In celebration of Mother’s Day, I teamed up with the guys from Miele to create this Banana & Vanilla Layer Cake which is a ‘reinvention’ of a recipe from my childhood - my Mum’s banana cake. This recipe is very nostalgic to me as it’s the first cake I ever learnt to make as a child.
In this version, I’ve added fresh banana slices and layered them between creamy cheese frosting. It’s almost a banana layer cake crossed with a banana pudding. Yum! I’ve decorated the cake with some fresh flowers and foliage (to celebrate Mother’s Day) but you could also serve the cake as it is or with some freshly grated lemon zest.
Enjoy the recipe and Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there!
Ingredients
1 hour 
8-10 Banana Cake
- 125g butter, softened
- 175g raw sugar
- 1 tbs vanilla bean paste or extract
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- Zest 1 lemon
- 2 eggs
- 4 large overripe bananas, roughly mashed
- 315 g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp bi carb soda
- ½ tsp salt flakes
- 200g Greek yoghurt
Frosting
- 750g cream cheese
- 100g unsalted butter, softened
- 125g pure icing sugar, sifted
- 1 tbs vanilla paste
- 1/8 tsp salt flakes
To Assemble
- 2 bananas, sliced into 5mm slices
- Zest of ½ lemon
- Fresh flowers and foliage, optional
Method
Banana Cake
- Preheat your oven to 180C / 350F.
- Grease and line the base and sides of two 20cm cake tins with baking paper.
- Place the butter in a bowl of a freestanding mixer with paddle attachment. Beat butter until smooth; followed by the sugar. Continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla, spices, lemon zest and eggs one at a time until combined.
- Next, add in the bananas and beat until combined.
- Remove from the mixer and using a spatula, fold through the flour, bi carb soda and yoghurt.
- Divide the cake batter between the two cake tins. Smooth the mixture with a spatula creating a slight dip in the centre. This will prevent the cake from rising too much in the centre when baking.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Remove the cakes from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
- Remove cakes from the tins and place onto a cake rack to cool completely. Cakes can be cooled quickly in the refrigerator or freezer.
Frosting
- Place butter in a bowl of a freestanding mixer with paddle attachment and beat until smooth.
- Add the cream cheese and continue beating until smooth.
- Gradually add icing sugar, vanilla and salt and continue beating until smooth and fluffy.
- Set aside until ready to assemble the cake.
To Assemble
- Ensure the cakes are completely cold before frosting. This will prevent any frosting disasters.
- Place one of the cakes onto a serving plate and add half of the frosting to the top. Gently smooth with a spatula or back of a spoon.
- Arrange the sliced banana to cover over the frosting. Add another spoonful of frosting on top so the bananas are in the centre. This will help secure the top layer to the bottom cake layer.
- Add the remaining frosting to the top of the cake. Using a long spatula, smooth the frosting around the sides of the cake and the top until smooth.
- Decorate the top of the cake with flowers and foliage or some lemon zest. Enjoy!
