I have a number of issues with bananas, Not with eating them, per se (many people I know do not like bananas, but I find that for certain things, like sliced in yogurt, they are indispensable.)  They’re just the thing in the morning to fill you up, enabling me to make it to noon or sometimes even 12:30 (!) before needing to eat lunch, which I otherwise like to do at 11:30, much to the horror of many of my co-workers.

The problem is buying the bananas. The ones sold at most of my local grocery haunts always manage to be both green and brown at the same time, and neither of those colors is what you look for in a banana. Especially together. And no matter what you do, you buy a bunch of bananas and within 3 days (and that is a generous estimate) they are almost all brown, and basically inedible.

What grocery stores need to do is stock bananas that are both just-about yellow and ready to eat and still quite green, for eating later in the week. But until they do that, the solution to the problem is to buy only 3 bananas at a time and make a second trip during the week to the grocery store. Invariably, though, I end up just buying a bunch on a Sunday, applying an unusual (for me) sense of optimism, and looking at a pile of rotten bananas on Thursday. Then I toss them in the freezer.

The banana situation got a little out of hand, and at last count I discovered 17 blackened freezer fruits.

Feeling embarrassed by the state of play, I scoured my recipes for something banana based, and a little more exciting than your standard banana bread. And in the dessert book by the Beekman boys was a recipe for a banana cake. Simple, humble and not too sweet, it looked like the perfect snacking cake to have on hand, if you’re into desserts on hand. I am.

This is a lovely cake. It is not as sweet as many banana breads, and is extremely moist and dense. The icing, with Greek yogurt, also has a nice acidic tang which complements what can sometimes be a cloying banana flavor. I like to keep this in the fridge, for a refreshing little snack on an insanely hot day like the ones were are presently having. I will also speak for your friends and let you know that it would be an excellent addition to any July 4th picnic.

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Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Category: Desserts

Servings: Serves 16

Ingredients

    For the Cake:
  • Softened butter and flour for the pan
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned into cup and leveled off)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/4 lbs. very ripe bananas, mashed (1 1/3 cups)
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
  • 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
    For the Icing:
  • 2 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
  • 1/3 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment or waxed paper. Butter the paper.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and salt. In a small bowl, combine the mashed bananas and lemon juice. Stir the yogurt into the bananas.
  3. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and the granulated and brown sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. With the mixture on low speed, alternately beat in the flour mixture and the banana mixture in 5 additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
  4. Scrape the batter into the pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean with a few moist crumbs clinging to it.
  5. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack. Run a metal spatula around the sides of the cake and invert onto a serving platter (or parchment-lined cookie sheet if you don't have a big enough platter) and pull off the paper.
  6. Once the cake is cool, make the frosting. In a bowl, with an electric mixture, beat the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and yogurt until smooth. Spread on top of the cake and serve.

Notes

https://www.thekitchenchronicles.com/2018/07/03/banana-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting/