to try it!!!
My favorite kind of cake, I have a recipe but am willing to try your……
Now I’m craving banana cake! This sounds delicious! Pinning for later!
Dot, 2 sticks of butter is half a pound, so about 227 grams. I know what you mean. I have trouble converting recipes from other countries as well 😉 thank goodness for Google and instant conversion calculators. About the butter, it’s possible to get good organic butter in the US, just more expensive
What are they talking about? This calls for just 1/2 c butter, not 2 or 3 sticks! Seems like a very balanced proportion of ingredients. 1/2 c fat, 1 c sugar, 2 c flour ,etc. I dislike recipes that use more sugar than flour and/or 3 times this amount of butter or oil. Maybe it’s just me. I plan to make this today. Thanks for sharing.
Quick and easy! Yummy, too. Left out the frosting and substituted sugar with Splenda for a lower calorie version.san