I love making layer cakes with fruit, so I always find and excuse to make one for my kids’ birthday. We always eat about half the cake, and then I take the rest to work! My coworkers love me for that, by the way.

We also all happen to love the combination of bananas and chocolate. I went searching online for the best banana cake, and I found a recipe I could modify a bit. I eliminated a few ingredients, like lemon juice, and used a modified chocolate frosting from one of my favorite recipe books!

You’ll love this cake as much as I do!

 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Ripe mashed bananas (about 4-5 small bananas)

3 cups, All purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp Baking soda

3/4 cup, Unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups, Granulated sugar

3 Large eggs

2 tsp Pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups Buttermilk

 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 275F.

You need 3 nine inch round cake pans. Cut out parchment paper circles to fit the bottom of the cake pans. (Use a pencil to trace the cake pan on to parchment paper and then cut on the inside of the pencil line.) Grease the bottom and sides of all 3 pans. Place the parchment paper circles on the bottom of the cake pans and then grease the surface of the parchment paper as well. Flour each cake pan and shake out excess flour.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour and baking soda.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Then beat in the vanilla.

Add a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat well. Then add a half of the buttermilk and beat well. Repeat with another third of the flour mixture then beat in the remaining buttermilk. End with beating in the last third of the flour mixture.

Stir in the mashed bananas well.

Pour equal amounts of the batter into 3 prepared cake pans. Smooth the tops. I try to spread more of the batter mixture to the edges as there is a tendency for the cake layers to become “domed” as they bake.

I put all three cake pans on the middle rack of my oven. Because, I am spoiled, I have an oven that has a “bake convection mode”. I used this feature at 275F and it baked in 25-30 minutes. If you don’t have this feature, still bake it at 275F but you have to check it until it is baked (A tester in the middle should come out with a few moist crumbs.) I suggest checking after 25 minutes and go from there. Also, I rotated the cake pans after about 15 minutes to ensure even baking.

After it’s baked remove pans to cooling racks and let cool for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove from the pans. They should come out easily if you have greased and floured your pans well. Leave on racks to cool completely. Because I don’t have a lot of time in any given day, I bake the cake layers the day before I need them (For this cake, it may actually make the flavour better as well.). After the layers cool, I wrap them individually in plastic wrap and store on baking sheets in the fridge. The next day, I simply unwrap them and can assemble the cake.

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Quick Tip: Freeze overripe bananas in advance, and use them as needed in desserts.

Recipe and image courtesy of: My Modern Asian Family