Banana & Coconut Cake

I bought bananas with the intention of doing a granola, but I was unable to go with my original plan when my neck and back starting giving me some serious grief. It was so bad I thought I should have gone to the emergency ward, but I managed to get into see someone the next morning and it helped. But before I keep going on and sounding like a 80 year old woman….. let’s get back to the bananas. They went over ripe as they do, and the only cure for over ripe bananas is cake!

I was super lazy and couldn’t be bothered lining a tin, so I used a fancy rosette silicone baking mould instead, so the icing job turned out rather ….. rustic due to the shape of the cake.

A great tasting cake, I really liked the combination of the cream cheese icing with the banana-coconuttyness of it all.

Banana & Coconut Cake

150g butter, at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup caster sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 ripe medium bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup light sour cream
2 cups self-raising flour, sieved
1/2 cup desiccated coconut

Coconut Cream Cheese Icing

125g butter, at room temperature
250g cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups, icing sugar mixture, sieved
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coconut essence, to taste
2/3 cup shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line cake tin with baking paper.
2. Beat butter and sugars with electric beaters in large bowl until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with addition. Add 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, mashed bananas and sour cream; beat to combine. Beat flour and coconut into mixture until well combined.
3. Pour mix into lined cake tin and bake for 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool slightly in tin, then turn onto wire rack to cool completely.
4. Meanwhile, whip butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add icing sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and coconut essence and beat for a further few mins.
5. When cake has cooled, cut in half horizontally. Spread one-third of icing over bottom half of cake, and top with remaining half. Icing top and sides with remaining icing and cover in shredded coconut.
6. Store in an airtight container.

Serves 12.