Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted very slightly from About.com

Do you ever buy a bunch of bananas, and then never eat all of them before they go bad?  Well, my husband and I tend to.  So the last time this happened, I tossed the bananas in the freezer once they were very ripe. 

Recently I made a cupcake recipe that included cream cheese frosting, and somehow the frosting yield was twice the amount I needed for those cupcakes.  Thankfully I remembered I had bananas waiting in the freezer to be used, went searching online, and ended up making this recipe.  It is so good!  The taste of banana really shines through, the cake is moist, and the frosting paired perfectly.

As a bonus, the house smelled simply wonderful when this cake was done.  We couldn't resist the temptation, and ended up having a slice before it completely cooled.  And because of this lack of willpower on our part, there is no picture of this cake as a whole to share with you.  I didn't want a picture of the pacman-like cake I was left with after we stole our first slices.  So, the picture of the slice is what we are left with.  I'm sure you can imagine what the whole cake looked like. 

Please note: if you decide to freeze bananas, when you know you want to use them, remove them from the freezer and place in a ziplock bag.  Allow to thaw at room temperature for a couple of hours.  Once thawed they will be very soft inside the peels.  All I had to do was make a slit at the end of each banana with a paring knife and squeezed the contents out.  They were almost liquid, which meant I had very little mashing to do, which was actually quite convenient.

Ingredients

For the Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup nonfat milk
1/4 cup canola oil
3 medium-sized very ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the Frosting

1/4 cup butter, softened 

4 oz reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 to 1 cup powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Place the brown sugar and beaten egg in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer at medium speed until fluffy. Add the oil, milk, banana and vanilla extract; mix until combined thoroughly. Gradually mix in dry ingredients until just moistened.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan; bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the cake is golden brown. Let stand in pan 5 minutes, then remove from pan and finish cooling on a wire rack.

For the frosting, place the butter and cream cheese into large bowl and beat with electric mixer for 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to beat, adding in the vanilla extract and powdered sugar. Slowly add powdered sugar until you reach the consistency you desire. If the frosting becomes too thick, add 1 tablespoon of milk to thin it out. Spread frosting on top of cooled cake.

Refrigerate any leftovers.  Once the cake is refrigerated, remove it from the refrigerator approximately 1 hour before you desire to serve it again, to allow the frosting to soften and to remove the chill from the cake.

Yields 12 servings.