Thursday, September 11, 2014

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and.. an extra recipe tossed in!

A long while back I posted Aunt Bea's banana cake.... Since getting engaged to my husband about a century ago, I made it into the INNER SANCTUM and got invited to the Eichas family reunion every summer. With so many grandchildren, only engaged couples got to bring a date to the picnic....

So when I was just shy of 19 (Yes, I know, I was a stinkin' BABY!!!!!) I got to go to my first reunion.

AWESOME!!!!!!

Such a great family, where's the "LOVE" button?????? But all that aside, this was my first experience with Aunt Bea's Banana Cake... It was love at first bite.

And for forty years, nothing compared, but now.... Oh, now....

I've found a better one. Aunt Bea wouldn't mind me saying that, she was Dave's godmother, and a great lady, and she would love this cake.

I found it by accident and my first attempt was KITCHEN SUCCESS  FAIL!!!!

Here's the original recipe as I found it on Allrecipes.com...

But I persisted last weekend when we were partying in Seekerville and on Facebook to celebrate my new contract with Waterbrook/Multnomah!!!! (Have I mentioned I have the best agent in the world, that I love her so much we could happy dance around central Washington together???)



And: SUCCESS. This cake is cleverly designed to stay "light" and very moist and you need to give it a little more time in the oven than the original recipe suggests, but I found that out the first time, so I'll pass my tips on to youse!

Preheat oven to 275° (Now I have a convection oven and I raised the temp 10 degrees to 285° and it worked better because the fan action allows the oven to actually be "below temperature" At a low temp like this, that didn't work as well!)


Mix together in small bowl and set aside:

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Mix Together in another small bowl and set aside:
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt



Okay, here's where we start havin' some fun with the mixer!!!!



Cream together:
3/4 cup butter 
2 1/8 cups white sugar

When light and fluffy mix in:
3 Eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

Once butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla are delightfully creamed together, alternate adding the flour mix with 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk. Now I didn't have buttermilk so I used 1 cup regular milk and 1/2 cup whipping cream (heavy cream) and it worked great.

Once all the flour and buttermilk or pseudo-buttermilk has been added and blended in, add the bananas and stir.

Pour into greased and floured 13 x 9" pan.... I had enough for a thick cake in that pan and a loaf pan as well, more about the loaf pan later!!!!



Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.... Mine was about 1 hour, 20 minutes.... The loaf pan took about 1 hour...

HERE'S THE SECRET: WHEN YOU TAKE IT OUT OF THE OVEN PUT CAKE RIGHT INTO FREEZER!!!!

Chill in freezer for 45 minutes. This interrupts that "out of oven" finished baking time and the cake comes out delightfully moist, light and to die for texture....

So I'm going to play with this technique more often, see how it affects other cakes! What a novel idea!

We used a cream cheese frosting for the cake, but we decided we'd prefer the "whipped" icing Aunt Bea used on her cake.... We love cream cheese frosting, but for this the whipped icing is better. And Susan Gibson Snodgrass on facebook said she uses caramel frosting on her banana cake... I think that's a cool idea, must try it!!!


Here's the finished cake with the cream cheese frosting:



And here's the recipe for the whipped cream icing that Aunt Bea used on her banana cake... and that I think works better.  This is from the Waldorf Astoria and my original recipe called for Crisco instead of butter, but I like butter better!

Heat in saucepan:

1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour

Heat, stirring regularly, until mixture thickens like pudding.  Chill.

Whip together:

1 cup soft butter
1 cup granulated sugar (extra fine if you have it, but regular works)
1 teaspoon vanilla

When fluffy, add in pudding mix above and whip at high speed until frosting is light and fluffy. Spread on cake and serve chilled.

No pics here because I didn't make this, but I should have! And now I'm off to make tuna for supper because it's a mainstay these days... and that's okay, because quick sandwich suppers give me more writing time!!!

I love me some more writing time!!!!




27 comments:

  1. I'm stuck on the "19 and a baby" part. I got married at 26 and thought I was quite wise and mature. Now I look back and think... 26, 19, 22. It's all the same. Forty and nineteen- now that's different!

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    1. Hahahahahah! Well, a baby by today's standards, I guess! Back then I think 25% of us who married high school sweethearts were married by 20.... we were the cusp of change.

      But honestly, I look at our wedding pics and we were so stinkin' young.... and thought we knew everything! I was annoying even then!!!!

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    2. I'm with Ruthy and Julie too. I married at 18, 2 months after graduating high school, forty yrs ago.. Even then most of our classmates were heading off to college and careers. we may have the longest running marriage in the class of 1974. We weren't even smart enough to know what we didn't know, but by the grace of God we figured it out and we basically grew up as we raised our three kids.

      This recipe looks good but I'll have to hold on to it a while, laying off the sugar and sweet carbs the next few months as much as possible to reach my health goals before the Christmas baking madness begins. (Has everyone been seeing all the 15 weeks til Christmas signs on fb? yikes)

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    3. Throw me in the mix, too. I married at nineteen and had my first child at 20. Did I mention that I became a grandma at 38? WHEN MY YOUNGEST CHILD WAS 2!! Some things just aren't right, and that's one of them. :P

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    4. Mindy, LOL, that's awesome! It's possibly not ideal, but it's a hoot and I didn't realize that! So we've got a bunch of baby mamas here! Go us!

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    5. Mindy, I had no idea you were a grandma! Where are those grandkid pictures!!? Or maybe you've been sharing and they're all grown up?
      My sister and I are only six years apart. She was married and had a baby at 21. Then her daughter had a baby at 19... and I was still having kids. So some of my kids are younger than my great niece (yes, I'm a great aunt!).

      I used to make fun of my husband's family where he has a cousin who's twice his age, or a brother 20 years younger. I get it now. Add In a few generations and you can get some crazy age gaps.

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    6. Virginia, I have FIVE grandkids. The four grandboys live in Oklahoma, so we don't get to see them often. That would be different if we didn't still have kids at home, but it is what it is. Then we have a granddaughter who lives near us. Oldest grandchild is 13 (ugh!) and the youngest is three. And I know I've at least posted pix of that youngest one. He's such a mess. Cute, but mess. ;)

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    7. Y'all were babies! I thought I was young marrying at 24!

      Tracey, I haven't seen that yet. Will drive me crazy to see it when it's 86 degrees outside!

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    8. Mindy, we need pictures. How stinkin' sweet to have babies, even far-away, half-grown ones!!!! I love all stages of this fun new reality!

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    9. Okay, okay.... I'll see what I can do.

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    10. Missy, I know what you mean, it's 86 today in Va. Can't really be thinking about Christmas at least for another month.

      Mindy, I saw the pic of one of your grandkids on one of your recent YB posts, but I think it was the oldest ? Such a cutie

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    11. Do I remember, Tracey? Of course, not. Sleep will do that to you. ;)

      Seems like I posts a pic of the little guy on his firecracker birthday, but as I said, I've slept since then.

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    12. Okay, I went and looked it up, More about Pies on Aug. 5th had a pic of Mindy and baby Elijah for the grandson pic

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  2. Yep, I got distracted by the engaged at 19 because I was MARRIED at 19. And I am so grateful to have the extra years in with ManO because what is today's average like 30 or something.

    How do you keep a hot glass dish from cracking in the freezer? Or is it just going the other way and cracking a cold dish in the oven? Because I am she of worst case scenarios, but you know that.

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    1. Julie, I was 19 too, and isn't it just too funny to think of right now? And yet, I had all my kids by age 32, so I've been able to enjoy being adults with them (while I'm still crazy healthy and bossy!!!! Much to their chagrin!) and that's so fun!

      I used the Pyrex baking pans and no problem. They're tempered, and they're supposed to be able to go from oven to freezer, etc.

      I tested it for you! Perfect!!!!!

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  3. I'm hungry! Still not risking that coffee frosting huh?! ;-) Sunday was my dessert day so I tried to behave yesterday...bible study group met at fuddruckers beforehand and the checkout guy let me get the hamburger kid meal and it came with a cookie,...I gave the voucher to the first kid I saw before I could be more temped. ( their cookies rock and this cake I think would rock even more!)
    Susanna

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    1. SUSANNA!!!!! I am so stinkin' proud of you! This is exactly the way we take charge of things, just little decisions, adding up. Oh, I'm happy dancing in upstate!!!!!!! I love, love, love those facebook posts, girlfriend! BIG GRIN!!!!!!!

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  4. Ruthy, I'm all over the cream cheese frosting (better than it being all over me :), but I'm still undecided about the cake. Not a huge banana fan, though I do like a good banana nut bread.

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    1. Mindy, honestly, this cake is so much better than any banana cake or bread I've ever had, that it's shocking. I can't describe why, but it's got a carrot cake texture with light banana flavor and a chewiness that just makes your mouth happy!

      And it stays moist!!!!! Such a win/win/win/win/win!!!!

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  5. I surprised Beth this morning with the whipped cream frosting, so Mandy took half the cake to a gathering, we scraped the cream cheese frosting off the other half of the cake and spread the whipped cream Waldorf Astoria frosting on top of the now bare naked cake.... And it was marvelous!!!!! Oh, happy day! :) Aunt Bea would be so proud of us!!!!

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  6. This is great. Another use for those bananas besides banana bread. Thank you.

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    1. I replied to this once.... and Blogger ate it! BAD BLOGGER!!!! Tina, this is beyond worthy.... irresistible!!!

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  7. I'm going to have to try that cake-in-the-freezer step!

    I was engaged when I was 19, too - but he wasn't Mr. Right. I still celebrate the anniversary of the day I ended our engagement every year (September 13th - just a couple days away!)

    Once I DID meet Mr. Right, things have just gotten better and better. :) Thirty-two years and counting. I always tell my children it doesn't matter when you get married, as long as you marry the right person. :)

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    1. Oh, that's a great story! I celebrate a few things from loser boyfriends. Like the Fall... I had a boyfriend ditch me in the Fall and he was such a pain in the keister that although at the time I was terribly unhappy, now I just say, "thank you, Jesus!"

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    2. Virginia's right, that is a great stinkin' story! Go you, Jan!!!

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  8. Oh my gosh!!! You've made me SO HUNGRY!!! This looks amazing. But all my bananas are brand new and greenish. I'll have to wait a week. LOL

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    1. Missy I toss them in the freezer when they get old and then just grab them out when I need banana deliciousness.... and it works great! I think it was Mandy who showed me that, and she'll brag about it forever....

      Stinkin' kids.

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