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BANANA CAKE with CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

from The Southern Living Cookbook
Prepared by Ken Mellons and Lorianne
Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups granulated fructose OR 3 cups sugar
2 cups mashed bananas (use heavily speckled bananas, they are riper and
    sweeter)
4 eggs, beaten
3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 cup chopped pecans
 
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.

1.  Cream butter, gradually add sugar, beating well at medium speed with an electric mixer. Add bananas; mix until smooth. Stir in eggs.

2.  Combine both flours and baking soda. Add to banana mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix after each addition. Stir in vanilla, orange juice and pecans.

3.  Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9-inch round cakepans. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks. Frost.

** NOTE: Granulated fructose, which you can find at health food stores, will make your cake much more dense. If you want a lighter cake, go ahead and use regular sugar. Also, on the show, to try to make the cake healthier, we used 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour and 2 cups regular flour. That, along with the granulated fructose, made the cake more like a banana bread. Ken thought the cake was WAY too dry, even with the icing. Therefore, we recommend using 3 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour as the original recipe calls for.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
1  8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 16 ounce package powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
whole pecans to decorate top
Directions:
Combine cream cheese and butter, beating until smooth.

Add powdered sugar and vanilla.

Beat until light and fluffy.