Banana Cake

It was my daughter's birthday recently.. I can't believe how fast time has flown! She is also my sous-chef in the kitchen - she is foodie by birth and just like her mom loves cooking and eating and restaurant hunting :)

Every year for her birthday I try to make fancier cakes like almond cake or chocolate cake with frosting but this year I thought of making a simple banana cake. She loves banana bread and after many iterations I have a much less fattier version of banana bread which we love eating. So I thought why not try that into a cake? 

The result was absolutely delicious! And we devoured the full cake in a matter of 2 days. This is absolutely going to be my go-to kids cake. 

I avoid frosting as much as I can on kids cakes, so we skipped frosting and instead dusted the cake with powdered sugar. But by all means frost away! Vanilla buttercream frosting would be divine with this cake!

Recipe:

Ingredients:
4 ripe bananas - smashed with potato smasher
5Tbsp unsalted butter - melted
1 egg - beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
handful of chopped walnuts (optional)
handful of dried cranberry (optional)
1.5C all purpose flour
1/2C + 2Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1.5tsp baking soda

Recipe:
Pre-heat oven to 360F

Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, baking soda). Set aside.

Mix wet ingredients (bananas, butter, egg, vanilla extract). Add walnuts and cranberries. Mix well.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix thoroughly.

Grease a 9" round baking pan with butter. Pour cake batter into the pan and bake for 35-40 mins until the top is slightly browned and center is cooked through (insert a toothpick to check). 

Remove from oven and let cook on a rack for 20 mins before prying the cake out of the pan.

Serve warm or cold - but we like our banana cake warm!