High-Altitude Banana Cake – Besting Sara Lee

Back in the 1970s, at the dawn of the processed food revolution, mother would buy Sara Lee Banana Cake, which came frozen in an aluminum pan with the lift-off lid. We kids couldn’t wait for it to defrost, so we’d just eat it cold without a thought of the scary preservatives we’d come to learn of years later. Health risks aside, I never could forget how delicious Sara Lee’s perhaps over-produced cake was and have found a few healthy alternatives in the decades since. One of my favorites is this high-altitude banana cake recipe that tastes so good it will have you besting Sara Lee!

In my searching, I’ve been drawn to recipes for best banana cake. Not the more common banana bread, but instead the light, delicious cake with cream cheese frosting. Is it healthier than other cakes because it has 3 bananas in it, is loaded with protein, Vitamin C, Vitamin B-6, potassium, magnesium and enough carbs to fuel your day? Maybe, but, healthy or not, it just tastes darn good and is anything but a processed food! It’s also a great way to use up your quickly browning bananas in adherence to the Food for the Ages motto: be resourceful and use up everything you have in the fridge. Good food takes time to make. Convenience food is convenient but has its costs in the unknown ingredients that make up the long chemical names on the contents label. With this recipe, you’ll know the purity of each and every ingredient, and you’ll feel better about it when you see how great it tastes.

A lot of people think it’s hard to bake at high altitude, but you can bake to perfection at high altitude by following certain rules. My recipe is for altitudes that are between  3,500 and 10,000 feet and is from the book by Patricia Kendall, Editor, Colorado State University Cooperative Extension High Altitude Baking. Here is an excerpt from her book:

I recommend this slim tome–it’s only 190 pages but packed with great recipes and tips–because my results have always been outstanding using Kendall’s recipes. Not only baking, but the author also provides high-altitude tips on canning, cooking, syrup or candy making, jelly making, deep-fat frying and the like.

To make it gluten-free, simply use a combination of your flours of choice: rice, spelt, gram, etc.

High Altitude Banana Cake

Makes Two 9-inch Layer Cakes or One 9 x 13-inch Cake

A light, fine-textured cake with many frosting options.

• 2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
• 1 1/3 cups sugar (I used 1 1/4 cups for 9,150 ft.)
• 3/4 teaspoon double acting baking powder (1/2 tsp 9,150 ft.)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 teaspoon orange rind, dried
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 2/3 cup buttermilk, divided (3/4 cup at 9,150 ft.)
• 3 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 large eggs, (3 large eggs for 9,150 ft.)
• 2/3 cups walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (Set it at 375 if you are baking at 9,150 ft.). Grease and flour cake pans of our choice. Mix together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, orange rind, and salt into a large bowl. Add oil, almond extract, half of the buttermilk and the mashed bananas. Beat for one minute. Add eggs and the remaining buttermilk. Beat for two minutes more. Fold in walnuts, if desired. Pour batter into pans.

Bake for 35-45 minutes and remove cakes from oven and cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pan and finish cooling on a wire rack. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 stick of butter, softened

1, 8 oz. brick of cream cheese

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Combine all, being careful not to over beat. Spread on cooled cake.