(more) Ridiculously Good Recipes

Beautiful Banana Cake

(with the best Cream Cheese Icing I have ever made)

Right around the time my bananas begin to collect fruit flies, I whip up this delectable cake (from Today's Parent magazine). I like to make it in 2 9" square pans so that I can eat one right away and freeze the other for another time.


2 3/4C Flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4tsp Salt
2C Brown Sugar
3/4C Vegetable Oil
3 Eggs
3 Medium, fully ripe bananas, mashed
3/4C Milk
1 1/2tsp Vanilla


Preheat oven to 350
Grease and line with parchment paper 2 9" cake pans or one 9x13" (or 24 muffin cups with liners)
Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl (flour, b.powder, b.soda, salt)
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the brown sugar, oil, and eggs on high speed for 2min.
Add the mashed bananas, beat for one minute to combine
Beat in the milk and vanilla, just to mix
Add the dry ingredients all at once and beat on medium speed until batter is smooth, scraping down the sides.
Pour into prepared pans and bake 40-45min for 2 9" pans, 45-50min for one large pan, 25-30min for cupcakes.
let cool for 10 min before removing from pan.

Fabulous Cream Cheese Icing

(will liberally frost one 9x13" cake or two 9" cakes)

1 Brick Cream Cheese
1 Cup Butter (oh yeah - a whole cup. Trust me. It's worth it. and no substituting margarine)
4 Cups Icing Sugar
1tsp Vanilla


Cream the butter and cream cheese together, then add the icing sugar and vanilla. When it has mostly combined, whip it on really high speed until it looks nice and light and fluffy. Whip it for at least a minute or two.

Spread on your cake generously

This is easy to halve if you only want to ice one 9" cake at a time, but it also stores ok in the freezer until you're ready to use it. Just whip it up a bit with a knife after it's thawed.