Banana Cake with Sour Cream Frosting

I spent this past weekend in chilly New York City for an enjoyable few days with some college friends. Robbie has had the good fortune of staying close with a group of guys since Freshman year (all of us were in the same Freshman dorm) and I was grateful to join them at their mini-reunion weekend. It was filled with delicious food, a frigid-but-still-energizing city, and a lot of laughs. Unfortunately, it ended on a somewhat sour note because of the Duke vs. St. John’s basketball game of which the ending ruined my first trip to Madison Square Garden. But I am not bitter.

Why you ask? Because we ate here (and sat next to Matt Dillon!) and here for some delicious duck and dessert (respectively), here for a classic brunch, here for a cozy dinner, here for some hand-pulled noodles (which were recently featured in the NY Times!), here for some BBQ (and an unbelievably long wait) and here for some pre-game noshes. Somewhere between all of that we managed to get some hot chocolate here and here. Did I mention I like food? A lot? Bless my heart . . . good thing we were only there a few days.

But, alas, I left the city that provided charming snow flurries each night and solid celebrity sightings to return to North Carolina and have it be 55 degrees when we landed. That was certainly a warm welcome!

I will try to make some dishes in the next few weeks that are inspired by some of the delicious foods I ate while in the City (I sound like Whitney Port) but, for now, I leave you with some delicious Banana Cake with Sour Cream Frosting. I have already told you about Robbie’s and my tendency to have too many bananas so when we ended up with five that needed to be eaten in two days, I had to find a remedy. Enjoy!

Banana Cake with Sour Cream Frosting
10 – 12 servings
From Bon Appetit Fast and Fresh

2 cups all purpose flour
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ c sugar
2 large eggs
1 ¼ c sour cream divided
1 1/3 c mashed ripe bananas (about 3 large)
2 tbs fresh lemon juice

1 8-oz package cream cheese, room temperature
2/3 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter and flour 13 x 9 x 2 inch metal baking pan. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and 1 ½ c sugar in large bowl until blended. Add eggs and beat until fluffy. Mix in ¾ c sour cream, bananas, and lemon juice. Add dry ingredients to banana mixture and beat until well blended. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake cake untic top is golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool completely on rack.

Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and remaining ½ cup sour cream in large bowl until well blended. Spread frosting over cooled cake.