Banana Cake

If you like warm banana bread, you'll love this moist, delicious cake. This is yet another great recipe I found on Jadi's recipe blog. I had some overripe bananas I needed to use and this was a scrumptious way to do it.

2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
4-6 smashed bananas
1 cup milk
3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream butter, eggs, and sugar until fluffy. Stir in bananas and milk. Combine dry ingredients and stir into the creamed mixture. Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.

Frosting

1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup hot milk
3 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Melt butter in sauce pan and add brown sugar. Bring to a boil for 1 minute over medium heat. Cool 15 minutes and add milk. Whip until smooth. Then add powdered sugar. Let cool before serving.

Jadi pointed out (and I agree with her) that the frosting is rich so you only need a thin layer. I stored mine in the fridge afterwards since there is milk in the frosting. This was really yummy--I highly recommend it!

Apple Sour Cream Cake

After baking:

Before baking:

I made this recently with a recipe from Cooks.com. The recipe says to spread the batter into 2 round cake pans, but I wanted to use a 9x13. I put all the batter in and it did not come even close to filling the whole thing. So I ended up tripling the recipe to fill a 9x13. I'll post the tripled recipe here.

We liked this cake. It had a coffee-cake taste and feel, with a dense cake and a cinnamon-sugar top. You can't really taste the sour cream, but it makes the top stay nice and moist. I shared some with friends and they dunked the cake in hot chocolate.

3 c flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 sticks butter (12 tbsp)
3-4 apples, peeled and cored
3 eggs
1 1/2 c sugar
3 tsp vanilla
6 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 c sugar, for sprinkling

Allow butter to sit at room temp for about 15 minutes, or until it softens slightly but retains its shape and is not oily or soft. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wipe a 9x13 pan with melted butter or oil; dust lightly and evenly with flour and tap our the excess.

Peel and core two apples. Slice into thin, round slices.

In a large bowl, stir together baking powder and flour. Crumble the butter into the flour (using your hands) and stir until a lumpy mixture is obtained.

In a separate bowl beat the egg, gradually adding the 1 1/2 cups sugar. Add the vanilla and milk and stir in.

Mix together the contents of both bowls and stir until thick.

Transfer batter to pan. Place apple slices on top of batter. Using a spatula, cover entire cake with a thin layer of sour cream and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes or until cake tests done. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Dust with confectioners' sugar if desired. Serve with milk or ice cream. (My note: This is yummy warm out of the oven or warmed up in the microwave the next day!)