Banana Cake

Can I just say how much I hate having to sell a house??? Especially in this market. I hate it! It's not fun. The whole stress of it has really been wearing on me lately. Anyone out there that can commiserate with me???

Anyways...now on to something I love. I am obsessed with bananas. Seriously. I'm sure I could find a way to add bananas to a lot of different recipes--be it a smoothie, salad, dessert, etc. I have always loved them--well, except for when I was pregnant with my second child and they made me sick. The miraculous part of that being that I re-ignited my love for them post-pregnancy. Which is a rarity since I still can't eat a lot of foods that made my morning sickness worse back in the pregnancy days.

Since my husband knows of this obsession, he made me the most delicious banana cake for my birthday earlier this month. This cake is too die for. It is incredibly, incredibly moist. It has similar flavors to a yummy banana bread without the drying out that sometimes happens to the bread. And the frosting was amazing! I'm usually not a huge fan of cream cheese frosting, but this one went perfectly with the cake. I think that you wouldn't even have to be a huge fan of bananas to still like this cake. He served it at my little birthday bash with some of our family and everyone loved it. I know the directions might sound a little unusual. But he followed them to a tee and the cake was SO delicious and turned out perfectly.

Banana Cake from allrecipes.com


3/4 cup butter
2 1/8 cups white sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. In a small bowl, mix mashed bananas with lemon juice, set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 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.

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. This will make the cake very moist.

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.