About Author: Ashley Barbey, ACD Contributor is a multi-award-winning cake designer, sugar artist, and professional baker.  Visit Ashley’s website HERE and follow Ashley on Instagram HERE

BANANA CAKE

If you love banana bread, you will LOVE this banana cake recipe. It’s so satisfying to bake a cake that is super simple to make, bakes up beautifully, stays incredibly moist, and tastes like a dream. Even better, this cake tastes even more amazing after a couple of days. Yes, a couple of days… looking at you busy moms/dads and bakery owners.

This cake recipe makes a lot of batter. You can bake 3 taller 8″ or 9″ round cakes or you can bake these in two 8″ or 9″ cake pans that are 3″ tall, and torte them. I have baked these in 2″ tall 8″ pans that have been collared with parchment paper.

Photo by Ashley Barbey

HOW TO MAKE BANANA CAKE

This banana cake is simple and quick to make. Whisk together the dry ingredients – all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl, finely mash the bananas. Butter and sugar are creamed together until light and fluffy. Make sure the mixture is really light and fluffy. This helps make the banana cake light and not so heavy, which some banana cakes are prone to be.

Eggs and vanilla are added followed by alternating the flour mixture and the sour cream. Scrape the bowl often to make sure everything is being mixed and incorporated properly. The mashed bananas are beat in until just combined. The cakes will bake up tall, even, and gorgeous, and your house will smell absolutely amazing. So, so good.

Photo by Ashley Barbey

SALTED CARAMEL

All components of this cake can be made in advance, and salted caramel is always a great baking staple to have on hand. A few tips for salted caramel success:

• Be sure to not stir the caramel while the caramel is cooking.
• Keep a close eye on the caramel while it’s cooking. It can go from amber to burnt quickly.
• The caramel will thicken as it sits in the refrigerator. If you want it even thicker, reduce the cream to 1/3 cup (76g).
• Salted caramel can be stored in the fridge for up to two weeks.

PEANUT BUTTER BUTTERCREAM

Peanut butter buttercream is silky, smooth, sweet, salty, and crazy delicious. We could not stop eating it off a spoon. I used my go to Swiss meringue buttercream recipe and added 1 1/4 cups of creamy peanut butter. If you find that your buttercream is a bit too soft after adding the peanut butter, pop in the fridge for 10-15 minutes, then mix again on low speed.

Photo by Ashley Barbey

ASSEMBLY

This banana cake recipe is designed to bake up pretty flat with no domes, so there shouldn’t be a lot of trimming to be done with your cakes. If your cake does dome a bit, trim the tops with a serrated knife.

• To assemble, fit a piping bag with a large round tip ( I use an Ateco 808), and fill with peanut butter buttercream
• Place one cake layer on a cake board or cake stand
• Spread a thin layer of buttercream over the cake
• Pipe a dam around the edge of the cake to prevent the salted caramel from spilling over the sides of the cake
• Pipe buttercream over the salted caramel, creating a 1/4″ layer of buttercream
• Add the second cake layer and repeat with the salted caramel and buttercream
• Place the third and final layer on top, and frost the outside and top of the cake
• Decorate with roasted, salted peanuts and salted caramel drizzle

Photo by Ashley Barbey