Lauren's Latest » Banana Cake with Walnuts and Brown Butter Frosting

Friday, October 7, 2011

Banana Cake with Walnuts and Brown Butter Frosting

By the time you all ready this, I will probably high in the sky, on my way to Nashville!

But before I left, I wanted to make sure I gave you this recipe I told you about on Facebook a few days ago.

I made a banana cake and it was amazing. Now, I like baked banana products just as much as the next person, but this brown butter frosting is beyond delicious. It will take any dessert and make it special! Seriously. Brown butter is where it’s at. I probably could have just eaten the frosting as is, but then my poor cake would have looked sad on the counter with no beautification. So, I decided against my judgement and frosted the cake.

Again, like clockwork, people just started showing up. Nieces, nephews, neighbors, you name it. Lo and behold this cake was devoured and didn’t survive even 3 hours!

Moral of the story: this cake is good. REALLY good.

So if you have browning bananas on your counter, this would be a great treat for your weekend! Have a great one!

Banana Cake with Walnuts and Brown Butter Frosting
yield: 12 servings
Print This Recipe

Ingredients:

for the cake-
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup plain applesauce {unsweetened}
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large bananas, mashed

for the frosting-
1/4 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon heavy cream

1/4 cup chopped walnuts {optional}

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray an 8×8 square dish with non stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients, excluding the sugar. Stir to combine and set aside.

In a different bowl, whip sugar, oil and applesauce together. Stir in eggs, vanilla and mashed banana. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. Pour into prepared dish and bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Cool completely.

To make the frosting, place butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Just after the butter melts, start swirling the pan in small circles. After about 30 seconds or so, the butter should start foaming and will turn an amber color and smell nutty. Once this happens, remove from heat immediately and pour into a different container. Cool to room temperature.

Once butter has cooled, whip together with vanilla, powdered sugar and cream until smooth and creamy. Spread over cooled cake and top with chopped walnuts, if desired. Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

dessert

28 comments »

28 Responses to “Banana Cake with Walnuts and Brown Butter Frosting”

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Beth - Slice of Southern — October 7, 2011 at 4:28 am

Heaven….pure heaven!

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Beth - Slice of Southern — October 7, 2011 at 4:29 am

Oh by the way…my family is just outside of Nashville….have fun!

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Kathryn — October 7, 2011 at 8:20 am

Have fun in Nashville! This cake looks so light and fluffy and that frosting sounds amazing!

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Katrina — October 7, 2011 at 10:23 am

This sounds lovely. Browned butter anything is great in my book!

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Shannon @ Healthiful Balance — October 7, 2011 at 10:27 am

Oh my gosh..this looks so good! Im really craving this now!

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Carrie — October 7, 2011 at 11:35 am

I <3 brown butter frosting…. and banana cake!

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Christina @ This Woman Cooks! — October 7, 2011 at 11:45 am

We always have bananas dying in the fruit basket. I love this!

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Lauren at Keep It Sweet — October 7, 2011 at 1:52 pm

Have a great time this weekend! The cake looks delicious!

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Laurie @SimplyScratch — October 7, 2011 at 2:05 pm

Have a great trip!! I have one too many bananas right now… hmmm I guess this cake will just have to be made! Drat

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Rachel @ The Avid Appetite — October 7, 2011 at 2:06 pm

this looks so moist and perfect! Yum! Have a GREAT time in Nashville lady!

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Aimee @ ShugarySweets — October 7, 2011 at 2:22 pm

This look delicious. Thanks for sharing! Have a safe trip too!

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Deborah — October 7, 2011 at 3:11 pm

I totally pinned this off of someone yesterday! Looks amazing!!

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Emily — October 8, 2011 at 5:40 am

Mmmm… sounds great! I love browned butter, I’ve never put it with banana before, but I bet its super good.

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Ali — October 8, 2011 at 9:47 am

Pure bliss!! looks heavenly delicious. I’ll have to make this son. Have a safe trip

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Jen Morris — October 9, 2011 at 2:36 am

Discovered your blog via Pinterest (Nutella topped Red Velvet Oreo Cheesecakes-divine by the way). Anyway, this sounds delish! I may have to go get bananas just so I can let them turn brown! Look forward to reading more from you!

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CouponClippingCook — October 9, 2011 at 6:09 am

This cake looks so moist and delicious. The frosting sounds so good. I’m looking forward to trying this.

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Yasmeen @ Wandering Spice — October 9, 2011 at 11:32 am

Brown butter frosting… Sounds so, so good! Bananas are back to normal prices after being about $12/kg for a few months (due to flooding up north). Now I’m just looking for excuses to bake with them, and you have provided a perfect one!

Enjoy Nashville… haven’t been there in years but have fantastic memories of it.

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Katie — October 9, 2011 at 7:43 pm

So I made this last night/this morning to take to my parent’s house for dinner tonight. It was so quick and easy and SO delicious. I left out the walnuts, and my baking time took about twice as the recipe calls for. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I see many more of these in my family’s future.

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19

Jess — October 11, 2011 at 1:57 am

Yummy! Brown butter frosting with banana cake sounds wonderful. I’ve always had cream cheese with banana cake. Must try this.

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Jolene (www.everydayfoodie.ca) — October 11, 2011 at 3:47 am

Love the flavours in that cake – I prefer spiced cakes over any other type.

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Stephanie — October 23, 2011 at 10:41 pm
I’m not sure what I did wrong, but I just tried making this and mine has chunks of cooked egg (I think…) in it. Also, the middle didn’t cook as much as the outside. Is it because I used a darker, nonstick pan?

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- Lauren — October 24th, 2011 @ 2:28 am
  
  The only thing I can think of is the egg wasn’t evenly mixed in. A darker pan always gets darker edges, but it’s weird that the middle didn’t cook. Sorry it didn’t work! Darn!
  
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KAY — January 17, 2012 at 9:03 am

Is 325 degrees correct? I made this cake but it it took way long than 30 minutes to bake. It was pretty good :0)

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Heather — March 24, 2012 at 1:03 am

I just made this last week and it was wonderful!!! We ate the WHOLE cake is less than 24 hrs! I followed the directions exactly and only had to add a little time to the total baking time. LOVE IT!!!

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Brittania — November 11, 2012 at 3:58 am

If I were to make this in cupcake form, would you suggest any alterations?
I also have cake flour (and regular flour)
Which would produce better results?
And what will the cake flour produce texture wise?

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