Banana Cake with Brown Butter Maple Frosting

Dan and I both love eating bananas for breakfast, but we can never seem to eat the entire bunch fast enough. Honestly, it feels like there’s always a point in the week where I walk by the fridge and catch a whiff of over-ripe banana, even if we don’t actually have any bananas lying around. Yes, I suffer from Phantom Banana Syndrome.

This week was no exception — we bought a huge bunch of green bananas at BJs, let them ripen for a few days, ate them steadily throughout the week, and by Saturday there were four brown/mushy things fermenting on top of the fridge. Wonderful. It’s a good thing Dan and I both like banana-based desserts.

With four large bananas screaming to be mashed and baked, I headed to FoodGawker for inspiration. Banana muffins, banana coffee cake, banana cream pie, banana pudding — the possibilities were endless! In the end, I settled on a recipe for yummy looking banana cake with brown butter frosting, because brown butter is awesome. It smells amazing (rich and nutty, with a faint whiff of caramel), and when mixed into a frosting with maple syrup, it creates a rich, tongue tickling-ly delicious topping that is good enough to eat straight with a spoon. Guys, this frosting might even be better than the butterscotch frosting I made for my Butterbeer Cupcakes. And when it’s slathered on top of moist, fluffy banana cake? Heaven!

Banana Cake with Brown Butter Maple Frosting (Adapted from the Lauren’s Latest’s recipe)

Ingredients:
(Cake)
– 1 1/2 cups flour
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 1 teaspoon cinnamon
– 1 dash nutmeg
– 1 cup granulated sugar
– 1/2 cup oil
– 2 eggs
– 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
– 2 large bananas, mashed

(Frosting)
– 1/4 cup butter
– 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
– 3/4 cup powdered sugar + more if necessary to thicken frosting
– 1 tablespoon heavy cream
– 1 tsp maple syrup
– 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Steps:
(1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8×8 square dish.
(2) In a large bowl, mash your bananas. Stir in eggs and vanilla.
(3) Add sugar and oil. Mix until well-combined.
** The original recipe used 1/4 cup oil, and 1/4 cup apple sauce. I didn’t have apple sauce, so I went with 1/2 cup oil. I imagine using apple sauce would make this healthier and less fattening, but I regret nothing!
(4) Slowly incorporate dry ingredients into wet mixture.
(5) Pour into baking dish and bake for about 30 minutes, or until toothpick/cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely.
(6) While your cake is cooling, start preparing the frosting. Place butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Swirl the pan as the butter melts. When the butter starts foaming and turns amber in color (should also smell nutty), remove it from the stove and pour into a different container to cool.
(7) When butter has reached room temperature, add vanilla, powdered sugar, maple syrup, and cream, and whip until smooth and creamy.
(8) Spread frosting over cooled cake, and top with chopped nuts.
(9) Enjoy!

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