today we are going to be taking basic banana cake to the next level without that much extra effort
so to start off you want to preheat your oven to 160c or 320f with the fan on and grease or line 2
8 inch cake tins mine are three inches deep and I'm using my homemade cake release to grease them
set these aside in a small bowl sift together your dry ingredients so I've got 280 grams of
all-purpose flour which is two and a quarter cups 25 grams of cornstarch which is a quarter
cup one teaspoon of baking powder 1 teaspoon of baking soda half a teaspoon of salt and two
teaspoons of ground cinnamon and then using a whisk just mix that all together until well
combined I think cinnamon just makes almost everything better okay now set this aside
and now we're going to mash together three and a half large bananas the exact amount I
use is 410 grams and you want to make sure your bananas are nice and ripe the riper the better
okay now set your bananas aside for now and then a large bowl add in 113 grams of unsalted butter
which is half a cup 105 grams of unflavored vegetable oil which is also half a cup and
300 grams of white granulated sugar which is one and a half cups and then using a hand or stand
mixer cream that together for two minutes until it's light and fluffy to that add in three large
eggs one at a time mixing well in between each addition so about 15 seconds in between each egg
next you want to add in your mashed bananas from earlier one and a half
teaspoons of vanilla and 125 grams of Greek yogurt which is half a cup and you just want
to make sure it's at room temperature and then just mix that all together on
a medium speed until well combined it may look a little curdled but that that's okay
now just get all of your batter off of your attachments because we're going to be doing
the last part by hand now to finish off add in your pre-sifted dry ingredients and then using
a spatula gently fold the batter until just combined and you can't see any more streaks of
flour running through the batter and everything's you know pretty homogeneous at the same time
though be careful not to over mix the batter so just mix until just combined and now we're going
to evenly distribute this into our two eight inch cake tins once done drop your cake turns lightly
on the counter to remove any large air bubbles and now these are going to go into the oven for
40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean so my cakes are out of the oven now and I cannot
tell you how incredible they smell and now I'm just running a thin knife around the edges to
release the cakes from the cake tins and turning them out onto a wire rack to completely cool
these cake layers are honestly so so incredibly soft I would even go so far as to say that this
is one of the best banana cakes I've ever had just look at how incredibly soft these cake layers are
and they smell so so good now while these are cooling let's go ahead and make a delicious
caramel filling and cream cheese frosting so for the caramel sauce you just want to start
off by placing 100 grams or half a cup of white granulated sugar and two tablespoons of water in
a saucepan you want to give that one little mix and then turn the heat onto a medium heat and
now just let that sit without mixing it until the sugar begins to turn an amber color now as
soon as it has a light amber color throughout the mixture don't let it get too dark otherwise
your caramel will taste burnt or bitter you now want to turn off the heat and you want to
immediately pour in 60 grams or a quarter cup of room temperature cream gradually while vigorously
whisking just be careful because the mixture will rise now if your caramel clumps up then place
it over a low heat and keep stirring until it becomes smooth now once that's done add
in 28 grams or two tablespoons of cold unsalted butter and a pinch of salt and
then just mix until the butter is completely melted and the caramel is nice and smooth
okay so that is our caramel all done it smells so so incredibly good and now you just want to
pour this into a heat proof bowl and allow it to cool I like to cover my caramel with some cling
wrap with the cling wrap touching the top of the caramel to prevent a skin from forming as it cools
now while this is cooling let's go ahead and make a delicious cream cheese frosting so start off by
creaming together one cup or 225 grams of unsalted butter until it's light and fluffy if you're using
a stand mixer then you want to do this with the paddle attachment next you want to add in four and
a half cups of icing sugar in three batches while mixing on a low speed so you want to make sure
your mixer is on a low speed because otherwise your icing Sugar's just got to fly everywhere and you
also want to make sure each batch of icing sugar is mixed in well before you add in the next batch
okay once that's done finish off by adding one and a half cups of cold cream cheese make sure you're
using the firm block type not the spreadable type one and a half teaspoons of vanilla and one and a
half tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and then just mix that together until just combined and
everything is nice and smooth avoid over mixing because the more you mix the softer your frosting
is going to become and that is literally it our crazy delicious cream cheese frosting is all
done so all my elements are ready now and cooled down so to stack my cake I'm starting off by
placing my first cake layer onto my cake stand and then spreading out a nice thin layer of my
caramel now if you don't want your caramel to seep out the sides of your cake then you want
to pipe a dam around the top edges of your cake layer and then place your caramel on the inside
but I don't mind some of mine seeping out and I'm feeling a little lazy so I'm just doing it like
this next I'm placing a generous amount of cream cheese frosting on top and spreading
that out with with my offset spatula then my next cake layer goes on top and I'm topping
it with more cream cheese frosting you can make extra caramel and put another layer on
the top but I prefer just the one layer in the middle because I don't like my cakes too sweet
and I also don't want it to overpower the banana cake so I'm just covering the sides with frosting
too and then smoothing it out with my offset spatula and you can see here that some of my
caramel is starting to seep out another way that you can prevent this from happening is just not
spreading your caramel out so much and then I'm just finishing off the top with a little bit of
piping around the edges and that is it my banana cake is all done I cannot tell you how incredible
this banana cake is with the banana packed cake layers that caramel filling and then just topping
it off with that cream cheese frosting it really does take your banana cake to that next level
that is so so good the cake layers are so so nice and moist and the caramel and cream
cheese honestly just pair so so well with this banana cake without overpowering the banana cake
which is really nice because you still want it to taste like a banana cake so that is it
guys if you do try out this recipe don't forget to leave a review on my blog it really helps my
content reach more people and I love hearing from you guys I'll see you in the next video