I can’t say that desserts are my passion, but I also can’t deny I love preparing sweets. I guess, of all desserts, cakes are the hardest. Nonetheless, I try and stick to simpler recipes and share with you once that I really love. Even if they look hard and impossible to be done, believe me, they most probably are manageable. If a recipe requires special skills and equipment, or has any tricky moments I would definitely mention that in the post.

So, anyway, this one is pretty straight forward – you have two extra thick banana cake layers, white chocolate frosting, white chocolate ganache and caramelized almonds for decorations.

I always recommend baking cake layers separately. This will lower the chance of breaking up the layers, while cutting them – believe me, it had happened to me many times and it’s not pleasant, especially when you realize you have to do the work twice. So, layers are pretty simple – beat batter in a large bowl then bake.

Meanwhile you can make the frosting (pretty easy too), ganache and lastly the nuts, which are of course optional, but I really love the finishing taste they give.

I prefer the “naked” or “semi-naked” cakes, as this one is, but you can go nuts with the decorations. In case you want to cover the sides of the cake with thick layer of frosting and make some flowers, you will need to double the recipe, cause these amounts are enough only for the naked option.

Continue reading for the detailed recipe and happy baking!

Ingredients for the cake layers (Adapted from Women’s Weekly):
225 grams (8 oz) butter, at room temperature
330 grams (11,5 oz) sugar
3 medium eggs, at room temperature
150 grams (5 oz) chocolate, melted, cooled to room temperature
3 large bananas, finely pureed
250 grams (9 oz) buttercream
450 grams (16 oz) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
For the chocolate frosting:
150 grams (5 oz) white chocolate
90 ml. (3 fl. oz) sweetened heavy whipping cream (*for the chocolate)
90 ml. (3 fl. oz) sweetened heavy whipping cream
For the chocolate ganache:
50 grams (1,8 oz) white chocolate
30 ml. (1 fl. oz) heavy whipping cream
For the caramelized nuts:
10 grams (0,35 oz) sugar
30 grams (1 oz) crushed almonds

Prepare the cake layers:
Preheat your oven to 150C, fan-forced (300F, fan-forced). Grease and line 2 x 6inch springform pans with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter until fluffy and light. Add eggs, one at a time, melted and cooled chocolate, bananas and buttercream, as you beat after each addition.
In another bowl combine flour and baking powder, then add to the wet mixture. Stir with a rubber spatula to combine.
Distribute the mixture between the pans and bake for about 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely.
In the meantime prepare the white chocolate frosting:
Melt chocolate and 90ml. of heavy whipping cream in a medium bowl. Set aside to cool completely and then beat with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy.
In another bowl beat the rest of the whipping cream until medium stiff peaks form. Add white chocolate mixture to the whipped cream and beat again for a minute or so. Set aside until needed (*Feel free to refrigerate the frosting if it doesn’t look too strong and thick, but keep in mind that you will need to gently stir it once in a while cause white chocolate will harden fast).
Prepare the ganache:
Melt chocolate and cream in a small bowl. Put in the fridge to cool and thicken. Keep an eye on the ganache and remove from fridge once you see it’s thickening a lot. You will need it spreadable, but not too runny. In case it thickens too much, just microwave it for 15 seconds.
To make the caramelized nuts:
In a small skillet add sugar and nuts and heat over medium-high heat. Stay close to the stove, this takes a minute, but once sugar starts to melt, it could burn in a second.
So, stir nuts and sugar until sugar melts and nuts are coated. Immediately remove from stove and pour over a piece of parchment paper. Spread them in one layer and let cool completely.
Assembling the cake:
Place first cake layer on a cake platter.
Pipe or spoon one layer of the white chocolate frosting and then place the second cake layer on top. Spread 2/3rds of the rest of the frosting over the top of the second layer, then use the rest of the frosting to cover and even out the sides.
Pour over the white chocolate ganache and sprinkle some nuts.