I just made banana bread last night, although I don't really care for it because I don't like bananas the kids love it. My recipe is kind of like Nancy's because I use yogurt, but kind of like Glenda's because it calls for sour cream and like neither because it takes shortening, LOL. I'd rather have cake, though. Even with my banana bias, I love this cake. I made banana bread because I can leave that alone but this cake is impossible for even me to resist. The notes are from the original poster but like her, I omit the lemon zest. 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 (200 g) sugar 3/4 c + 2 Tbs (170g) baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp puree together: 2 large ripe bananas 1 c (227 g) sour cream 2 Tbs or up to 1/2 c (30 g to 121 g) 2 large eggs 2 (100 g) 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) (142 g) 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. Annie

The recipe I use does have lemon juice as well as sour cream, so that helps with the problem of lack of acidity in very ripe bananas, which seems to be all I ever have. I do agree that King Arthur AP flour is high protein and it takes some adjusting when using it for something like quick breads. Right now I have King Arthur AP and Whole Wheat, some Bob's Red Mill Rye, some Swansdown cake flour, some White Lily and plain old Gold Medal. I also have cornmeal, both white and yellow and THREE kinds of oats, LOL, the "quick", the regular 5 minute oats and some steel cut. I also have wheat berries that I've been grinding for flour for bread. My pantry looks like I could open a bulk food store. I use the King Arthur for bread, the cake flour was a leftover from the last wedding cake I baked, I get picky about those. The White Lily is for biscuits, the Gold Medal for everything else. Two kinds of cornmeal because Elery is from Tennessee and his sister says it isn't cornbread if it's yellow, although I don't particularly care which color it is. In short, I'm also going to blame it on your flour, or on overbaking. If you are using new pans and they are glass ones, I'd be watching the bread carefully to be certain it is not overbaking, and probably be using a thermometer a couple of times until I get used to the new pans. Oh, and Christine, I also have the smaller Danish Dough Whisk, it gets used regularly. Annie

The recipe I have been using (I lost my mom's, my dad gave that book to someone else, but this one sounds right -- it's all in 3s), sounds like it might be something you would like to try. I was thinking the baking powder with the buttermilk might also be an improvement. My mom's had you cream the butter and sugar, add mashed bananas, sift the dry ingredients, then add alternately with the buttermilk. The new one I found said you could dump everything in the mixer bowl, blend and go. I have tried that and have also hybridized the process -- creamed the butter and sugar, then add the bananas and the other stuff. It all works -- just don't over mix it. 2 1/3 c all purpose flour 1 2/3 c sugar 1 1/4 c mashed bananas (about 2) 2/3 c softened butter or margarine 2/3 c finely chopped nuts (I use pecans (Texas and all), but walnuts work too) 2//3 c buttermilk 1 1/4 tsp baking soda 1 1/4 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp salt 3 eggs You can use either mixing method and bake at 350. I make muffins more often than loaves lately -- you can bake this as mini muffins, standard muffins, loaves, a 13x9 cake or even layers.

I also watched a segment on Cooks Illustrated and a light bulb went off in my head. Instead of microwaving bananas to separate bananas from excess liquid, I realized that the frozen bananas that I always have on hand would fit in perfectly as the liquid separates when frozen. By adding more banana (approx 5 to 6 vs the 3 in my recipe) I found I could cut back on sugar too. Works with banana bread or nut bread mixes too. I knew there was a reason to watch the cooking shows while killing time on my treadmill!