So yesterday the insanely fabulous Rachel Hauck posted something about banana bread. Naturally, this made me think of my own fabulous recipe for banana cake, which I did NOT make up but found all by myself! I think the very best recipes come from those books your church puts out. My aunt's church, in this case, but the recipes are amazing. I haven't tried a single one I didn't love.
Anyway, Rachel made banana bread.
Smart girl. Banana bread is wonderful. And if you're like me and have set up your organic delivery to include FIVE POUNDS of bananas, well, you have some extras laying around and you have to get creative. So far, I've given them away and I've made banana cake.
And that's where my creativity with food ends.
Anyway, I told Rachel, who, by the way, is a wonderfully amazing and talented Christian fiction writer, that if she liked banana bread she had to try my cake recipe. It's sooo easy even us non-domestic types can nail it on the first try! Then I remembered it was only last week I made this cake, and wouldn't ya know it? I took pictures because I wanted to share this recipe with blogland.
In my book, the recipe is attributed to Connie Pratt. I don't know Connie, but gosh, she makes a good banana cake.
This is what you need to start with. (I'm going all Pioneer Woman on you...) Which reminds me...I went out and bought myself one of these yesterday:
Yeah. I really cannot wait to read it.
Anyway, this is what you need...
For whatever reason, I forgot to include the buttermilk in this photo. You need buttermilk too, but if you're like me and you don't want to buy a whole carton of buttermilk to use 1/4 of a cup, just throw a little lemon juice in regular milk and you're good to go.
Apparently I believe lemon juice is an important thing to have in the fridge. I opened mine and found these:
That's a lotta lemon juice, no?
So throw all the ingredients into the bowl...trust me, they're all there...some are just buried under flour and other dry things.
I have to say, I love this. None of that "separate dry ingredients, set aside..." In other words, "dirty up as many bowls as possible." I always wonder what would happen if I didn't mix the eggs in one at a time when making chocolate chip cookies. I think the world may never be the same.
Quick action shot for ya. Great thing about the Kitchen-aid my mom bought me for my birthday... I can use a camera AND mix at the same time.
Eventually, it looks like this. And yes, this is good enough to eat. (My kids always ask.)
Mama didn't raise no fool. Mix the bowl immediately so it all doesn't cake on the bowl requiring elbow grease and muscle later on.
Plus, I have frosting to make, and you better believe I'm using the Kitchen-aid. So, you put the batter in a 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for about a half an hour. Do the toothpick trick and all that jazz.
While you're waiting, mix up the delicious frosting. Really, truly, the star of the cake.
But maybe that's just because I'm a frosting girl...
So, the frosting requires just a couple of things.
Only one banana. Not sure how that other guy got in there.
You throw it all in there and end up with this.
Again. seriously. Good enough to eat.
After the cake cools, you can frost it...
After you frost it, you can cut it...
And after you cut it, you can eat it...
And yes, you will love it!
Here's the real (easy) recipe:
Cake:
- 1/2 cu. shortening
- 1 1/2 cu. sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cu. flour
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 3/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cu. sour or buttermilk
- 1 cu. ripe mashed bananas
Combine all ingredients and mix to batter consistency. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
Frosting:
- 1/4 cu. margarine (I hate margarine. It's from the devil. I use butter.)
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 3 cu. powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar for all you fancy folk)
- 1 banana
Mix it all together and plop it on the cake once it cools!
Enjoy! :)
