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).

Comments

Louise said…
I love banana cake, so I'll definitely have to try this one, along with your modification. I also think that Alexander has an issue which in later life he'll regret. That is, something like "Why did it take me thirty years to find chocolate?" My sister was like that with all things seafood and fish. I think she was over forty years old before she saw the light. : )