Today marks 6 months of penny for her thoughts— halfway to a blogiversary! pfht is still in it’s early stages, and I must admit I’ve done very little to help push and publicize the content, but I’ve been so fortunate to have family, friends, and other readers be so kind and encouraging with this little project of mine. I’m definitly looking forward to posting more exciting things ahead: recipes, outfits, and perhaps even things outside that realm! Quick shout out to my bestie from home, Sophia, who pushed me to start pfht to begin with: thank you, love! Here’s to a great first 6 months, and on the the next…
Back to regularly scheduled programming: another dessert recipe! What better way to celebrate a half blog-birthday/blogiversary than with cake?! Seriously, I’m on a roll with cake; did I mention I was mildly obsessed? A few weeks ago, my roommate wanted to try making banana cupcakes with almond butter frosting (inspired by this lovely tweet from Sprinkles) and so we attempted to do so… with slightly disasterous results. The cake, although quite dense, was wonderful in flavor and encouraged my to give the recipe a second try. The product of that second try is what you see here: a stunningly beautiful cake that tastes just as good as it looks!
Amazingly moist and light, this cake is bursting with a delicious-yet-non-overpowering banana flavor. Oh. My. Yes, it’s that good! Topped with a simple vanilla buttercream frosting (inspired from Sprinkles’ frosting), this cake was definitely a hit with all who tried it. This is by no means a “healthy” cake, but it does have a lighter feel in texture and density, and is an all-around great dessert for just about any occasion. What’s better? I swapped out some butter and incorporated unsweetened applesauce for slightly less-guilty cake indulgences ;) Move over, banana cream pie, I think there’s a new banana dessert crowd-pleaser!
- 2 1/4 c flour
- 1/4 c butter
- 1/4 c applesauce, unsweetened
- 1 c sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 c bananas, mashed (~2 large)
- 1/4 c sour milk (1/4 c soy + 1 tsp acid)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 c unsalted butter, softened
- 2 1/2 c confectioner's sugar (Sprinkles' recipe calls for 3.5 c)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp milk
- 1 pinch salt
- (Optional) In a medium-sized bowl, sift together flour and baking soda.
- Preheat oven to 350 F and line 2 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, beat butter then add sugar and cream with a stand or electric hand mixer.
- Add eggs continue to mix until well incorporated.
- Add flour+baking soda mixture, a third at a time, and mix until well incorporated.
- Add mashed banana, sour milk, and vanilla and mix until well incorporated.
- Pour half the batter into each of the cake pans and bake for ~25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove to cool, and remove cakes from pans to completely cool. Make frosting while waiting for cake to cool!
- In a medium bowl, cream butter with salt. (If using salted stick, omit pinch of salt)
- Slowly add sugar (1/2-1 c at a time) and cream with butter.
- Add in vanilla and mix until well incorporated and consistency is smooth and creamy.
- Level two cakes; cut off and remove top if necessary to ensure that both cake rounds are flat.
- Place one cake round on top of a cardboard cake round (I cut a cardboard circle and lined it with aluminum foil).
- Frost the top of the bottom layer with 1/4 to 1/3 of the frosting. I used a 13" offset spatula to help me even out the layer. Optionally, pipe a circle of frosting around the perimeter prior to filling the inside.
- Place the top layer of cake on top of the frosted bottom layer.
- Use the remaining frosting to cover and frost the top and sides of the cake. Again, the offset spatula came in handy. I used a piping tip and pastry bag to add litte designs to the top.
- That's it, slice and enjoy!
- Sour milk: If you ever find a recipe that calls for sour milk and don't have any on hand (as I didn't), you can easily create a quick at-home substitute by adding a touch of acidity (such as lemon juice or apple cider vinegar) to regular milk (or in my case, soymilk). 1 tbs acid to 1 c milk. Wait 10 minutes, and voila, you're good to go!
-pfht
Love your recipe, I tried your chocolate cupcakes the other day and everyone went crazy about it. Your banana cake look splendid! I don’t know if I can make a batch of cupcake out of this since our family will never finish an entire cake! How many cupcake can I bake out of this recipe? Just asking since I’ll try it anyway. Thank you so much for your nice blog.
And may I ask how much flour is needed? Because I think might have forgotten to put it in the recipe?
Great catch.. has been added! 2 1/4 cups of flour. Also, if you’re more fond of weighing, this would translate to 315g (140g = 1 cup flour)
Hi Jenny–I’m so glad that you’ve been able to try the cupcake recipe! It’s one of my favorites :)
I haven’t tried this banana cake in cupcake form (YET!) but I plan to do so in the near future. My immediate thoughts would be to lower the baking temperature to 325F and bake for 12-15 minutes, checking to make sure the center of each cupcake is cooked through. The cake recipe above should yield ~24 cupcakes. Let me know how it turns out if you end up making!
Thank you so much! So useful this Thanksgiving .
I’m so glad you found it useful, and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
-Eunice