Recipe Redux: Banana Cake with Vanilla Bean Frosting

Ugh, I have been the worst blogger this month. I'm at 6 (now 7) posts for the month. I feel like I'm still on vacation. I usually post 3 times a week, but I've been averaging about 2 this month. I'm trying not to get too worked up over this, it is what it is. I've been spending a lot of time outside since I returned from my break, getting the garden ready and planting flowers. We added another raised bed to our garden this year. Year by year, the garden gets a little bigger than the year before. Obviously, the bigger the garden gets, the more time it needs. I'm feeling that this year. 

And truth be told, I'm just enjoying how lackadaisical I've been this month with the blog. It feels good to remove some of the pressure. I'm such a weird person with pressure. The more pressure I put on myself, the more I rebel. Yeah, enjoy that going on in your head. I don't know, sometimes it just feels better to go outside, feed the birds, water the garden than it does to pound nonsense out on the keyboard. 

So really, sorry for the lack of posting this month. I will try to do better next month :-)

Let's talk about this uber healthy and delicious cake!

I first tried this cake when we had just moved into the house. April of 2013. Crazy that I'm redoing it in April, 3 years later. I've got a thing for timing! Here's the before:

Update sorely needed!

I love banana cake. It doesn't taste like any other cake. It has its own wonderful texture, and the dreamy vanilla bean frosting is the perfect counterpart to this light dessert. 

You could almost have this cake for breakfast with a cup of coffee. Almost.

It's a fairly easy cake to make, too. You'll need a couple of ripe bananas. You want them to be a little mushy. 

Since the cake is fairly light on butter and sugar, I decided to mix the cake by hand instead of in my stand mixer. The stand mixer is not the best when there's not a larger amount of ingredients in the bowl. Hand contraption to the rescue!

The cake bakes fast, about 20-25 minutes in the oven.

While the cake was baking, I got to work on the frosting. First, I had to infuse the milk with vanilla bean. After discarding the vanilla bean, I got straight to work with the flour part of the frosting. Yep, this is one of those frostings you add flour to in order to thicken the milk. You then add the thickened milk to fluffy butter and sugar- 

And you have magic! Flour frosting is definitely my favorite frosting, and one of the only frostings I'll eat.

It is so good on the cake.

I added some sliced bananas to garnish my cake, but keep in mind that the banana gradually starts to turn brown. My advice would be to slice some bananas on the side, and just garnish each slice as you serve it. That way everyone is happy :-)

That's it for me today! I've been at Lowe's the last 3 days in a row, and I'm going for a 4th! Ha ha. The hubby and I are focusing on landscaping this year, so I've been bringing home lots of plants and flowers. I am sooooooo excited we are focusing on our outdoor areas this year. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to be surrounded by flowers. The colors, the smells, all the bees running around our yard... it's been amazing. The hubby and I often talk about how few honey bees there are around these days, especially compared to when we were kids. Both of us can remember walking out into lawns absolutely saturated with honey bees foraging on dandelions and clover. These days, we were lucky to spot 3 or 4 honey bees in the yard. That was, of course, before we got the bees. Now it's magical to see all the bees in the yard. I want to bring them all kinds of different flowers to eat!

Don't worry, I'll take lots of pictures for my April round-up :-)

Have a great day everyone!

Recipe adapted from: ButterYum

Ingredients:

Cake-
2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temp
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 very ripe bananas
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Frosting-
1/2 cup milk
1 vanilla bean
2 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar

garnish- sliced bananas (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease a 8 x 8 pan.
2. For the cake: In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar, until pale and creamy. Beat in egg. Beat in Greek yogurt. Beat in vanilla. Beat in soft bananas. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to banana mixture, mix until well combined. Pour batter evenly into greased pan. Bake in pre-heated oven 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven, and let cool completely before frosting.
3. For the frosting: Add milk to a small saucepan. Cut vanilla bean in half lengthwise, and scrape seeds into the milk. Add vanilla bean to milk. Heat over medium heat, until small bubbles appear around the edges of the milk. Remove from heat, and let milk sit for 15 minutes. Discard vanilla bean. Add flour to the milk, and heat over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until mixture becomes thick. Stir in the vanilla extract. Remove from heat, and let completely cool. In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until very pale and creamy (take your time on this, because you don't want your frosting to be grainy from unincorporated sugar). Add flour mixture to the butter mixture, and beat until frosting takes on texture of whip cream (about 5-7 minutes). Chill in fridge for 15 minutes before frosting.
4. Remove cake from the pan. Spread frosting on top the cake. Slice, garnish with banana (if using), and serve immediately. Store leftover cake in the fridge.

Printable Recipe

If you liked this recipe, you may enjoy these-

Banana Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Frosting

Simple Banana Bread

Banana Split Truffles

Linked to: Weekend Potluck