Crowd-pleasing banana cake with cream cheese icing

When you find yourself in charge of baking for a big, hungry crowd of people there’s one cake that is bound to please absolutely everyone, and this is it. With a super simple and light banana base topped off with a creamy, flavourful icing – you just can’t go wrong when you whip this one up.

The biggest tip for ensuring the batter is perfectly smooth before popping in the oven is to make sure your bananas are overripe enough to be easily mashed together. But if you’re looking to add a bit more into the mix, try topping the icing off with some crushed walnuts or gently stirring some chocolate chips into the batter for a sweeter flavour!

Ingredients

• Melted butter, to grease
• 125g butter, at room temperature
• 315g (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar
• 1 1/4 cups mashed overripe banana (about 2 large bananas)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100ml buttermilk
• 225g (1 1/2 cups) self-raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 banana, extra, to decorate
• Fresh lemon juice, to brush
  Icing
• 125g cream cheese, at room temperature
• 50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 230g (1 1/2 cups) icing sugar mixture
• 1 1/2 teaspoons buttermilk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease round 20cm (base measurement) cake pan with melted butter. Line base and side with non-stick baking paper. Add butter, sugar, banana, eggs and vanilla to bowl of food processor. Process for 2 minutes or until well combined. Add buttermilk. Process until combined. Add flour and bicarbonate of soda. Process until just combined (careful not to over-mix).
2. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Gently shake pan to settle mixture. Bake in oven for 1 hour or until skewer inserted into centre comes out clean. Set aside in pan for 10 minutes to cool slightly. Turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.
3. Meanwhile, for icing, with electric beaters, beat cream cheese and butter together in bowl until well combined. Add icing sugar. Beat until well combined. Add buttermilk and beat until mixture is pale and creamy. Spread icing on top of cake. Serve.