Bananas for Birthday Cake

It's birthday season for my kiddo, and the inevitable birthday cake decision. We've found a local restaurant that makes a fabulous Bananas Foster Waffle, and she and I both love it. So, as I was scrolling through my saved cakes on Pinterest, this Banana Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting seemed like just the ticket.

It is all the caramelly banana goodness we had hoped. The cake is very banana bread-like in taste and texture. I didn't have lemon juice for the bananas like I thought, so I just skipped it and mashed the bananas as late in the process as I could to prevent browning. The sturdiness of the cake actually made it one of the easiest cakes I've ever done in terms in decorating. For the frosting, I used Mrs. Richardson's caramel instead of making my own. I've made caramel before, and even though it's relatively simple, I didn't need the headache of wondering whether it would seize up. I used about half a jar in the frosting and added some coarse sea salt.

This cake was easy to assemble. I used half the frosting and a nice drizzle of the caramel in the middle and then topped it with the rest of the frosting and put it in the fridge to set up a little. Just before serving I slice a banana on the top, sprinkled a few walnuts around, drizzled with some more caramel syrup, and finished with a generous sprinkle of coarse sea salt. I decided to forgo the chocolate shavings so as not to complicate things too much.

This cake was an outstanding balance of sweet and salty. The "naked" cake style of frosting meant the sweet frosting didn't overwhelm the cake flavors and steal the show. The salt of the caramel was a good foil to the sweet bananas on top. While I used walnuts because of its traditional pairing with banana, I think toasted, salted pecans might be better. It's hard for me to judge because I would always choose pecans over walnuts. Whatever you choose, this is a delicious cake that was fun to eat.