Tennessee Banana-Black Walnut Cake with Caramel Frosting courtesy Paula Deen Yield: 12 servings Cake: 2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening 1 1/2 cups sugar 2 eggs 2 ripe bananas, mashed 1/4 cup buttermilk 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 cup chopped black walnuts* Frosting: 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened 1 cup packed dark brown sugar 1/3 cup heavy cream, plus more as necessary 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 1 (16-ounce) box confectioners sugar 2 cups finely chopped black walnuts, for garnish (optional)* Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans. For the cake: In a medium bowl, stir together flour and baking soda; set aside. Using an electric mixer, cream together shortening and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in mashed bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add flour mixture, mix until just combined. Stir in black walnuts. Pour into prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool in pans on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely. Meanwhile, prepare frosting. Melt butter in small saucepan. Add brown sugar and 1/3 cup cream. Cook over medium-low heat until the sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Transfer to a large bowl. Using a handheld electric mixer, beat in confectioners' sugar a little at a time until smooth. If frosting is too thick, add 1 tablespoon heavy cream at a time until consistency is right. Sandwich 2 layers of cake with frosting. Frost the outside of the cake. Press chopped black walnuts on the sides of the cake, if desired. *Cook's Note: DO NOT substitute English walnuts for black walnuts. BANANA SPICE CAKE Yield: 12 servings Bananas, pecans and currants give rich flavor to this recipe. Baking 1 hrs. 20 min. 3/4 cup currants or raisins 1/4 cup orange-flavored liqueur or orange juice 1 1/4 cups sugar 1 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, melted* 2 eggs 2 teaspoons freshly grated orange peel 2 teaspoons vanilla 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 3 medium bananas, peeled, chopped 1/2-inch 3/4 cup chopped pecans Topping Ingredients: Vanilla ice cream, if desired Caramel sauce, if desired Instructions: Heat oven to 325°F. Combine currants and orange liqueur in small bowl; let soak 30 minutes. Drain well. Set aside. Combine sugar, butter, eggs, orange peel and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Reduce speed to low; add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cloves. Beat until well mixed. Stir in soaked currants, bananas and pecans by hand. Spoon into greased and floured 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 80 to 90 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove sides of pan. Cool completely. (Cake may dip slightly in center upon cooling.) Top each serving of cake with ice cream and drizzle with caramel sauce, if desired. *Substitute LAND O LAKES® Soft Baking Butter with Canola Oil. Calories: 330 Banana Cake Cockaigne Adapted from Joy of Cooking Grease and flour 2 round cake pans (8 or 9 inch) or one 9X13 inch rectangular pan. I usually line pans with waxed paper before I grease and flour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Mash two ripe bananas, or enough to make one cup. Add 1/4 cup plain yogurt or sour cream (fat free is OK) ot buttermilk and 1 teaspoon vanilla Sift together: 2 1/4 cups flour (Cake flour) 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt Cream in a large mixing bowl: 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/2 cup butter Add 2 eggs, one at a time, Add the flour mixture, alternating with the banana puree, STIR until smooth after each addition. ( DO NOT OVER MIX...THINK MOISTEN) Pour batter into prepared pan(s) and bake at 350 until the cake springs back when touched, about 30 to 40 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if serving warm or frost with a chocolate frosting, mock whipped cream frosting. or a cream cheese frosting. I make it with the Mock Whipped Cream Frosting and sprinkle the filling and top with a crushed Heath Bar. Mock Whiipped Cream Frosting Ingredients: 2/3 cup milk 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup sugar 2/3 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened 1/2 teaspoon vanilla combine milk, 2 tablespoons flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt in 1-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and comes to a boil (4 to 6 minutes). Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. Cover surface with plastic food wrap; cool completely (1 hour). Beat 2/3 cup sugar, 2/3 cup butter and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla in large bowl at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Continue beating, gradually adding cooled flour mixture and scraping bowl often, until light and fluffy. Frost cooled cake. Banana Cake Mocha Frosting: 6c powdered sugar 1/2c cocoa 1/2c butter, softened 1/2c brewed strong coffee Sift powdered sugar and cocoa` together. Add softened butter and mix on very low speed till incorporated. Add coffee and beat till smooth.

Thanks. I did decide to make a carrot cake in the end. I bought an assorted box of Wilton's paste icing colors... I'm very happy with how vibrant they turned out. We went over there last night and I brought the cake over (on the way I stopped and got a digital camera 100 dollar Nikon at Target, not expensive buy fine for pics of food and vacuums). First we went to dinner at Kobe steakhouse (late b-day dinner for me, was nice) and then met his parents and brother back at grandma's house. His mom also brought one of her 8 birds and her english mastiff (huge drooling, but sweet dog)... that combined with the cats already there, it was a full house! I've never professed to be any good at writing in icing, but I still had fun doing it. She was very appreciative and seemed to like the cake. I used fresh ground cinnamon and added applesauce and nutmeg to the standard Joy of Baking recipe. Also made a double batch of frosting just because you can never have enough. I forgot to toast the nuts before pressing them onto the sides, but it still turned out OK. The highlight of the evening was when granny (who has dementia and cancer and all kinds of other ailments) plucked a dark walnut from the side of the cake with her bare fingers and put it in her mouth, then said, "I thought you mighta cooked a bug in the cake, but I reckon it's jist a nut!" Here's the first picture taken with the new camera. There's even a setting for food... I'm going to have to scroll through the archives and start reading those food photo tips now!

sapphires, I don't even like bananas, I don't even eat banana bread, but I eat this cake. Ashley says it's her favorite, the best she's ever had and it is darned good. It was posted on the Cooking Forum by a former poster, J. Garner, who worked as a pastry chef. Banana Cake (Rose Levy BerenbaumÂs Cordon Rose Cake) Jgarner-Cooking Forum (good as layer cake, elegant, delicate texture) mix together: sifted cake flour 2 cups sugar 3/4 c + 2 Tbs baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp puree together: 2 large ripe bananas 1 c sour cream 2 Tbs or up to 1/2 c 2 large eggs 2 grated lemon zest 2 tsp (I left this out since I don't like the flavor of lemon with banana) vanilla 1-1/2 tsp soften: Butter 10 Tbs (5 oz) Add butter and half of pureed mixture to dry ingredients in stand mixer and mix at medium with paddle for 1-1/2 minutes. Scrape bowl and add rest of banana mixture in two batches, mixing 20 seconds after each addition. Pour into 9"x2" round pan (I just lined the bottom with parchment, no spray or butter) and bake at 350 F for 30 to 40 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in pan and then turn out onto rack to cool completely. Hint: Use smallest amount of sour cream and 3 bananas for more pronounced banana flavor Cream Cheese Icing Cream cheese, softened 8 oz. Butter, softened 5 TBS (2.5 oz) Sour cream 1 Tbs Vanilla extract 1/2 tsp. Rum 1 Tbs Powdered sugar 1 1/4 C (5 oz) Process (yeah, the food processor) or beat cream cheese, butter, sour cream, and vanilla until smooth. Add powdered sugar and pulse until smooth. Makes enough to frost the top of a 9x13 sheet cake. I used regular flour, because I never have cake flour, and it always comes out great. Annie

I made the cupcakes today. I didn't use a streusel filling/topping, just the sugar, cinnamon and walnut mix that the recipe called for. They came out ok. They look like mushrooms because I overfilled the cupcake tins. I tried to fill them half way, put in some of the sugar mix, and then fill the rest of the way and top with the sugar mix, and that ended up being kind of a waste of time and energy. They tend to come apart at the seams so if I ever make cupcakes out of this recipe again, I will just fill the cupcake tins 2/3 full and then top with the sugar mix. I got 14 cupcakes and I could have gotten 16-18. A little too sweet for my taste but that is probably due to my running out of sour cream and subbing half sweetened vanilla yogurt. I will make again, but probably just put in two round cake pans. That would have been fine.