What is a Birthday without a Birthday Cake!! As you can see, we have had friends in town for the past week - thus the lack of blog entries as we had been eating out for a good portion of the week. Needless to say, I'm ready to get back on the cooking wagon as I am a bit sick of delicious yet sinful dining, having to be waited on in order to be served my meal - I can only take so much before it gets to be overkill! Enough of my rambling. As I was saying, this past week we had friends in town and it just so happened that one of them had a birthday on Friday and another had one on Saturday. What does that mean when you are the only girl in the group? You make them feel special and bake a cake!! Men don't seem to have that special knack for going a little above and beyond for birthdays - unless its their girlfriends or parents or something. A traditional male celebration is a purchase of a round (or two...) of shots and there you go - Happy Birthday Buddy!
For me, I think it is incredibly important to make someone feel a little special on their birthday, have an element of surprise - know that someone went just slightly out of their way for the sake of their special day. The best way I could do that was to bake a cake (plus, if I have an excuse to bake, you bet I'll take it!!).
So the mission was to bake a cake. The obstacle was WHAT and WHEN. After all, we were with them the whole week!! So I decided to take the night off on Wednesday - forego sush and spend the evening making a cake - and then the next evening, frosting....and then the next evening, assembly and delivery!!
Seeing a bunch of bananas getting a nice "tan" on my microwave, I decided I wanted to try to incorporate them somehow. Then I got the idea of a bananas foster-type cake...and a few recipes and tweaks later, I came to my final result - a Banana Cake with Rum Cream Cheese Frosting.
Here's what I did:
Ingredients
Cake
3 large ripe bananas, mashed with 2 T. dark rum
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/8 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup dark rum
Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups icing sugar
3 T. dark rum
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Garnish with chopped roasted almonds (optional)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 275°.
- Grease two round cake pans
- In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the rum and lemon juice; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla.
- Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk and rum.
- Stir in banana mixture.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist.
- For the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla, rum,and cinnamon.
- Add icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.
- Spread on cooled cake.
My opinion? Having no clue how it would turn out (besides having the batter that was absolutely delicious - but what batter is not absolutely delicious?) - I was happy with the result. The cake itself was dense, not far off from a super moist banana bread. I personally prefer lighter cakes but to each his own - for being a dense cake, this was very good. I was surprised how much the banana came through even with only 3 bananas. And the rum? A wonderful add-on. I'm not sure what the freezing of the cakes after removing them from the oven does - but perhaps that lends its want to part of the dense texture?
As for the frosting. Pretty killer, though I would remove some of the powdered sugar - I found it to be a little too sweet. Good nonetheless.
For me, I think it is incredibly important to make someone feel a little special on their birthday, have an element of surprise - know that someone went just slightly out of their way for the sake of their special day. The best way I could do that was to bake a cake (plus, if I have an excuse to bake, you bet I'll take it!!).
So the mission was to bake a cake. The obstacle was WHAT and WHEN. After all, we were with them the whole week!! So I decided to take the night off on Wednesday - forego sush and spend the evening making a cake - and then the next evening, frosting....and then the next evening, assembly and delivery!!
Seeing a bunch of bananas getting a nice "tan" on my microwave, I decided I wanted to try to incorporate them somehow. Then I got the idea of a bananas foster-type cake...and a few recipes and tweaks later, I came to my final result - a Banana Cake with Rum Cream Cheese Frosting.
Here's what I did:
Ingredients
Cake
3 large ripe bananas, mashed with 2 T. dark rum
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/8 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup dark rum
Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups icing sugar
3 T. dark rum
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Garnish with chopped roasted almonds (optional)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 275°.
- Grease two round cake pans
- In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the rum and lemon juice; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla.
- Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk and rum.
- Stir in banana mixture.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist.
- For the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla, rum,and cinnamon.
- Add icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.
- Spread on cooled cake.
My opinion? Having no clue how it would turn out (besides having the batter that was absolutely delicious - but what batter is not absolutely delicious?) - I was happy with the result. The cake itself was dense, not far off from a super moist banana bread. I personally prefer lighter cakes but to each his own - for being a dense cake, this was very good. I was surprised how much the banana came through even with only 3 bananas. And the rum? A wonderful add-on. I'm not sure what the freezing of the cakes after removing them from the oven does - but perhaps that lends its want to part of the dense texture?
As for the frosting. Pretty killer, though I would remove some of the powdered sugar - I found it to be a little too sweet. Good nonetheless.
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