Ipso Fatto Instant Photos: Bananas Cake 2.0 with Cream Cheese Frosting

I've made the Bananas Cake from Baked Elements -- three layers of banana cake with peanut butter filling, chocolate ganache, and chocolate glaze -- twice, both times to disastrous results where the top two layers of the cake slid off. Even though I've failed at making the finished cake with all of its various components, I absolutely love the banana cake itself. It's sweet and tender and full of fresh banana flavor. So I decided to make it for my friend Dorothy's birthday. (I try to come up with non-chocolate options in deference to Dorothy's older son Alexander, who refuses to eat chocolate in any form.) But I decided to simplify things and pair the cake with cream cheese frosting instead of dealing with the ganache that has given me so much trouble. I made a quadruple batch of my favorite cream cheese frosting recipe (from this pumpkin-raisin bar recipe on epicurious.com), which I have previously paired with red velvet cake and carrot cake. A generous application of rainbow sprinkles was the extent of the birthday decor.

The banana cake is so tender that the slices I cut were a little floppy. Nonetheless, I loved this cake with cream cheese frosting, as did Dorothy and the rest of her dinner guests. I preferred the banana cake to the chocolate stout cake with salted caramel buttercream we had eaten the day before; Tom preferred the chocolate cake.

While I think the combination of banana, peanut butter, and chocolate in the original Bananas Cake recipe is delicious and decadent, a cream cheese frosting is just as indulgent and satisfying -- even if the resulting cake doesn't have the same visual impact. Plus, I didn't have to worry about the cake self-destructing with the cream cheese frosting; the cake layers didn't budge. I would absolutely make this cake and frosting combination again -- and it reinforces my belief that this loved and versatile cream cheese frosting goes with just about anything.

Recipes: "Bananas Cake" from Baked Elements by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings; and "Pumpkin-Raisin Bars" from epicurious.com.

Previous Post: "Baked Sunday Mornings: Bananas Cake," May 25, 2014.

Previous Birthday Cakes for Dorothy: Whipped Brown Butter and Vanilla Birthday Cake (2015); Lemon Mousse Cake with Fresh Raspberries (2014); Antique Caramel Cake (2013); Grasshopper Cake (2012); Restaurant Eve Cake (2010).