TCS: Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting

This month's recipe for the Cake Slice Bakers was "Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting."

In one word: yummy.

I would definitely make this cake again. However, I cannot have this cake in my house ever again. Not without guests at least who will make a promise in writing to eat the rest of it for me or take it home with them. It is just that good.Seriously. You won't regret making this. Fortunately for me, I halved the recipe and made mini square cakes out of it to limit how much of it I could eat.

I've had some limited successes with past months cakes from "Southern Cakes".  Sometimes the frosting was good, sometimes the cake was good but the key point is good. They were good. They were not great. This cake was great. For me at least. The cake was incredibly moist and tasted wonderful on it's own. The frosting, which I modified slightly by adding less powdered sugar to it to limit the sweetness, was wonderful on its own. In fact I had to throw the rest of it out to avoid eating it by itself. Together they were amazing.

I made the cake as is which is a amazing feat of its own. The frosting I modified slightly as I added only one cup of powdered sugar so I ended up more with a thick glaze that still tasted wonderful despite forgetting to add the vanilla extract. 

Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting

(Recipe from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott)

Banana Cake

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, softened

1½ cups sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup buttermilk*

1½ cups mashed ripe banana

Chocolate Frosting

½ cup (1 stick) butter

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup evaporated milk or half-an-half

4 cups sifted confectioners sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

* If you don’t have buttermilk you can make your own by stirring 1½ teaspoons of vinegar or lemon juice into ½ cup of milk and leaving for 10 minutes.

To make the cake, heat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and stir with a fork to combine well.

In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugar and beat well, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one by one, and then the vanilla. Beat well for 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl occasionally until you have a smooth batter.

Using a large spoon, stir in half the flour just until it disappears into the batter. Stir in the buttermilk and then the remaining flour the same way. Quickly and gently fold in the mashed banana and then divide the batter between the 2 cake pans.

Bake at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes until the cakes are golden brown, spring back when touched lightly in the centre, and begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Cool for 10 minutes in the pans on wire racks. Then turn out onto the racks to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the butter, cocoa and evaporated milk in a medium saucepan. Place over medium heat and bring to a gentle boil. Cook, stirring often for about 5 minutes, until the cocoa dissolves into a dark shiny essence. Remove from the heat and stir in the confectioners sugar and vanilla. Beat with a mixer at low speed until you have a thick smooth frosting.

To complete the cake, place one layer, top side down, on a cake plate and spread about 1 cup of frosting evenly over the top. Cover with the second layer placed top side up. Spread the rest of the frosting evenly first over the sides and then covering the top of the cake.