Double Banana Cake

Are you a banana bread enthusiast who always wants more, more, MORE?! This easy banana cake recipe is ready to satisfy your very specific needs. The crumb is sweeter and more tender than that stalwart breakfast bread. The bananas are more present, being both mashed into the batter and sliced into disks and sandwiched between the two cake layers. Plus, there’s frosting! Banana bread, who?

You’ll need fruit at two stages of ripeness for this super-moist banana cake: For the batter, use overripe bananas—black speckles are a good thing! These have a higher ratio of sugars to starches than firm bananas and mash easily with a fork. Meanwhile, for the layer of slices, pick bananas that are ripe but still sturdy and unblemished.

This recipe doesn’t call for nuts, but if you wanted to toss in a handful (or more) of well-toasted chopped walnuts or pecans, they wouldn’t be unwelcome. Similarly, the frosting here is a souped-up American buttercream, made billowy with a large pour of heavy cream. But if you dream of cream cheese frosting all day, every day, go for it.

Whichever icing you choose, follow former BA staffer and cookbook author Claire Saffitz’s advice: Don’t skip the crumb coat (think of it as the primer you put on the walls before you paint). Follow her step-by-step tutorial here. And when it comes to achieving those artful swoops and swirls on the top of a layer cake, all it takes is a spoon and some practice.

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Editor’s note: This recipe was originally published April 2012.