Banana Cake with THE BEST Chocolate Frosting

Happy Spring-ish! Easter is this weekend so naturally it might snow today in Chicago. Sigh.

Moving right along...you must make this frosting. It's my go-to frosting for just about anything that needs to be frosted. It's also excellent left over and smeared on graham crackers or spoons. :)

And because making an entire batch of frosting for only a spoon is not socially acceptable, I give you a delicious vehicle! Banana cake is a favorite in our house. My oldest requests it every year for his birthday. I have made A LOT of banana cake recipes. While I'm not married to any of them, I come back to the one from my Gourmet cook book most often. I always make it in a 9x13 pan so they turn out like more of a banana bar, but they are quick and easy for a weekday treat.

~Erin

Banana Cake with THE BEST Chocolate Frosting

Author: Erin (adapted from Gourmet and Cake Central)

Ingredients

• Cake


• 1 c. ripe bananas, mashed


• 2 1/4 c. flour


• 3/4 tsp. baking soda


• 1/2 tsp. baking powder


• 1/2 tsp. salt


• 1/4 plain yogurt


• 1/2 c. butter, softened


• 1 c. sugar


• 2 eggs


• 2 tsp. vanilla


• Frosting


• 1/2 c. butter softened


• 1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder (such as Hershey's)


• 1/2 c. chocolate syrup (again, such as Hershey's)


• 3 c. powdered sugar


• 1 Tbs. milk


• 1 tsp. vanilla

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350.


2. Spray or butter and flour a 9x13 pan.


3. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.


4. Beat butter and sugar together on medium-high speed till light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.


5. In a separate bowl, mix together bananas, yogurt, and vanilla.


6. Gradually add flour mixture to butter and sugar, alternating with banana mixture. End with flour mixture and mix only till just combined.


7. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top.


8. Bake on middle rack until top is springy and toothpick comes out clean, about 22-25 minutes. Cool completely.

Frosting

1. Combine butter, cocoa powder, and chocolate syrup in mixer on low speed till combined.


2. Gradually add powdered sugar on low speed till combined. Add milk and vanilla.


3. Increase mixer speed to medium and mix till frosting is smooth. Add a little more milk or sugar if needed to get a nice spreadable consistency.


4. Apply generously to cooled cake. Or to whatever else your heart desires!

Notes

Here's the deal...both the cake recipe and the frosting recipe call for sifting your dry ingredients (before measuring). I am lazy when it comes to this extra step. So unless I'm making it for people I'm not related to, I don't sift. Perhaps my cake is a little denser but otherwise I can't tell the difference. Either way people will love it. :)

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Chocolate Cherry Bars

You'd better believe this will be making an appearance in the coming month. In my family at least, June is THE month to be born. Heck, don't limit it to family and I swear I know of someone celebrating every other day.

My mom has been making this super easy chocolate cherry cake as long as I can remember. It was automatically on my dad's birthday menu year after year. I will often keep a can of cherry pie filling and chocolate cake mix in the pantry so it won't require a trip to the store and dessert can be thrown together quickly. Best part is that it won't taste like it.

HEAVEN comes in a 9x13 pan.

And if you are a chocolate frosting fan, you're in luck. It's super fudgy in a Texas Sheet Cake kind of way, and there are no cake decorating skills required.

I guarantee all your June babies will be pleased.

 

Chocolate Cherry Bars

 

Author: Erin (adapted from a Pillsbury recipe)

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 35 mins

Total time: 50 mins

Ingredients

• Cake


• 1 box of chocolate cake mix


• 1 can cherry pie filling (21 oz.)


• 1 tsp. vanilla extract


• 3 eggs, lightly beaten


• Frosting


• 1 c. sugar


• 1/3 c. milk


• 5 tsp. butter


• 1 c. semisweet chocolate chips (one 6 oz. package)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease or spray a 9x13 pan.


2. Mix together all cake ingredients until well blended, and pour into prepared pan.


3. Bake 25-35 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.


4. In a saucepan, combine sugar, milk and butter.


5. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.


6. Remove from pan from heat and stir in chocolate chips until smooth.


7. Pour frosting over warm bars, and spread to edges.


8. Allow to cool completely and cut into bars.

 

Notes

I have had good results with any kind of devil's food or fudge cake mix. You can definitely mix this cake by hand. A mixer works fine too but tends to crush the cherries, so they might not be as obvious in the finished product.

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Cinnamon Raisin Bars

Believe it or not, at age 35 and with a household of my own I am still treated to my mom's cooking fairly often. On days when I have been desperate for a change of scenery, another set of hands, or the chance to escape to Trader Joe's ALONE for an hour, I load up the children and am on her doorstep inside of 15 minutes. Of course the loading takes twice that long, but driving? 15 minutes. I AM SO LUCKY. I joke that if my husband's job ever relocated us to some exotic locale, my parents had better start cruising realtor.com too. I credit my mom (and dad!) for helping maintain my sanity during the last 6.5 years of adventures in stay-at-home parenting.

And it never fails. When the crafts and science projects have been cleaned up and it's time for us to head home, she hands me a bag of tupperware. Dinner!!! It's just about the nicest thing she could have done for me, short of a spontaneous kiddie sleepover at Mimi's. Let's just say that my husband is happy to hear I'm on my way home with food from my mom's kitchen. She is a fantastic cook and an even better baker. If you hang around the blog long enough, you'll hear me say this again and again.

I began gathering recipes to blog about by immediately heading for the cook book she made me (it's where this other childhood favorite came from). These raisin bars are heaven for oatmeal cookie lovers. My mom first made them from a Betty Crocker cook book shortly after she and my dad married (37 years ago last week!). Enjoy!

 

 

Cinnamon Raisin Bars

Author: Erin

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 35 mins

Total time: 50 mins

Ingredients

• Filling:


• 1/4 cup sugar


• 1 T cornstarch


• 2 cup raisins


• Cookie Crust:


• 1/2 cup butter


• 1 1/2 cup flour


• 1 cup brown sugar


• 1/2 t baking soda


• 1/2 t salt


• 1 1/2 cup oatmeal


• Icing:


• 1 cup powdered sugar


• 1/4 t cinnamon


• 3 T milk (approximately...enough for drizzling)

Instructions

1. For filling, combine 1/4 cup white sugar and cornstarch in a small pan. Stir in 1 cup of water and raisins. Cook over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Cool.


2. Cream butter and brown sugar.


3. Stir together dry ingredients and add to butter mixture.


4. Add oatmeal and 1 T of water. Mix till crumbly.


5. Pat 1/2 of oatmeal mixture into greased 9x13 pan. Spread with rasin filling.


6. Mix 1 T of water in to remaining oatmeal mix and crumble over raisin filling.


7. Bake at 350 for 35 min. Cool, drizzle with icing, and cut into bars.

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