Incredibly Moist Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Incredibly Moist Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting – Our youngest son, Noah, is a percussionist in a very prestigious high school marching band. They won the state 4A competition last year which was very cool and very exciting! This year is his last year with the Golden Regiment and every single event makes me almost cry because I know we’ll never travel this road with him again. He’s loved every minute of his time with this band and is so proud to be the battery captain this year. You may be wondering what this has to do with a banana cake? 🤔

Well, during band camp, the battery parents come together to provide the kids with snacks. (All other section parents donate to their groups, too.) We want them to be nutritious and filling, as much as possible anyway. The kids really love Gold Fish so that was my contribution this year. Not as nutritious as an apple, but we also want the kids to actually eat what we send in. Last year I filled them up with grapes, bananas, and oranges. It’s more expensive so I tried not to over-buy, but wanted to make sure there was enough. I assumed the kids ate it all. 😜 I don’t know who brought the fruit this year, but they over-purchased bananas, Clementines (aka Cuties), and apples and somehow our son ended up coming home with a mountain of all three. I dehydrated several batches of banana, apples, and orange chips, but still more were piled on the counters.

I didn’t want to make the same old banana bread, even though my family loves it. I’d been hankering for some cream cheese icing and had a bar in the fridge that needed to be whipped into something rich and decadent. This incredibly moist banana cake with cream cheese frosting is what happened. It didn’t occur to me to take pictures until the cake was almost gone! The guys loved it! 😋

Incredibly Moist Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

1-1/2 cups bananas, mashed, ripe
2 tsp. lemon juice
3 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1-1/2 cups buttermilk (can be made by stirring 1-1/2 tablespoons of white vinegar into the measured milk, let set for 5 minutes then stir)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.

Mash bananas with the lemon juice in a small bowl and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar with a mixer on medium until thoroughly incorporated. Beat in eggs. Add vanilla and buttermilk.

Turn mixer to low and mix in flour and baking soda. Lastly, mix in the smashed bananas.

Bake for 45-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Start checking earlier rather than later and check the cake in several places.

Remove from oven and place in the freezer for an hour or so. Ice with Decadent Cream Cheese Frosting.

Decadent Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 tsp. vanilla
4 cups sifted powdered sugar (also known as confectioners sugar)

Cream the butter and cream cheese on high with a mixer until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add vanilla.

Add powdered sugar a little at a time on low speed until it’s all incorporated. If it seems too loose, add more sifted powdered sugar until the consistency feels right. Beat on high for a minute or so to fluff it up.

Ice cooled banana cake (or any other kind of dessert you think this icing would make fantabulous).