The Best Banana Cake Recipe Ever! (With Cream Cheese Frosting)

I tasted this banana cake for the first time when I was in Sydney. I have a colleague there who loves baking almost as much as I do and she bakes cakes for people in her team very often. She brought this banana cake and a flourless chocolate cake the day I landed. They were both divine.

Australians love their banana bread. Its a staple in all coffee shops - thick slabs of banana bread often served toasted with butter. Ah, bliss.



The moment I had my first taste of this cake, I decided I not only want the recipe, but I want the book it came in as well. I asked her to bring it in the next day and ordered it online the same day. It reached home to Singapore before I did.



I made it exactly the same way mentioned in the book the first time. It tasted wonderful - quite dense, sweet, deliciously banana-ey. The cream cheese frosting was the perfect indulgence along with the humble banana backing. The beauty of this cake is, it can be entirely made in a food processor, if you have one. I have an immersion hand blender that has a processor/chopper which worked perfectly. If not, you can just use your hand-help whisk or electric beater to bring the batter together. If I had a blender, I would have tried mixing this cake in it.

The second time around, I decided to make it less sweet with no frosting, perfect for breakfast or to carry in a tiffin box to school, work, or a picnic.

The Most Fabulous Banana Cake Recipe
Adapted from: Mix and Bake by Belinda Jeffery 
Makes 12 large pieces

Ingredients:
3/4 cup (110gm) plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 very ripe large banana (about 1/2 to 3/4 cups when mashed)
3/4 cup granulated sugar (regular white sugar)
1 egg
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) butter, at room temperature
50ml sour cream (or buttermilk as in original recipe)
1 tsp vanilla extract

For Frosting (optional - you can just dust with icing sugar too):

125gm cream cheese, cut into chunks, at room temperature
1/4 cup (4 tbsp butter), cut into chunks, at room temperature
3/4 cup (150gm) icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 350F / 180C. Grease a 9" cake pan or a brownie pan like I used. This size is actually for the recipe which I have halved here so you can only make a thin single layered cake if you use a 9" pan. Try a smaller pan if you want to frost the cake in layers.

2. Put the flour, baking powder, salt, and soda into the food processor and whiz them together for about 15-20 seconds. Tip into a bowl and set aside. If mixing by hand, just put everything into a bowl and blend together using a whisk or a fork.

3. Chop the banans into the food processor next and whiz into a pulp. Make sure the banana is really really ripe. Again, you can do this by hand using a fork or potato masher, in a separate bowl.



4. Add the sugar and egg to the mashed banana and whiz for another minute. Then add the butter and whiz for another minute until the mixture is thick and creamy. (Cream together for about 5 mins if doing by hand).



5. Next, add the sour cream (or buttermilk) and vanilla extract and whiz in quick pulses until just blended. Fold together if doing by hand.



6. At this stage, you can either tip the flour mixture into the food processor or fold together in a separate bowl. My chopper bowl is not that big so I did this in a bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and fold until just blended. Don't overdo the mixing part.



7. Scoop into greased tray and smooth out the top layer evenly.



8. Bake for about 40 mins or until the top turns golden brown and the cake passes the skewer test. Remove and let cool completely before frosting.



For Frosting:

Whiz together all ingredients in the food processor for about a minute until well blended. Chill until needed to frost. You can mix by hand too, just make sure the butter and cream cheese are softened to room temperature so that they blend well when mixing with hand.

Frosting from the first time I made the cake

When the cake is cool, layer on the frosting on all sides. Cut and serve. With sour cream, the cake turns out much much softer so try and use it instead of buttermilk, if you can. Yum.

The first time I made this cake. Came out denser, but equally yummy.

Cheesecake Truffles Recipe

I love cheesecake but the slightly tedious process of making cheesecake, the water bath, the baking of the crumb, etc etc makes me want to just walk over to Secret Recipe and eat their perfectly baked cheese cake. And, I can choose what flavour I want!

So as you can see, I am a quick and easy bakes kinda person. I love my baked goodies but I want them quick and I want them good. That also explains why I made these delicious truffles.



These is not a cheesecake in the conventional sense. Its a crust-less cheesecake, more like truffles, that's dipped in chocolate. Yumville!



The recipe is from my absolute favourite baking book - A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman!

Cheesecake Truffles
Makes 20 small truffles

Ingredients:

For Cheesecake Batter:
250gm cream cheese (about half a pound), softened at room temp
1/2 cup sugar (or a little less)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup whipping cream (or normal cream)
Small pinch of salt

For Dipping Chocolate:
8 ounces of semi sweet or milk chocolate, melted (I used Hershey's semi sweet chocolate bar)




How I Made It:


1. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Line a brownie pan with parchment paper and set aside.



2. Whisk together all the ingredients for the cheesecake. Isn't that gorgeously simple?!



3.  Bake for about 35-40 mins until the cake is spongy but doesn't dry and curl in from the sides.



4. Cool completely and don't poke it with your fingers like I did.



5. Using small cookie cutters or ice cream scoop, make small pieces of the cheesecake.



6. Oh by the way, don't forget to melt the chocolate and set aside to cool.



7. Dip the cheesecake pieces into the melted and cooled chocolate and transfer to a plate lined with parchment paper or a baking sheet (so that it doesn't stick to the plate). You can also try using a greased plate for this in case you don't have parchment paper.



8. Don't worry if it doesn't look that glam because the chocolate is dripping around the cheesecake pieces. Trust me and stick the plate into your freezer for about 2 hours.

Serve the cheesecake truffles frozen or chilled. 

Need I say again that this is the most easy and quick cheesecake recipe I have seen? Once the cheesecake was done, it tasted so good as is (yes of course I tried it) so I am thinking of using a crush and the same cheesecake recipe to bake up a good 'ol proper cheesecake. Will let you know how that comes out, ok? Meanwhile, do yourself a favour and go bake this! Your family and guests will be wow'ed, guaranteed ;)

PS: you can dress these up by drizzling some melted white chocolate over the truffles, like you see in the book. I didn't have any white chocolate handy.

PPS: Marcy says chocolate chips won't work in this recipe. So to make the dipping chocolate for the cheesecake truffles, use chocolate bars.

PPPS: Check out my review of A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman.