banana almond yogurt cake with sweet cream cheese frosting
as ya'll know, the fellas come over ever thursday's for guys night. they take turns ordering food each night, but i usually have some type of treat waiting for them when they get here. one of the guys justin, loves snickerdoodles cookies, which is usually his request. the rest of the guys just want dessert and can careless what it is! i like to use them as guinea pigs on dessert recipes for po' man meals. i could not really think of what to make them. i didn't really feel like making cookies, well, i really never 'feel' like cookies. so cookies were out of the question. as usual, i started thinking about things we have around the house. for fruit, we had some apples and bananas. for nuts, all we had were almonds. icing? i have cream cheese! yes! let's do a banana almond cake with cream cheese icing. so i said, 'fellas, hold on to your butts and pray it works!' and it surely did. it was not like the doughy texture of banana nut bread, but very light and moist. it really reminded me of carrot cake. the boys loved it and so did i. and the kids. 🙂
ingredients:
- 3 ripe bananas - mashed
- 1 cup vanilla yogurt -
- 1/2 cup milk -
- 1 teaspoon almond extract -
- 1 teaspoon vanilla -
- 1 teaspoon vinegar -
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda -
- 3 cups flour -
- 1/2 teaspoon salt -
- 3/4 cup butter -
- 2 cups sugar -
- 3 eggs -
- 1/2 cup almonds, divided - chopped
- - for cream cheese frosting
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese - room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar -
- 1 teaspoon vanilla -
instructions:
- preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- in a bowl, mash the bananas. once they are mashed, add in the vanilla yogurt, milk, extracts and vinegar. mix together and set aside.
- in another small bowl, add the flour, baking soda and salt. set aside.
- in a large bowl, add the butter and sugar. beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. blend in one egg at a time. add in the dry ingredients alternatively with the banana yogurt mixture. blend until just combined. please do not over mix. fold in about 3/4 of the chopped almonds (save remaining almonds for garnish). pour into a 3, 8 inch cake pans and bake in the preheated oven for about 25 to 35 minutes.
- in a bowl, cream the cream cheese until light and fluffy. add in the powdered sugar and vanilla. if icing is too thick for your taste, drizzle in about 1/2 teaspoon of milk at a time until desired consistency.
- once the cake has cooled, ice with cream cheese icing. garnish with reserved chopped almonds.
frugal points:
- i used my grandmother's trick of using vinegar to make a soft, tender cake. others feel more comfortable using lemon juice. vinegar is less expensive, plus i had it in my pantry.
- almond extract can be pricey. feel free to use vanilla instead.
- same goes with nuts. sometimes, they come with a big price tag. choose what is on sale to use in the cake, what is already in your pantry or eliminate them all together.
- do not forget about freezing bananas. when they are close to going bad, remove the skin and freeze them in freezer bags. they would go perfect in a recipe like this one.
don't like almonds? try pecans or walnuts.
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