You might see a lot of banana things up here soon. See, I’m kind of obsessed. With the flavor, with the color, with the creamy texture. There really isn’t anything wrong with bananas. I love waiting until the very last moment when they’re brown and speckly to mash them up into a perfectly moist cake or bread. They can make dessert or breakfast (obviously, I love both, so it doesn’t matter) but aren’t too sweet that you can’t eat it for both. Pair a banana cake with cream cheese frosting and ah, you’ve got simplicity and comfort at it’s finest. This time I topped it off with a unexpected chocolate covered pretzel crumble. Ohh, these flavors all work so well together!
Can you sense my adoration? I love this cake. I’ve made it before, and have even blogged about it ages ago. But most great things are meant to share again. So that’s why it was exactly the right thing to bring to kick off my first week in a new office. It made me a happy girl to go into the kitchen at the end of the day and see that empty plate. Now we’ve had a shared, sweet experience…a great way kick off a new relationship. Thanks, bananas.
Banana Cake
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 4 large ripe bananas, mashed
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- (For some reason this time around the batter was very thick, so I added some whole milk to make it the right consistency.)
- Grease two 9″ round cake pans. Preheat oven to 350°.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add the eggs, oil, bananas, and vanilla.
- Pour evenly into cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool on cake pans for 10 minutes, the invert on to a wire rack and cool completely.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 eight-ounce package of cream cheese, softened
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- 1- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4-5 cups confectioners’ sugar
- Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the vanilla extract.
- Gradually add the sugar and beat until incorporated.
- Frost in between layers, on top, and around the cake.
I have so much energy and I’m exhausted at the same time. Which is why I randomly baked 60 of these chocolate chip, pecan, oatmeal cookies the other night. I typically have a pretty early bedtime, but I found myself starting to play around with random ingredients in my pantry and make these little guys around midnight. Maybe it was daylight savings messing with me. Maybe I’ve been itching to get creative in the kitchen. Maybe I wanted a few more hours in the day to listen to 
Who doesn’t love an oatmeal cream pie? I mean really. I think it’s the definition of a comfort snack. We ate pretty healthy foods growing up – balanced meals and processed foods in moderation. When I was in 4th and 5th grade my younger brother and I would go to our neighbor’s house after school until our parents got home from work. One of the perks of this situation is that Mrs. Fritz always had Little Debbie oatmeal cream pies stocked in her pantry. It was one of those things that I had never had before and I never ate anywhere else. As soon as we dropped our backpacks, we headed toward the pies. I even loved the crinkling sound of opening its plastic wrapper. It was the perfect individual afternoon treat – sweet and nutty, with a little taste of rebellion.
