ba-na-naaaaa!

i loved despicable me for the minions alone. and the fact that they were all in love with fruit, like me, didn't hurt either :D

so of course this is a banana update, if you didn't get that yet :)

first is M's bday cake-

Banana Sheet Cake (9 x 9)

Cake

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

2  large mashed bananas

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

Frosting

3 oz whipped cream frosting, room temp

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temp

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9x9 baking pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then add the vanilla and mashed bananas. Mix in half of the flour mixture, then the yogurt, then the other half of the flour mixture. Spread the batter evenly in the baking pan and bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely brown and the surface springs back up when touched. Let cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting, mix all the ingredients together (electric mixer would be the easiest, but by hand is doable). Spread over the cake. Decorate with toasted pecans, optional.

*did half the simplyrecipes recipe but forgot to halve the egg and butter in the frosting, egg might have made the cake denser, and frosting turned out perfectly (not too sweet but a cream cheesy goodness)

second was a new banana bread recipe! who would have thought i would ever branch away from my usual recipe.

Banana Bread

adapted from joy the baker

makes 1 loaf

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup granulate sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats

3 tsp canola oil

1 large egg, beaten

2 medium egg whites, beaten

3 large ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a loaf pan. In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients from flour through the oats. In a smaller bowl, mash bananas and then add whole egg and oil until thoroughly mixed.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. In a medium sized bowl, with an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter in three additions. Pour batter into pan and bake until top of loaf is firm to touch about 45 minutes.