Chocolate Banana Ginger Cake ~ Money Saving Recipe

Chocolate Banana Ginger Cake by Tiffany

I love banana cake! I especially love chocolate – so I decided to combine the two with a little somethin’ somethin’ by adding ginger. I adapted a banana cake recipe my mom gave me many years ago. The results got a big thumbs up by the neighbors as well as the fam. Hope you enjoy it too! 🙂

Ingredients For Cake

  • 3 very ripe bananas – I’m talkin’ almost black
  • 3/4 cups salted butter, room temp.
  • 3 large eggs, room temp.
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2  cups buttermilk
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 3 tablespoons cocoa
  • Pam baking spray with flour or good ol’ Crisco and flour for greasing baking dish

Ingredients For Frosting

  • 1/2 cup salted butter, room temp.
  • 1 package 8 oz. cream cheese, room temp.
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 4 tablespoons cocoa
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions For Cake

  1. Preheat oven 275 degrees F. confection setting (not a typo on the degree setting) Grease and flour a 9×13 baking dish.
  2. In a standing mixer, beat butter, sugar, and vanilla together until light and fluffy, (10 minutes). Next beat in eggs.
  3. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cocoa and ginger. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to creamed mixture; beat just until combined. Next, stir in bananas.
  4. Pour batter into prepared baking dish and bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and immediately place cake into your freezer for at least 1 hour. Meanwhile – let’s make the frosting… In a standing mixer, Beat butter, vanilla and cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides if needed. Slowly add powdered sugar, cocoa and ginger. Beat again until smooth. Remove cake from freezer and spread frosting all over the top. Cover and refrigerate. When ready to serve, bring cake to room temp.

Notes: You are probably wondering why on earth would I freeze the cake? Well truth be told – the original recipe stated to do this – however – my mom and I do this with all our cakes. My mother was a professional cake decorator/baker. She would bake and immediately freeze the cakes to insure superior moist cakes. Works every time – no fail. I’ve been using this trick since I started  baking and my cakes are super moist every time. 😉