Banana Layer Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Bananas cut down some of the fat in this threelayer cake, so you can save the calories for the frosting. The bananas must be very ripe—somewhat soft and with many, many brown blotches on the skin. Buy them several days before you intend to make this cake and leave them out on the counter to ripen.

10 tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) cool unsalted butter, cut into chunks, plus additional for greasing the pans

2 cups cake fl our, plus additional for dusting the pans

1 teaspoon baking powder

1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 very ripe large bananas, mashed in a small bowl with a fork

1⁄2 cup milk (regular, low-fat, or fat-free)

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

• Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly butter three 8- inch round cake pans; dust them with fl our, shaking out the excess after ascertaining that they’re well coated.
• Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
• Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until light, pale yellow, and quite airy, about 4 minutes.
• Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure each is thoroughly incorporated into the batter before adding the next. Beat in the vanilla, then beat in the mashed bananas until smooth.
• Turn off the beaters, add half the fl our mixture, and beat at low speed just until moistened. Add the milk and beat until well combined. Beat in the remaining flour for just a few seconds at low speed, just until moistened.
• Scrape down and remove the beaters. Turn the batter a few times with a rubber spatula to make sure the fl our is all moistened, then scrape the batter evenly into the three pans. Rap the pans a few times against your work surface to get rid of any air pockets.
• Bake until lightly browned at the edges and a little puffed, until a toothpick or a cake tester inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 28 minutes.
• To cool and unmold: Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes, then unmold the cakes by running a knife around the pans’ inner edge, inverting them onto a cutting board, removing the baking pans, and reinverting the cakes onto the wire rack. Cool completely before icing.
• To store: Do not ice. Wrap the cooled layers individually in plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 2 days before icing.
• To ice:. Frost no more than 6 hours before serving.

Makes one 8-inch three-layer cake