Cake. Yes You Can.

I have a confession; I suck at making cakes.  No.  Really.  The thing is that a cake is such a commitment, and no matter how awful my failure, it beacons form the next room.  "Eat me.  Eat me.  Uummmmmmm, you know you want it, so just EAT ME."  Who am I to resist?  And so it goes, I end up feeling ill and resenting cakes in general.  

Cookies on the other hand, you can just bake off as many as you would like to eat, and refrigerate the dough.  No bad feelings, just yummy little treats.

But, it is a new year.  I had two brown bananas and a good amount of cream cheese sitting idle in the fridge.  It was time to act.  Waste not want not.  Banana bread did not seem festive enough for our New Year's Dinner, so I found a recipe for banana chocolate cake.  No, no, no, not yucky.  I hesitated, too, but figured I had nothing to lose.  I've failed many times at this before, and even bad cake is good.  Boy, was I in for a shocker.

This was by far the best cake I've ever made, or dreamed of making.  You can do this, I promise.  Expert or novice, you will be a success.  There is a little background flavor of banana, but it is not at all overwhelming or icky.  It makes the cake so wonderfully moist and still light.  There is only 1/2 cup of oil in the whole cake, so it is naturally low in fat without that gummy low-fat texture.  The recipe also rocks because it is the same as making a quick bread.  No mixer, no muss no fuss.

Ever so slightly adapted from the joyofbaking.com, Chocolate Banana Cake

2 cups (400 grams) granulated white sugar
1 3/4 cups (245 grams) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (75 grams) cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium sized bananas)
1 cup (240 ml) warm water
1/2 cup (120 ml) milk
1/2 cup (120 ml) safflower or canola oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and place rack in the center of the oven. Grease and flour a 9 x 9 inch pan. I also like to line the bottom with parchment paper, just to be safe.  Set aside. 

In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, mashed bananas, water, milk, oil, and vanilla extract.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir, or whisk, until combined. You will notice that the batter is quite thin. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. When completely cooled, frost with the chocolate cream cheese frosting.

I winged the chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe.  Come on, it is chocolate cream cheese frosting.  No way could anyone go wrong with it.  After looking at a few recipes and looking at our pantry, it went a little like this:

8 oz. softened cream cheese (We had full fat, but I bet low fat would work fine.  I never ever touch the fat free cream cheese.  Life it just too short.)
3 tablespoons room temperature unsalted butter
1/2 cup sifted coco powder
3 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
about 3 tablespoons milk (Just enough to keep it nice and spreadable.)

Mix the butter and the cream cheese until combined.  Add the coco powder.  Add the powdered sugar on three additions, alternating with the vanilla and milk.  When it is nice and smooth, you are done.  Don't feel the need to 'whip' it, it is good as it is.