Banana Cake with Chocolate Peanut Butter Icing
This makes a large, amazing banana cake. It is perfect for dinner parties or other large gatherings, as it makes a half sheet pan size cake (13x18). It's a large cake! The chocolate peanut butter icing is the perfect addition. Plus, of course it is a whole grain recipe that does not taste like one!
Servings: 24 servings
Ingredients
- 3 cups whole wheat pastry flour You can use other whole wheat flours, but the whole wheat pastry creates such a tender crumb.
- 2 cup all purpose flour
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ¾ cup oil I used canola, but use whatever you prefer. Just make sure it is neutral flavored
- 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 6 bananas
- 6 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 3 cups buttermilk
Chocolate peanut butter icing
- ½ cup butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ⅔ cup cocoa powder
- ½ cup peanut butter creamy or crunchy, your choice. It is a pretty serious debate in our house.
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- milk as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Prep sheet pan by lining it with parchment paper and spraying the paper and pan riser with pan spray or softened butter.
- In a small/medium bowl combine dry ingredients- flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- In another larger bowl, mix butter and sugar. You can do this with a stand mixer, hand mixer, or even by hand. It will be a good workout if you decide to do it by hand! Beat the butter and sugars until they are light and fluffy. Add in bananas and mix again. You can mush them beforehand, but it is so simple to throw them in and mix them. Next are eggs and vanilla. Blend this only until combined. Then add dry ingredients. Now, only blend these until they just come together, you don't want to overmix baked goods with whole wheat flour. Last is your buttermilk. Again, be careful not to overmix.
- Pour batter into pan. Spread carefully, but don't stress about it being completely flat, it will do this as it bakes.
- Now, bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes clean. I like to underbake just a touch. Whole-grain baked goods can dry out quickly. It is good to underbake just a little.
- Place on a cooling rack. Within a minute or 2, remove the riser.
- Allow cooling before icing.
Notes
- Underbake the cake just a bit for moister cake. There is a process in cooking called carry-over cooking where residual heat in food continues the cooking process even after it has been removed from the heat source. If you cook the cake the whole way through it may end up dry.
- Don’t overmix the banana cake batter. The more it’s mixed the tougher the cake.
- Store the cake at room temperature for up to three days.