Banana Cake with Whipped Sea Salt Caramel
An exciting way to use up ripe bananas. Flavorful banana cake layers frosted with whipped sea salt caramel. This is a great celebration cake that is perfect anytime of year! Yield: 9-inch cake
Servings: 14 slices
Ingredients
Banana Cake:
- ¾ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs room temp
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 4 ripe medium sized bananas mashed
- 3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup sour cream
Whipped Sea Salt Caramel:
- 1 ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup water
- 1 cup heavy cream heated
- 2 teaspoon fine sea salt or kosher salt
- 1 ¾ cup unsalted butter softened, cut into tablespoons
Instructions
Banana Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Line two 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and mix until creamy. Add eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated.
- Add vanilla and mashed bananas. Mix until combined.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
- In another bowl, mix together buttermilk and sour cream. NOTE: It will be chunky, that's okay!
- Add ⅓ of dry mixture to mixing bowl, followed by half of buttermilk. Repeat and end with remaining ⅓ of dry mixture. Mix until flour is incorporated into batter.
- Divide batter between the two prepared cake pans. Smooth out and level batter using mini off spatula or spoon.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, rotating pan halfway thru baking. Insert toothpick in center of cake to check for doneness. Toothpick should come out clean. Otherwise, bake for another 5-10 minutes or so.
- Cool cake in pan for 5 minutes. Then loosen edges of cake with an offset spatula. Remove cake from pan and let cool to room temperature on wire rack.
Whipped Sea Salt Caramel:
- Using a heavy bottomed sauce pot, heat sugar and water on high heat. Let sugar melt. Do not stir or agitate mixture to prevent unwanted crystallization.
- Lower heat and allow syrup to color. Remove from heat once sugar syrup is aromatic and amber in color.
- Warm up heavy cream in the microwave for 1 minute. Add about ⅓ of warm cream to sugar syrup and whisk. BE VERY CAREFUL. The mixture will bubble and steam vigorously. Add remaining warm cream and continue to whisk until mixture has slightly cooled.
- Add butter and salt. Whisk until mixture is homogenized. Let cool to room temperature.
- Transfer cooled caramel to the bowl of stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment. Whip caramel on medium speed for 5-10 minutes until caramel has thickened to the consistency of buttercream and is much lighter in color.
Assembly:
- Once cake has cooled to room temperature, slice each cake into two even layers.
- Place one cake round on cake board. Spread about ½ cup of whipped caramel frosting on cake using an offset spatula. Repeat with remaining cake layers.
- Chill cake in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Let cake sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes before slicing into.
Notes
Ingredients:
- Any milk or milk alternative may be used in place of buttermilk
- Greek yogurt, cream fraiche, or whole milk yogurt may be used in place of sour cream
Nutrition
Calories: 676kcal | Carbohydrates: 73g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 42g | Saturated Fat: 26g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 151mg | Sodium: 569mg | Potassium: 220mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 49g | Vitamin A: 1397IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 76mg | Iron: 2mg