Perfect Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cade and I have never really been into cake. We much prefer Cookies or Brownies, and I especially love Pie. Maybe having this baby has changed something in me but cake is back on my list for Sunday desserts. And did you know this is actually the second baby we’ve had since running this site? Yup, our second daughter was born in 2010! This banana cake with cream cheese frosting has been a work in progress but I’m thrilled to tell you that it’s wonderful and blog worthy now!

Cade and I love to beat the heck out of a recipe until we find the perfect recipe. Kind of like our buttermilk pancakes that we seriously took forever testing recipe after recipe to find the perfect one. I know, a lot of people just want something to turn out good in their kitchen but we want the best of the best. So since our 5 year old adores banana bread we decided to play around with banana cake. She says she missed the chocolate chips, but that frosting made up for it for me.

Here’s the issue, a lot of cakes were moist but flavorless, dry but good height, too soggy, too flat and the list goes on. We tried butter, shortening, oil, coconut oil, and combinations but finally settled on oil. I love butter, but in this case the cake ended up a little on the dry side whereas the oil kept it moist for days. We also experimented with beating the oil and sugar, adding eggs one at a time, alternating dry and wet ingredients, alternating dry ingredients and the banana and in the end we discovered that in this cake the biggest deal is actually that you want perfectly speckled, not black, not yellow, but brown freckled bananas and to fold the smashed bananas in at the end so as to keep the cake light and fluffy and packed full of banana flavor.

The cream cheese frosting is a cinch, but let me remind you, softened cream cheese is the only way to avoid those lumps. You can certainly use fat free, neufchatel, or even my personal favorite, Vermont Creamery Mascarpone (the Madagascar Vanilla is a winner!).

Why Does Cake Crumble?

Batter that is undermixed will cause cake to crumble.

Make sure your batter is thoroughly mixed, distributing the ingredients throughout the batter.

Too much sugar can also cause a cake to be crumbly.

Will Cake Harden in the Refrigerator?

Storing cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator will help keep the cake moist for longer.

Can Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting Be Frozen?

Cakes can be frozen with excellent results.

Cream cheese frosting freezes better than other frostings.

Just wrap the frosted cake well in plastic wrap or place in an airtight freezer container and freeze.

Perfect Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

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