Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Bananas and chocolate just go good together. Like chocolate and mint. And today at Costco, they had discounted their bananas to ~22cents a pound. The girls and I hefted 15 bags of bananas home, and spent a while peeling and freezing them. So how did that lead to a cake? I need a dessert for our church Life group, and had bananas on the brain. And chocolate frosting in the freezer. Perfect! It had more of a banana bread consistency than cake-like, but that was fine with everyone who had some. :)

Banana Cake:

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar *I used slightly less
2 large eggs, beaten
2 cups flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon baking soda (add to pureed bananas)
3 pureed bananas, very ripe


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x13" baking pan or two 9" layer cake pans.

2. Cream butter, sugar and eggs. Sift flour several times, then add the salt and baking powder to the flour.

3. To the creamed butter mixture, add the milk and flour (alternating, beginning and ending with flour).

4. Add vanilla and mashed bananas (with the baking soda added to the bananas) to this mixture.

5. Bake layer cakes (9") for 25-30 minutes, oblong (9x13") for 35-40 minutes.

6. Allow cake to cool completely before icing with chocolate or cream cheese frosting, if desired.

From momswhothink.com

Creamy Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1.In a medium bowl, sift together the confectioners' sugar and cocoa, and set aside.

2.In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture alternately with evaporated milk. Blend in vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar.