My Grandma Cochran asked if I had a recipe for a cake using bananas and chocolate, and all I had was my recipe for chocolate chip banana bread, so it inspired me to make this two-layer banana cake with chocolate buttercream frosting! (Which is also an excuse to practice cake decorating skills from the cake decorating class I took.) I put about 20% of the batter into a jar to make a jar cake to send my husband in Afghanistan.

Banana Cake Recipe Ingredients

• 4 to 5 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 3 cups sifted flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Banana Cake Recipe Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare two 9″ round baking pans. In one bowl, mash the ripe bananas and lemon juice together. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. In your kitchen mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture was light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then add the vanilla. Alternate adding the dry ingredients mixture and the buttermilk a bit at a time, starting and finishing with dry ingredients. Add the mashed banana goop and beat just until mixed in. Pour the banana cake batter into the prepared cake pans, and bake four about 45 minutes, or until your cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool the cakes completely. I’ve heard about popping this cake in the freezer while you prepare the chocolate buttercream frosting. I tried it out and thought it really helped the icing process.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting Recipe Ingredients

• 8 ounces of semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 3/4 cup butter, softened at room temperature
• 3 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting Recipe Directions

In a stainless bowl over a saucepan with simmering water (creating a double boiler) melt the chocolate, stirring constantly so it doesn’t scald or burn, until it’s smooth. Remove from heat and cool for about 15 minutes. In your kitchen mixer, beat the softened butter until creamy. Alternate adding the powdered sugar and milk in small parts, starting and finishing with the powdered sugar. Fold in the melted chocolate and vanilla extract, and mix until smooth. I recommend working with the chocolate buttercream pretty quickly so it doesn’t cool on the cake and get difficult to work with. Garnish with whatever seems tasty – banana chips, chocolate chips or chocolate curls, I used some walnuts since I had them handy.

About HeatherPhysioc

Heather Physioc is a 27-year-old Senior Website Manager at PlattForm Advertising in Kansas CIty. She is a vegetarian food-lover who finds joy in cooking, baking and finding funky new restaurants. She leads a pack of dogs, including her beagle Ford, and her shepherd-collie-retriever mix, Otto, and also has a cat named Ahab. Her husband, Luke, bought her the KitchenAid you see in this blog as a wedding present!

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