Banana Cake With Cream Cheese Icing

During the pandemic, everyday feels like Groundhog Day. We just watched that movie with the kids this past weekend and they loved it.  Well, if everyday is going to be the same then I want it to involve this Banana cake with cream cheese icing. So on top of the standard eggs, bread, and milk from the store, I make sure to have bananas, cream cheese, and powdered sugar. As I tell my husband when he sees me making a cake every 3 days – someone has to be the adult around here! :-p

I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com which is my goto place for recipes. Here is the link:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/8333/banana-cake-vi/?internalSource=streams&referringId=15827&referringContentType=Recipe%20Hub&clickId=st_trending_b

I’ll paste my version of it here.  I just tweaked a few things b/c I didn’t have stuff on hand or didn’t want to do the extra stuff.  Otherwise, it’s mostly the same:

Ingredients:

¾ cup butter (use salted butter)
2 cups white sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ cups buttermilk (milk with 1 tbsp of vinegar added – let sit for a few minutes)
2 teaspoons lemon juice (didn’t use)
1 ½ cups mashed bananas (3 bananas)

For the frosting:

½ cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
3 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Step 1

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan. In a small bowl, mix mashed bananas with lemon juice (didn’t use lemon juice just mashed the bananas), set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda. Set aside.

Step 2

In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Step 3

Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place directly into freezer for 45 minutes (did not do this – don’t ever have that much space in the freezer and it turns out fine!). This will make the cake very moist.

Step 4

For the frosting: In a large bowl, cream 1/2 cup butter and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add confectioners sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high until frosting is smooth. Spread on cooled cake.

Some people in my family like to sprinkle this cake with cinnamon before eating. Sounds good, but I tend to like it the way it is – can’t mess with perfection.

Update: I did gain 20 lbs over the pandemic so maybe don’t make this every few days like I did. :-p