Name: Bananas Foster Cake Recipe
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 18
Cuisine: Southern
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups butter, softened; 3 cups sugar; 6 large eggs; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 5 cups all-purpose flour; 1 tablespoon baking powder; 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 2 1/2 cups whole milk; 3/4 cup dark brown sugar; 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream; 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons butter, softened and divided; 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 4 cups confectioners' sugar; 1/4 cup butter; 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar; 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 2 tablespoons dark rum; 2 tablespoons praline liqueur; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 3 large ripe bananas, peeled and sliced; 1 cup pecan halves

This Bananas Foster Cake has three layers of cinnamon-flavored cake, a caramel cream cheese frosting, and a scrumptious bananas foster topping. This New Orleans-style cake is a real showstopper.

I saw a Bananas Foster Cake in a Southern Lady magazine and knew I had to try it. I’ve been baking a lot of banana desserts lately including Banana Pudding Bars and Banana Pudding Cupcakes. Maybe because since I entered my 40s last year, I feel like I am going bananas.

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Whether it’s a birthday or holiday celebration, this cake is sure to impress. The cake portion turned out well. It was fairly dense, but not at all dry. If I were to make another Bananas Foster Cake, I would probably add some mashed bananas to the cake part to carry the banana flavor throughout the dessert.

Caramel Icing

The Caramel Icing made a huge amount and while it didn’t have a very strong caramel flavor, it was delicious. I should have spread more icing between the cake layers. I am the worst judge when it comes to using frosting. I’m always worried that I’m going to run out and not have enough to cover the top and sides. I shouldn’t have worried though because in this case the recipe makes what seems like 2 gallons of icing. I ended up with so much frosting on the sides and top, my cake looked a little like a ball!

I added a little extra sugar to the icing because I didn’t feel like it was sweet enough. The icing was a little on the thin side in consistency and after I got half way through icing the cake, I popped it in the fridge for a little while to firm it up before I finished the frosting job.

Topping

The topping was sinful, supremely sweet and boozy. The recipe calls for both dark rum and praline liqueur, but says to use just rum if you don’t have any praline liqueur. Which I didn’t. But I did have some macadamia nut liqueur which I decided to use since macadamia nuts go so well with bananas.

The topping was my favorite part of the cake and I excitedly piled it high on top of the cake. Which I soon regretted. It started to drip down the edges of the cake and over the side of the cake stand. 🙁 Lots of curse words were said. I must have gone through half a roll of paper towels while I was trying to take pictures. I could not for the life of me get it to stop flowing over the edges and dripping down onto my placemat.

I immediately wished I had not chosen the cake stand with the ribbon around it because now it is completely coated in bananas foster topping. This cake definitely needs to go on a cake stand with a lip around it. Oh well. Live and learn.

Recipe Tips

In use salted butter. If you use unsalted butter, just add a little more salt.
Be sure to measure the flour correctly or your cake may turn out dry. First fluffy it up some in the bag or container. Then gently scoop it with a large spoon into a dry measuring cup. Overfill it slightly and then run the back of a knife across the top to get rid of excess.