Ina’s Old-Fashioned Banana Cake

I made this on a busy Sunday. We had friends over for dinner the night before and we were having another over for dinner on the Sunday.I chose not to recycle the Coconut Cream Pie from the night before so I needed to make something new.

One of my kitchen new year’s resolutions was to be mindful and use our vast collection of cookbooks.

I had not used Barefoot Contessa – How Easy Was That? Simple high flavour recipes. This was the aim Sunday.

I had a bunch of bananas just ripened so I made the Banana cake with Cream Cheese Frosting with a couple of tweaks. I decided to make 2 cakes – one for dinner and one to send off to work!

Banana Cake

For this recipe I used:

6 Ripe Bananas

Old Fashioned Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
6 Ripe Bananas
1  1/2 Cups of Whey Low Granular (Sugar Substitute)
1 Cup of Whey Low Gold (Sugar Substitute)
1 Cup of Vegetable Oil
5 Large Eggs
1 Cup of Sour Cream
2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract
Grated Zest of 3 Small Mandarin Oranges
2 Teaspoons of Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt
1 Cup of Chopped Toasted Pecans

12 Ounces of Light Cream Cheese
12 Ounces of Butter
2 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
Juice of 1 Mandarin Orange
5 Cups of Icing Sugar
Segments from 2 Mandarin Oranges

Banana Cake – Ingredients

I started by zesting the mandarins using a micro -plane.

Banana Cake – Zesting Mandarins

In my mixer I mixed the Bananas and sugars until well mixed.

Banana Cake – Bananas and Sugars

Next I added the rest of the wet ingredients (oil, eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and mandarin zest) and mixed it all until smooth.

Banana Cake – Mixing in the Wet Ingredients

Taking the bowl off the mixer I placed a sifter over the top of the bowl and added the flour, the baking soda, and the salt. I  shook the sifter over the banana mixture then put the bowl back on the mixer and combined everything until just mixed.

Banana Cake – Sifting Dry Ingredients

Banana Cake – Ready to Mix

After every thing was just combined I took the bowl off the mixer and finished mixing by hand with a big spatula. I added the pecans and mixed them in by hand as well.

Banana Cake – Finishing By Hand

Banana Cake – Adding the Pecans

It was time for the oven. I divided the mixture between 2 floured 9″ pans and put them in a 350˚ oven for 45 minutes. This recipe cooked quickly because of the Whey Low Sugar substitutes.

After the cakes were out of the oven and cooling I mixed up the cream cheese frosting.

I added the cream cheese and butter, both room temperature, to the mixer and mixed it on medium for 5 minutes. Be sure to mix all of the cream cheese lumps out.

Banana Cake – Cream Cheese Frosting

Once the butter and cream cheese were mixed I added the icing sugar, vanilla, mandarin juice and mixed everything for another 5 minutes on medium.

Banana Cake – Finished Cream Cheese Frosting

Once the cakes had cooled, at least an hour, I frosted one cake with 1/2 of the cream cheese frosting and place the mandarin segments on top. Then it was off to the fridge until desert  time.

Banana Cake – Finished!

For the second cake that was going off to work, I split the cake in half then spread the rest of the frosting of the bottom layer and put the second layer on top. The cream cheese frosting in the middle made it easier for work consumption!

Bakers Notes:

• very easy recipe
• 1 recipe of the cake makes a big cake. Great for a crowd. Serves 16 easily.
• 1 recipe of the frosting makes a lot! Make 1/2 or 3/4 of a recipe.
• replace mandarins with any citrus to change it up!
• this stays moist and very good in the fridge for a week
• June 2020 – just a note on Micro Planers – my experience is try to ignore the handled versions. Replace every 2 – 3 years – more often if you use it a lot