Honey Banana Cake

For dessert at the Indian Extravaganza posted a couple days ago: Honey Banana Cake! I am of the opinion that one can never have enough banana dessert recipes. Our impulse to buy an entire bunch of bananas at the market has been a long and storied one (if, “We buy a crapload of cheap bananas and then we don’t eat them and they turn brown,” can be considered a rollicking good story). Well, when they do inevitably get all soft and freckly on the countertop, it’s helpful to have an arsenal of recipes like this to turn to. This honey banana cake with cream cheese frosting and toasted pecans is a particularly good option. Moist, banana-y, subtly sweet, and tangy from the cream cheese. The perfect retro classic to cure all your brown banana dilemmas.

Recipe Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×13 pan. In a small bowl, mix the mashed banana with the lemon juice and honey and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and add the vanilla. In a bowl or large measuring cup, stir together the buttermilk and yogurt. Gently fold in the flour mixture alternately with the milk/yogurt mixture, starting and ending with the flour. Fold in the banana mixture. Don’t overmix! Banana cake batters need to be treated with the utmost care. Pour into prepared pan! All we have in the 9×13 variety here in China is this casserole dish. It’ll get ‘er done. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes. Let cool completely. Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk together to make a smooth frosting. Spread on top of the cake and sprinkle with chopped toasted pecans. Yum. Slice into squares and serve with lots of hot coffee (or some ice cold milk).