Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy New Year to you all, I hope 2010 brings you only good things.

It's D's birthday today and he chose to have a banana cake as his birthday cake. I sent him a few recipes to choose between and he picked this one from Taste.com.au, but I think it was because of the cream cheese frosting.

Although the cake tastes delicious, it was a nightmare to make. It took twice as long to cook as stated (probably because of my oven), it stuck to the inside of my (well greased, non-stick) springform tin once it was cooked and it promptly broke into pieces after I ran a knife around the edge of the tin and tried to release it. I figured that it may have had something to do with my impatience as it was nearing midnight and I was getting tired and cranky, but when I had frosting troubles this morning too I have decided that this cake does not like me.

It is really humid here in Brisbane at the moment. It's hot too, but not terribly so. I softened my butter and cream cheese to room temperature and made the icing as directed but once the icing sugar had been added it was so runny that I left the milk out entirely. I put it in the fridge to harden a little before frosting the cake, but as soon as I started spreading it melted again and became a gooey mess that dripped from the cake. The first piece that I tried to photograph starting leaning to the side as the frosting started inching its way off the cake and ended up falling over. D had that piece. I worked a bit quicker on the second picture and managed to catch it before it too fell over, but I'm not all that happy with the pictures.

Despite the problems I had making it, D was very happy with his cake. He said it was delicious and he loves the cream cheese icing. He had a second piece before retiring to his computer to play with one of his birthday presents - a new iPod nano. Happy Birthday D!

UPDATE: I have just tried another piece of this cake 3 days later and it's much much nicer. The whole cake has firmed up from being in the fridge and the banana flavour really comes across and matches very nicely with the cream cheese icing. I possibly have also repressed the memory of making it, which is letting me enjoy it more. There's now only one piece left, I should probably leave that for the birthday boy...


Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
from Taste.com.au

125g butter, at room temperature
315g (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar
1 1/4 cups mashed overripe banana (about 2 large bananas)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100ml buttermilk
225g (1 1/2 cups) self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Cream cheese frosting
125g cream cheese, at room temperature
50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
230g (1 1/2 cups) icing sugar mixture

Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush a round 20cm (base measurement) cake pan with melted butter to grease. Line the base and side of the pan with non-stick baking paper.

Place the butter, sugar, banana, eggs and vanilla in the bowl of a food processor, and process for 2 minutes or until well combined. Add the buttermilk and process until combined.

Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda, and process until just combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Shake the pan to settle the mixture. Bake in oven for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside in the pan for 10 minutes to cool slightly, before transferring the cake to a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, to make the cream cheese frosting, use an electric beater to beat the cream cheese and butter in a bowl until well combined. Add the icing sugar and beat until well combined.

Place the cake on a serving plate. Spread the cream cheese frosting over the top of the cake.