Carrot Cake + Banana Cake = Awesome ‘Bananarrot’ Cake

These cakes comes from my favourite cookbook, Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum, a beloved member of my family with its well-thumbed flour-covered pages and a few noticeable stains of grease. If you love baking cakes like I do, then I demand beg implore you to get this book. I want Rose to adopt me as her long lost niece so we can spend many afternoons together baking cakes and drinking tea. Umm I promised myself that I wasn’t going to sound like a gushing fan-girl but looks like I failed!

I’ve made the banana cake and the frosting so many times before that it has pretty much earned the lifetime achievement award (you can read me getting all hot and dreamy about it here). Needless to say, the carrot cake is a worthy competitor for my affections. Both, as you can gather, works brilliantly with the subtle sweet and tangy frosting so instead of picking one of the two to make for a lunch gathering, I decided to sandwich the two together, which led to its new brilliant moniker, The Bananarrot.

A few nutrition fairies will probably die when I say this but this has to be most amazing (albeit naughty) way to get my daily serving of fruit and veges. Hmmm lets have another perve at the cake shall we? Hello!

Classic Carrot Cake

Ingredients

150g of plain flour
3/4 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of bicarb soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 Tbl of cocoa powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
150g caster sugar
50g light brown sugar or muscovado
150ml of canola oil
2 large eggs
1 tsps vanilla extract
1.5 cups or 227g of coursely shredded carrot

Method

Preheat oven to 175°C and grease and line a 22cm cake tin (9-inch).

In a bowl, sift and whisk together the flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt, cocoa and cinnamon.

In another large bowl, beat together the caster sugar, brown sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla on medium speed for a minute or until well blended. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just incorporated.

Add the carrots and beat for another 10 seconds or until combined. Scrape batter into cake tin, level the top and bake for 45-55 minutes or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean and the centre of the cake spring back when lightly pressed.

Cool in tin for 10 minutes then turn out to cool completely.

Banana Cake

Ingredients

2 large very ripe bananas, peeled and broken into pieces
116g sour cream
2 eggs
1.5 tsps vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest
170g caster sugar
120ml canola oil
200g cake flour (or 30g cornflour plus 170g plain flour)
1/4 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

Preheat oven to 175°C. Grease and line a 22cm springform cake tin (9-inch).

In a food processor, add the bananas and sour cream and blend until smooth. Make sure to scrape down the sides with a silicone spatula to incorporate it all.

Add the eggs, vanilla and zest and process for about 10 seconds until smooth. Scrape out into a large mixing bowl.

Add the sugar to banana mixture and with an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk until combined. Gradually add the oil, beating it until it’s completely mixed through.

Sift over combined dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder and bicarb) and mix on low speed until the ingredients have moistened and it has combined.

Scrape batter into cake tin, level the top and bake for 45-55 minutes or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean and the centre of the cake spring back when lightly pressed.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

255g white chocolate, chopped
340g cream cheese, softened but still cool
85g (6 Tbl) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
21g sour cream

Method

In a double boiler or bowl over gentle simmering water (make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water), melt the white chocolate. Remove from heat and set aside until it is cool but still fluid.

In a food processor, process the cream cheese, butter and sour cream until mixed and smooth. Make sure to scrape down the sides with a spatula to incorporate it all. Add the cooled white chocolate and mix until it’s all smooth and mixed. If it’s a little soft, firm it up in the fridge before icing.

To Assemble Cakes

Trim your two cakes if necessary to get two even layers. Use about 3/4 cup (or 180ml) of frosting to sandwich the two cakes together. Use remainder to frost the top and if you have enough the sides too. Garnish with cahopped walnuts and/or raisins if you wish.

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Recipes adapted from Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

Tagged as: Afternoon Tea, banana, Cake, carrot, cream cheese, Dessert, frosting, Heavenly Cakes, layered cake, Rose Levy Beranbaum, sour cream, white chocolate