Banana Cake Recipes

Grandma's Banana Cake Recipes Are Scrumptiously Good

Banana cake recipes did not become popular in homes until the end of the 19th century. Before this time a combination of unreliable shipping methods and a lack of refrigeration prevented the widespread use of bananas in home cooking. Only food stores in the major cities had access to bananas on a regular basis.

Banana cakes had become common by the 1920s, and they became especially popular in the 1930s when enterprising grocers often provided their customers with free banana cake recipes in an attempt to sell the overripe bananas. Sometimes they could hardly keep up with the demand.

Here are several classic banana cake recipes that I know you will like. Why not try one today? Enjoy a delicious homemade treat.

Banana Layer Cake

This is an excellent banana layer cake recipe.

Ingredients: 1/2 cup shortening, 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 2-1/4 cups flour, 1/8 teaspoon soda, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 cup milk, 1 cup mashed bananas, 1 cup whipping cream, 2 banana sliced.

Method: Cream shortening and sugar. Add beaten eggs, then sifted dry ingredients alternately with the sweet milk. Beat in the mashed bananas (2 to 3 put through a sieve). Bake in two 8-inch layers in moderately hot oven (375°F) for 30 minutes. When cool, put the layers together with sweetened whipped cream and sliced bananas. Top with whipped cream.

Banana Cake

Mom often made this cake. I especially liked the chewy walnuts and the sweet, tangy icing. It is one of the best cake recipes that she got from Grandma. And the banana icing recipe makes a rich, delicious frosting that may be used with almost any white cake recipe.

Cream 1/2 cup butter, blend in 1 cup white sugar and cream until fluffy; combine with 1 egg beaten, add 1 cup mashed bananas (3 medium-sized bananas). Sift and measure 2 cups flour; resift with 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Coat with flour 1 cup broken walnuts. Add walnuts and sifted dry ingredients to first mixture with 1/2 cup sour milk, 2 teaspoons vanilla. Bake 1 hour in 8 x 8-inch pan.

Banana Icing: 1/2 cup mashed banana, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 2 tablespoons soft butter, 4 cups icing sugar. Mix the banana, lemon juice and butter, and work in the sugar until icing is of spreading consistency.

Banana Cake

This easy homemade cake recipe may easily be turned into a delicious applesauce cake recipe simply by substituting applesauce and mixed spices for the bananas.

One-half cup shortening, 2 eggs, 1 cup mashed bananas, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 cup white sugar, 4 tablespoons sour milk, 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon soda, 1 teaspoon salt, 4 teaspoons vanilla. Mix as ordinary cake, and bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes.

I find 1 cup of applesauce is a real good substitute for bananas, and 1/2 teaspoon mixed spices can be added with applesauce.

Banana Cake

This recipe is taken from an old, unidentified newspaper clipping, circa 1915.

One cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup butter, 2 eggs (1 white kept for icing), 1/4 cup sour milk, 1 teaspoon soda, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 2 cups flour, a little salt, 3 very ripe bananas. Cream sugar, butter and egg yolks. Mash and beat the bananas until smooth and add to the mixture. Add the sour milk and soda then the flour, into which the baking powder and salt have been sifted. Lastly, fold in the well-beaten egg white. Bake in a fairly deep pan about 10 inches by 10 inches in a moderate oven for 25 minutes. --M. C. J.

Ingredients: 1/4 cupful of butter, 1 cupful of sugar, 2/3 cupful of water, 2 cupfuls of flour, 2 rounding teaspoonfuls of baking powder, whites of four eggs.

Method: Put together the same as ice cream cake [i.e., cream the butter, adding slowly the sugar; sift the flour with the baking powder; add the water and flour alternately to the sugar mixture, and beat well; fold in the well-beaten whites], and bake in three layers. When cold, put together with Banana Filling.

Banana Cake Filling Recipe

Boil together one cupful of sugar and a half cupful of water until they spin a heavy thread, and pour slowly, beating all the while, into the well-beaten whites of two eggs. Beat until rather stiff and cold. When the cakes are cold, spread one-third of this filling over one cake, cover with thin slices of red bananas, put on another cake, on this another third of filling and bananas, and the remaining cake; cover this with the remaining filling, and dust thickly with chopped nuts. Do not let this stand too long, or the filling will absorb moisture from the bananas and run down the cake.

Make an icing of the whites of two eggs and one cup and a half of powdered sugar. Spread this on the layers, and then cover thickly and entirely with bananas sliced thin or chopped fine. This cake may be flavored with vanilla. The top should be simply frosted.