Best Ultimate Moist Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Get ready, people.  This cake is Grandma's comfort dessert. This is the one. The epitome of an ideal banana cake that is tender and flavorful.  It is one of life's simple pleasures, covered with decadent cream cheese frosting. My bakery-quality recipe for old-school banana cake is extra-rich and moist, made most exquisite in taste using the ripest bananas. Don't omit the instant pudding mix (it must be instant). This ingredient adds stability to the incredible sponge texture of the cake. 

Yields: one 8" three-layer cake

SERVINGS: 16 slices

PREP TIME: 30 minutes mins

Bake TIME: 26 minutes mins

Moist Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting 

Dry Ingredients

• 400 grams (3 cups) All-Purpose Flour
• 1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
• 1 ½ tsp. Baking Soda
• 1 ½ tsp Salt
• 1/3 cup Vanilla Instant Pudding
• 400 grams (2 cups) Sugar

Wet Ingredients

• 6 small Overly-ripe Fresh Mashed Bananas 260 grams (1 ¼ cup)
• ¼ cup Water
• 4 large Eggs
• 1 1/3 cup Buttermilk
• 2/3 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1Tbsp. Vanilla Extract
• 2 sticks (s) (8 ounces) of Salted Butter, melted

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 2 cups Unsalted Butter, softened
• 7 cups confectioners’ sugar (2 lb. or 907g)
• 16 ounces Cream Cheese, cut into 8 pieces, softened
• ¾ cup Hot Water
• 2 tsp. Vanilla Bean Paste
• Pinch of Salt
• Toasted finely chopped nuts and/or toasted coconut for garnish

Directions:

• Mash the bananas until a fine puree without any chunks. A wire pastry blender works best when mashing them in a bowl. One could also use a fork and mash them on a plate. Measure out 260 g (around 1 ¼ cup) banana puree.

Make Banana Cake:

• Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 3 8-inch by 2-inch round cake pans with parchment paper, then spray the pan with nonstick cooking spray.
• Combine water, banana puree, eggs, buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and melted butter in a large bowl and whisk until smooth and well-blended.
• Sift the Dry Ingredients into a separate large bowl using a sifter or fine-mesh strainer. Whisk until well blended.
• Pour the Wet Ingredients into the Dry Ingredients and whisk until incorporated.
• Divide the banana cake batter evenly between the three prepared pans and smooth the batter until even.
• Bake in the middle or top rack (avoid the bottom rack) of a preheated 325°F oven for 22-26 minutes. The internal temperature should be over 210°F for optimal baking. Check the cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean when quickly stuck in the cake.
• The delicate cake will be easiest to layer from cold or frozen- allow it to cool for at least an hour before removing it from the pan. Wrap and freeze the cake on cake circles for at least two hours (up to 2 weeks ahead of time) before decorating. 

For the frosting:

• With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 4 minutes.
• Add cream cheese, one piece at a time, and beat until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Beat in water, vanilla, and salt. Refrigerate until ready to use if it feels too soft.
• Reserve the nuts for decorating.

Layer, Decorate, and Serve:

• We have found that the simplest way to layer the cake is to layer and decorate it from frozen the day before it is served. If serving the cake on the same layering day, use refrigerated cake layers instead of frozen.
• Fill each cake layer with prepared Cream Cheese Frosting. An offset icing spatula helps with this.
• We recommend frosting a thin crumb coat of buttercream on the outside of the cake, which will catch all the crumby edges, then allowing it to set up in the freezer for about 10 minutes until the frosting is firm.
• Spread a final layer of Cream Cheese Frosting over your set-up crumbed cake and decorate as desired. We used a small offset icing spatula to make a homestyle texture, then topped the cake with toasted nut pieces or coconut.
• We recommend letting the cake set up in the fridge, being sure to come to room temperature before serving. This cake has the best texture at room temperature. Enjoy!

 There you go! Make some banana cake, love!

Always My Very Best,

Your Friend Chef Tess

Almond Flour Banana Bread-Divine, Gluten-Free, Low-Carb, Grain-Free, & Sugar-free!

In the past I've covered real whole grain Gluten free Bread ,gluten free cookies, gluten free flour, and my all-time favorite gluten free pumpkin cookies. My Gluten Free Baking Class Notes and printable PDF are a great resource for those who are getting into gluten-free baking in general. As for those with lower-carbohydrate needs who are also gluten free...

Have you ever met my favorite Almond Flour? The first time I really highlighted this flour was when I shared an Evil Think Tank ( aka the ETT) with my diabetic-gluten-free sister Auntie Em, making these Almond Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

I get the perk, while being the chef for Honeyville Grain to work with some of their most beautiful products. Their almond flour is amazing! I've been playing with it a lot this week. Yes. I've heard the cries of my gluten-free low carb friends. Most of the recipes online and in cookbooks that I've run into for almond flour bread and cakes have had a lot more fat added to them than I personally like to see or use, since almond flour is already pretty high in fat, it is a great choice for a bread or cookie that will remain moist naturally. I personally don't see the point in adding butter, oil, whole eggs and so forth. I want my recipes to also be pretty good for the heart. I do pretty great with weight loss when I watch my carbohydrate intake. However, and this is a big however...when you go low carb you also still have to watch your calories. This bread still has a relatively low calorie count and is sweetened with natural zero-carb sources. I'm a big fan of that!

Now for the Almond flour.

2 months ago I asked Chris Ondatje (Director of E-Commerce, Honeyville Food Products, Inc.) where they got the almonds for their flour and what was involved with the growing of the almonds. Why specifically are they not organic? This is what Chris said when I asked about the almond fields,

"I’ve been there. All of our Almonds are California grown and processed. The almond orchards are about an hour and a half southeast of San Francisco. The plant that we work with only processes almonds. The actual growth and harvesting of Almonds is really quite amazing. Almonds grow on trees in a number of varieties (Nonpareil, Carmel, California Group, and Mission). Almonds mature on the tree until harvest time. At harvest, the branches of the trees droop low with the weight of all of those almonds. A specialized tractor goes down the rows with a special shaker attachment that grabs the trunk of each trees and shakes the nuts right out of the tree. Sweepers come behind and sweep the nuts to the center of the orchard rows where they dry for a period of several days. 

It is interesting to note that this step is required to allow the outer skin of the almond to dry. It also is why there is no {current}...Organic Almond Flour. If pesticides were not used during this drying process, the almonds would be riddled with work holes and bugs. After the drying process is complete, the almonds are collected and taken to a sheller where the shells are removed and the almonds are graded and separated. From there they go to the various mills and processers that slice, dice, blanch, roast, season, mill and otherwise process almonds. Over 80% of the world supply of Almonds is grown and harvested in California. It is a heavily regulated industry and quality is put on a world stage."

So that is why they currently do not carry an organic almond flour. They've been waiting on the growers to get organic certification. 

However, today I received word from Chris with some updated great news! Chris said,

"Things have changed recently. We can get organic almonds now. They are about 3 times as expensive, but the demand has been there and the industry has reacted. We're working on getting an organic product that has the same mill quality that our current product has." 

Waaaawhooo! I'm so excited to hear that it will soon be available in organic!  All I know is that the almond flour is really remarkable for baking. I like it far better than any of the other brands I've tried. I'm not just saying that because I work for Honeyville either. It has a fine texture that can't be beat. 

Chef Tess'  Gluten-Free Sugar-Free Banana Bread
3 cups Almond Flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup granular erythritol (sugar free natural sweetener) or 1 tsp stevia drops
1T Xanthan gum (all natural gluten replacement) 

1/4 cup powdered egg whites*
2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup water

2 ripe bananas, mashed (about 3/4 cup) 

 Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine almond flour, salt, baking powder, erythritol, xanthan gum and egg white powder. In a separate bowl combine vanilla, water, and mashed banana. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix completely. Divide between 2 6 inch by 3 inch loaf pans or 4 3 inch circular baking pans. Bake 350 degrees 35-40 minutes until the tops are golden brown and a a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let them cool in than 30 minutes, then serve. 

Nutritional Information:
Yields: 16 slices, each slice: 118 cal each; 7g carbs,  2.6g fiber (4.4 net carbs a slice)

*Someone mentioned that this product contains SLS as a foaming agent for the whites in very small amounts. From what I have read, it isn't something to worry about. If you are concerned, read the latest research here: The Truth about SLS via Snops.com. Decide for yourself. 

There you go! An awesome alternative to banana bread that is also lower carb and delicious! 
I'll be sharing a few other almond flour breads that I've developed lately here on the blog the next couple of days. I think you'll be in low-carb heaven!
Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess