Banana-Caramel Cake

I had the day off from work today to celebrate Labor Day. I spent the day hanging with a friend from med school who also happens to be doing an away rotation in San Antonio. After some window shopping in Stone Oak and walking around the neighborhood, we were at a standstill of what to do with the remainder of our afternoon. So we turned to baking. My mom just bought the Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. We sifted through the book, which is amazing btw, and decided upon this recipe, Banana-Caramel Cake. The only things we had to buy were the Mascarpone cheese for the icing and bananas.

Making the Cake:
Ingredients

1 1/2 sticks plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 very ripe bananas, mashed plus 3 ripe bananas, sliced lengthwise for filling

1/4 cup sour cream or creme fraiche

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 2/3 cups plus 1/4 cup sugar

4 large eggs

Mascarpone Frosting ** (see below)

Caramel Sauce **(see below)

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter two 9 by 2 inch round cake pans; line bottom with parchment. Butter parchment and dust with flour, tapping out excess; set aside. Into a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl, stir together mashed bananas, sour cream, and vanilla; set aside.

2) In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat 1 1/2 sticks butter and 1 2/3 cups sugar on medium high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in two parts, beating until combined after each, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the reserved banana mixture, being careful not to overmix.

3) Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through, until cakes are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool 20 minutes. Invert cakes on the rack; peel off the parchment. Reinvert cakes, and let them cool completely, top sides up.

4) Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup sugar into a large skillet; cook over high heat, shaking the pan occasionally, until sugar is caramelized. Remove from heat; stir in remaining 3 tablespoons butter until melted. Return pan to medium heat. Add the sliced bananas; cook until slices start to brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Gently turn the bananas, and cook over medium-high heat until browned, about 2 minutes more.

5) Using a serrated knife, trim tops of layer to make level. Place one layer on a cake plate; arrange caramelized banana slices on top. Place remaining layer on top. Using a large offset spatula, spread Mascarpone Frosting over entire cake, swirling to completely cover. Drizzle Caramel Sauce over the top of the cake, or serve some alongside each slice. Serve immediately, or refrigerate, covered with a cake dome, for up to 3 days.

Mascarpone Frosting

1 pound mascarpone cheese
1 1/4 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

-->Directions: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the mascarpone, cream and confectioners' sugar until medium soft peaks form, 1 to 2 minutes. Be careful not to overbeat. Use immediately.

Caramel Sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup cream

-->Directions: Prepare an ice bath; set aside. Cook sugar in a medium saucepan over medium high heat until starts to melt around edges; then shake pan to melt remaining sugar. Continue to cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until golden amber, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Stirring constantly, add cream in a slow, steady stream. If necessary, return pan to heat for a few seconds, stirring until mixture is smooth. Place caramel in a bowl in the ice bath; let stand until cold, stirring frequently.

This recipe is quite labor intensive. It took us a little under four hours to make. However, it turned out to be a keeper and the cake was quite good, 4.5 out of 5 stars. My favorite part about the cake was the caramelized banana middle layer. It is not something you normally expect but it has the right amount of sweetness to really accentuate the cake well. The most difficult part of the recipe (in my humble opinion) was making the caramel sauce. The sauce is requires a great deal of stirring and became quite clumpy and stiff when we added the cream was first added to the sugar. It may be just easier to sprinkle premade caramel on the top for decoration. : ) All in all, I recommend making this recipe sometime...just make sure you have a lot of time.

PS In the pictures above, you can clearly see a nice icing job. I do not take credit for this. This was my friend's handy work. I probably needed to watch her more closely to try to learn some about icing. : )