Banana Cake w/ Banana Cream Cheese Frosting

The recipe my mom always used for banana cake has gone a-missing... Ok it vanished long ago and since I've tried various recipes. I wasn't looking for THE recipe per se, just one that I liked. And while I haven't hated the others that I've found, I'm pretty sure I'm done looking. Barefoot Contessa's Old-Fashioned Banana Cake - uh YUM!

There were some tweaks, oooofff course, due to time, availability and preference. Imagine how much stuff I wouldn't make if I let li'l old things like that stop me...

CAKE INGREDIENTS  
(*indicates a deviation from the recipe above)

3 very ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
*1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed (didn't have light brown)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
*2 large eggs (didn't have xtra large)
1/2 cup sour cream
*1 teaspoon imitation vanilla extract (didn't have pure)
*Grated zest of 1 orange (in the interest of time, skipped it. willing to try add it next time. I did have the orange.)
2 cups (*unbleached. not sure it maters but figured I'd note it. it's what i had.) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
*1/2 teaspoon salt (didn't have kosher)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional) - opted out
Walnut halves, for decorating (optional) - opted out
  
 CAKE BAKEWARE
It called for a cake pan that was 9 inches round, 2 inches deep. That I do not possess. Silly me, not really thinking it thru, foolishly decided to use two 8 inch rounds... seems EVER so foolish now... But i was in a rush, lol. Why I went with smaller in both dimensions I can't say at this time... suffice it to say - nxt time (and there WILL be a next time) 2 9in. 

As a result, they were uber high in the middle and not easily stackable. On another day, I'd have leveled them and repurposed the cake I had to slice off the tops. But that night I opted just to ice, stack, & hope for the best... With the too soft icing (which follows) it was...um... fun. yeah, that's it...

FROSTING
(*indicates a deviation from the recipe above...ok so basically it's one great big deviation...but I did kinda base it off her recipe...)

As much as I love the stuff, I didn't just want cr ch frosting. Partly, because I like banana frosting on banana cake, partly because this was all done b/c I had a few bananas I need to do something with... Yeah, blame the poor, defenseless ripe bananas... lol. Anyway, I also had some leftover icing from the cupcakes I'd made a couple weeks ago for my daughter's birthday and wanted to use it up.

*8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature, (eh, it was an 8oz package, but rec only req'd 6)
*4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature (to uh balance out the 2 extra ounces of cream cheese)
*1 'heaping" teaspoon vanilla extract (cuz I'm generally obsessed w/ vanilla)
*3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (to compensate for the extra liquidiness from the banana)
*1 ripe banana
* 1 cup or so leftover uber basic icing (recipe off domino's conf sug box)

Sooo, I'm still working on getting cr ch frosting to be stiffer... in this case, it was totally the banana's fault. When planning to make the cake, I totally intended to nix the butter altogether... Clearly I forgot. I could have added more powdered sugar but it was already at an extra 1/2 cup, I didn't want to over do it... It taste's delish, we just have to keep the cake in the fridge. I can live with that.

 All in all? Delish!!! And I think this may be the first recipe to actually remind me of the one my mom made... Which is cool. *smile*