Carrot Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

T: "I've had a lot of cake in my life, but this cake takes the cake."

While it's not too often that I delve into cake baking, when I stumbled across this recipe, I knew I had to give it a try. With carrots from our latest CSA and ripe bananas begging to be turned into the next masterpiece, this banana carrot cake with cream cheese frosting was calling my name. T was not kidding. This is a seriously tasty piece of cake!

Before I go any further...drum roll please...

CSA WEEK FOUR: the haul

Raspberries

Tomatoes

Potatoes

Zucchini

Summer Squash

Carrots

Red Onion

Yellow Onion

Green Beans

Kale

Beets

Pepper

Kohlrabi

Dill

Oregano

Basil

Step One: Gather the ingredients.

Step Two: Shred the carrots, whisk the dry ingredients together, mash the bananas with the wet ingredients.

Step Three: Butter and flour a loaf pan. Combine all ingredients and pour into loaf pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 55 minutes. Meanwhile, make frosting.

Step Four: Cool completely on a wire rack, then frost and sprinkle with chopped walnuts.

Doesn't that frosting look absolutely decadent?

Recipe slightly adapted from Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice

CARROT BANANA CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING | Yield: 1 loaf pan | Total Time 1 hr. 15 min.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 C all purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp table salt

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/4 C oil

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 C sugar

1 C mashed ripe bananas (about 3)

1 1/2 C firmly packed grated carrots

1/3 C golden raisins

FROSTING:

4 oz light cream cheese, at room temperature

4 oz (1 stick) butter, at room temperature 

2 C confectioners sugar

1/4 C chopped walnuts, for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a loaf pan and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Use a whisk to sift together.

In a separate, smaller bowl, mix together the eggs, oil, vanilla, sugar and mashed bananas. Add the wet ingredients to the larger dry ingredient bowl, and mix to combine.

Use a food processor or cheese grater to grate the carrots. Fold in grated carrots and raisins to the batter mixture until just combined. Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake 55 min. Check at 55 minutes for doneness. Cook up to an additional 15 minutes or until a cake tester in the center comes out clean (makeshift a cake tester using a kabob skewer or toothpick). Cool on a wire rack. NOTE: If you plan to serve on a cake platter, turn cake out onto wire rack and cool completely before frosting.

FROSTING:

Combine cream cheese and butter. Use a beater on medium speed for 2 minutes before adding the confectioners sugar. Beat on medium speed for an additional 4-5 minutes until thick and fluffy. Load the frosting onto the top of the carrot cake and sprinkle with walnuts.

The best news...if you have any leftovers (lucky you) this cake will stay in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Do you have a favorite cake recipe?