Last week I spotted a few over ripened bananas on my kitchen counter. I knew there and then that I will be baking with them. These brown bananas might seem that they are way past their prime but in reality at this point they have achieved the perfect texture and sweetness for baking.
Banana Cake
Usually I make Banana nut muffins for breakfast but i was in the mood for cake. While searching for a recipe i came across a very interesting baking technique that i had to try. After the cake is done baking it is immediately placed in the freezer to cool down for 45 mins. The recipe claimed that this will make the cake moist and oh yes this cake was moist. Moist to the point that it melted in the mouth. So if you are trying out this recipe do not skip this step.
This makes a perfect snack cake for the kids; my daughter enjoyed it. My family is not a huge fan of sweet frosting so i skipped it , however I did miss the frosting on my piece of cake. I melted some chocolate in the microwave to smear over my piece :-) and it was delightful. I think this cake will pair really well with either cream cheese frosting or peanut butter chocolate frosting.
- 3/4 cup Unsalted Butter
- 2 cups Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 2 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 3 cups All purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1 1/2 cup Buttermilk
- 2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 1/2 cup Banana mashed (about 3 large bananas)
- Preheat oven to 275 F and prepare a 9 X 13 baking pan.
- In a small bowl mash the bananas. Add the lemon juice to it and keep aside.
- In another bowl whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl beat butter and sugar together till light in color and fluffy (3 to 4 mins). Add eggs one by one mixing well after each addition.
- Stir in the vanilla extract.
- Beat in the flour mixture alternately with buttermilk. Starting and ending with flour.
- Bake for 1 hour and 20 mins or till the toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and put directly into the freezer for 45 mins.
- The baking time may vary between 1 hr 10 mins to 1 hr 30 mins depending your oven. I would suggest that after 1 hour 10 mins keep an eye on the cake.
- Don’t skip the freezer step. It makes the cake really moist.
- This recipe makes a 9 x 13 cake. You can half the recipe using 2 eggs and bake it in a 8 X 8 cake pan. The baking time will decrease to 40 mins.
