Banana Cake with Speculoos Buttercream

Photo and Recipe By: goudamonster

Serves 14

Moist brown butter banana cake topped with creamy cookie butter frosting.

Ingredients

For the cake:

1. 1 1/2 cups mashed banana
2. 2 tsp lemon juice
3. 2 tsp vanilla
4. 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
5. 3 cups cake flour
6. 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
7. 1/4 tsp salt
8. 1 tsp cinnamon
9. 1 stick butter, browned
10. 1 stick butter, softened
11. 1 cup white sugar
12. 1 cup brown sugar
13. 4 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer combined with 6 tablespoons warm water (or three eggs)

For the frosting:

1. 3/4 cup creamy Speculoos spread
2. 1 stick unsalted butter
3. 3 tablespoons milk
4. 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used double strength vanilla)
5. 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 275F. Prep 2 8-inch cake pans by spritzing them with a little cooking spray and lining with a round of parchment paper trimmed to fit the bottom. Spritz the parchment paper with a little cooking spray as well.
2. In a medium bowl mix together the mashed banana, lemon juice, 2 teaspoons of vanilla, and buttermilk.
3. In a separate bowl whisk together cake flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
4. In stand mixer cream together white and brown sugars with the cooled browned butter and softened unsalted butter until light and fluffy. Whip in the egg replacer.
5. Add banana mixture to the sugar and butter, mix until smooth and well combined.
6. Add the dry mixture to the wet in thirds, mixing lightly until just combined. For the last third fold the dry ingredients in gently with a spatula to avoid over-mixing. This will help keep the cake nice and fluffy.
7. Divide batter between the two prepared pans and bake for 1-1 1/2 hours or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Everyone's oven is a little different; my cake was done at 1 hour and 17 minutes.
8. Remove cakes from oven and transfer immediately to the freezer to chill for 45 minutes.
9. While the cakes are chilling, whip together the Speculoos spread, unsalted butter, milk, and vanilla. When well combined add in the powdered sugar and mix on high speed until light and fluffy.
10. Remove cake from freezer and apply frosting.

Notes

1. We felt like this cake would be amazing as a four layer cake. If you want to do this simply slice each 8-inch cake in half horizontally and double the Speculoos frosting portion of the recipe.
2. Crushed up ginger snap cookies make an excellent garnish for the cake as well - a nice bit of extra texture and the spiciness goes well with the frosting.