Banana Nutella Cake

I keep reading this recipe in my Alice's TeaCup cookbook and wanting to make it, but then save the ripe bananas to make The Best Ever Banana Bread. This time around, the ripe bananas made their way into this recipe. And am I happy about it! It is a two-layer cake, but I frosted one layer for us at home, and the other layer got frosted and sent to school, to my sons joy and excitement (without the Nutella layer to keep it nut-free)! The recipe below will describe it as a two-layer cake. 

Makes one 8-inch two layer cake

From Alice’s TeaCup

Ingredients

CAKE

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 very ripe bananas

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup / 8oz cream cheese, at room temperature

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

FILLING

2 cups Nutella

Directions

1. To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350F. Have ready two 8-inch round pans
2. In a medium bowl whisk together the dry ingredients
3. In a large bowl, use a mixer to cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. One at a time, add the eggs and mix until well blended. With the mixer set to low, add a little bit of the flour mixture at a time, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla, mixing just until smooth. 
4. Use a spatula to gently fold in the bananas. 
5. Pour the batter evenly between the two cake pans, and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Set the layers aside to cool completely in the pans before frosting the cake.
6. To make the frosting: Use a mixer to cream the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy.
7. Frost each layer with Nutella and stack them. Spread the cream cheese over the top and sides. 

The Best Ever Banana Bread

I have several other Banana Bread recipes— and they are all good. But this one hit the spot. So much that I now buy twice the amount of bananas, only to be sure that we have four ripe bananas available at any point of time! This recipe for the comfortable dessert is lighter, more balanced, and has the perfect caramelized thick crust.

TastingTable.com adapted this recipe from Dominique Ansel, Dominique Ansel Bakery, New York, NY, and said this about it: Anything Dominique Ansel touches morphed into a delectable treat— even something as classic and humble as banana bread. Here, Ansel rescues the fate of over-ripened bananas, turning them into an exceptionally moist cake.

They go on to say that at his bakery, his tinkering doesn't stop with the finished loaf. He soaks bits of it into sweetened condensed milk for tres leches and smears layers of mascarpone over the milky bread to make a decadent tiramisu.

Yield: 1 loaf  |  Cook time: 1 hour and 10 minutes  |  Total time: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Ingredients
DRY INGREDIENTS
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt

WET INGREDIENTS
3 eggs, at room temperature
4 ripe bananas, mashed

14 tablespoons / 200 grams unsalted butter, melted

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 10" x 5" x 3 1/2" loaf pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
3. In a separate medium sized mixing bowl beat the eggs and combine with the mashed bananas.
4. Add wet ingredients (egg-banana mixture) to the dry ingredients and mix together until just combined.
5. Mix in the melted butter until fully incorporated.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before slicing (if you can wait!)