INGREDIENTS

For the cake

1½ cups (190g) flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

2 medium ripe bananas

⅓ cup (80g) milk

1 stick (8 tbsp/115g) unsalted butter

¾ cup (150g) brown sugar

2 large eggs

¼ cup (60g) yogurt

For the frosting

6oz (150g) COLD Philadelphia cream cheese

½ cup (60g) powered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Mix the dry ingredients for the Banana Cake

In a bowl combine the flour baking soda baking powder cinnamon and salt give these a rough toss and set aside.

How To Oven-Ripen Bananas and Maximize Banana Flavor

Now let's talk bananas and let's talk banana flavor lots of people think that adding an extra banana or two will enhance the banana flavor of the cake. No that just changes the texture making it dense and gummy there's a difference between a cake being moist and it being dense and gummy.

So, how do you get a deeply flavored banana cake? To start off you'll need two medium overripe bananas for this cake those nice spotty ones that are practically begging you to make banana bread.

However, I don't want you to have to wait until your bananas are the perfect ripeness to make this cake, especially if you love banana cake!

So, here's a cool technique. It works even if your bananas are somewhat green starchy and inedible pop them on a baking tray and bake in a low oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 15 minutes or until they've darkened in color and are soft to the touch. Please make sure they’re soft to the touch.

Note: They will darken way before they’ve gone soft, so continue baking until they’ve gone soft.

The gentle baking process does two things to the bananas it breaks the starch down into sugar making the bananas taste sweeter and it also releases more of the aroma molecules that make bananas taste like bananas. This makes your banana cake (or banana bread) taste more “banana-ry”.

Make the Banana Puree

To make the best banana cake toss your naturally or oven ripened bananas in a food processor along with the milk this will make a really smooth and flavorful banana puree and you won't have any slimy banana chunks or lumps in your cake as everything gets combined together beautifully set aside to cool. 

Make the Cake Batter

You don't need any special equipment for this cake. I love to do it by hand but if you're using a stand mixer please use the paddle attachment instead of the whisk. We don't want to incorporate too much air— we're relying on a chemical raising agent  to make this cake rise. If we incorporate too much air, the cake will rise too much and then crack. Or worse, it will sink under its own weight.

In a large bowl, melt one stick of butter. Add the brown sugar. This gives the cake a deep caramel like flavor. Then crack in two large eggs.

Add the yogurt which adds moisture and gives our cake the perfect texture—no, you won't taste it! Add the banana puree.

Add the dry ingredients. Remember to not over mix at this point. As soon as you don't see any lumps of flour stop mixing. Scrape the sides and the bottom of your bowl.

Bake the Banana Cake

The batter is now ready to be poured into a 7-inch square cake pan that's lined with parchment paper. (You can also use a 9 x 13-inch cake pan but you'll want to double the recipe in that case).

Bake the banana cake in a preheated oven at 320°F (160°C) for about 35 minutes.

As always, do the toothpick test. If the toothpick comes out clean the cake is ready.

The cake will smell amazing at this point, and it's tempting to dig right into this cake but please don’t! We're going to let this cool completely because we will be frosting this cake this cream cheese frosting will take your banana cake to another level.

Make The Cream Cheese Frosting

This frosting is made with just two ingredients: cold cream cheese and powdered sugar. (You can optionally add vanilla extract if you like). You want to use Philadelphia cream cheese for this recipe. Otherwise, your frosting may turn out runny.

Work quickly to combine them. This will only take a few seconds.

If your frosting goes runny, please see the section above titled, “Why does my cream cheese frosting go runny?”

Frost The Banana Cake

To frost this cake, I think you have two options. You can go for a rustic swirl which can hide a multitude of sins—even a sunken cake! Or use your spatula to create a simple even pattern. I prefer the latter because it ensures you get the right amount of frosting with every bite.

You don't have to cut the edges of the cake, but I like to do this to reveal the beautiful cake texture.  

Whether you have over-ripe bananas or whether you “ripen” them in the oven, I really hope you'll make this cake. It's delicious and moist, and it's the perfect fall treat.