Sara Lee Banana Cake recipe?

[Wendy DeBord]

Banana extract or emulsion is good.....and you know how I make my icing tan?

I make cinnamon roll icing once a week and I add quite a bit o' vanilla. Just the color of the vanilla gives you a nice tannish hue.

I honestly think the best icing for that banana cake would have a little cream cheese in it.

I do think Annie is correct. I've had that cake Sara Lee cake many times over the years and I feel pretty certain there wasn't banana flavoring of any sort in the frosting. As I recall it was a very soft cream cheese frosting and I attribute the off white color to vanilla and real butter as mentioned..........and in real life the frosting wasn't tan, only off white, as most frostings with real butter are.

[scott123]

Abra, from the sara lee website, it looks like this cake is still being sold, just not retail. There has to be some cafeteria (school/business) in your area that's selling this stuff. Make some calls.

If you can get a piece of cake in your hand, it'll take all the guessing out of the equation.

[JSkilling]

If you look at the ingredient list on the site mentioned you can see what they have in this cake and frosting. There is no cream cheese listed or flavoring other than vanillin, which is giving the off color most likely. I'm betting on a simple shortening buttercream with vanilla flavoring. But I personally wouldn't recreate that and would use a cream cheese frosting on this!

[Abra]

You guys are wonderful!

[achevres]

The fact sheet on the cake says "butter cream icing," made with shortening (which I wouldn't use, either)

The end of the ingredient list says: "...Natural Flavor, Vanillin (Artificial Flavor), Annatto Extract (Color)." The natural flavor is banana (they say it). Annatto is also known as "achiote." It looks like they use a tiny amount of that. It is also what gives yellow cheddar its color.

The proportions of flavor and color that are in the cake vs the icing will be better judged with an actual piece of the cake on hand .

Sara Lee Banana Cake Fact Sheet

[Abra]

The fact sheet is a bit scary, although not surprising. I'm thinking the Wendy cake, made with cake flour, and a butter/powdered sugar frosting with a little banana flavoring (and possibly a little starch) is as close as I'm going to come. Even if I were willing to use shortening, this client wouldn't touch it. In fact, I've sent her the link to the fact sheet and she's bound to be upset that she likes it so much, shortening notwithstanding.

Don't you hate it when something tastes good until you learn that it contains an ingredient that you'd "never" touch?

[chefpeon]

Don't you hate it when something tastes good until you learn that it contains an ingredient that you'd "never" touch?

Yeah, especially when you find out that in commercially made foods, there is an "allowable" percentage of insect parts that you may be munching on......

[JSkilling]

Oh my God! One day I was in the local supermarket in my high end neighborhood and the Channel 7 News Reporter accosts me as I pick up my strawberry yogurt. And she proceeds to tell me just how many insect parts were allowable in that!! Yuck.... I just told her it seemed like added protein...

[TrishCT]

As we all do, I think a simple buttercream icing with butter rather than shortening is definitely best.

Today I decided to travel across town to check out a Super Food Mart for Spanish Bar Cake so I could see that cake's icing ingredient list...but they were out.

Edited February 24, 2005 by TrishCT (log)

[takomabaker]

I got involved in this a little late, but in a pastry class a couple years back we were experimenting with French and Italian buttercreams. I had the misfortune of making it to the flavorings shelf after my classmates had already raided it and ended up with a choice of only banana or peanut butter. I chose the banana. When I completed my project, the buttercream tasted nostalgically like... you guessed it... the Sara Lee banana cakes that my grandmother used to buy. The flavoring I was using was this:

http://www.auiswisscatalogue.com/store/mer...D/P_FLAV/011007

Does it taste like ripe, tropical bananas? No. Does it taste like a Sara Lee banana cake? Darn tootin'!

I don't remember if the consistency was the same as the Sara Lee (my memory is not THAT good), but if it helps I used it to flavor an Italian buttercream.

[FoodMan]

For my birthday this past Saturday, I baked the banana cake following the recipe posted by Wendy since I had several overripe bananas. I had two variations in my recipe though. First I used buttermilk instead of sour cream since I did not have any. Second, I mixed a handful of bittersweet chocolate chips in the batter. The house smelled wonderful while it baked and the cake alone was moist and delicious. I loved the chcocolate chips in there and recommend you try it as well.

For the frosting I decided to try the Kahlua flavor following someone’s suggestion upthread. So I whipped 2 cups cream to soft peaks, added half a cup or so of confectioners sugar and maybe ¼ cup kahlua and kept whipping to stiff peaks. I have to tell you, the combination was out of this world. My skeptical wife declared it one of the best cakes I’ve made, and I have made many.

Here is a picture of the finished product:

[Abra]

Hey, y'all want to know something awesome? The power of eG never ceases to amaze me. A chef from Sara Lee evidently read this thread, and emailed, offering to comp me a case of banana cake for my poor deprived client. I was skeptical at first, but I swear to the sugar goddess, 20 pounds of banana cake arrived at my house this week! My client is going to think I'm God herself!

[Tepee]

Zounds!!!!!!!!

If I mention my fav chocolate in eG, what do you think are my chances of a Chocolate Angel granting my wish?

[rooftop1000]

Not too late right....

this article in the NY Times claims they do still make the Banana Cake for the Green Bay and Peoria markets

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/dining/2...html?ref=dining

tracey

[infernooo]

Hope this helps!

"Here's the one I like, someone posted it on the old CH (thank you friend!). To me it most closely replicates the Sara Lee Cake I grew up loving (so flame me) and can't find anymore, though I use a simple butter, not cream cheese, icing. I am making it today in fact, it is a great way to use up a bunch of frozen overripe bananas and a quantity of buttermilk. I love the freezer trick (goes directly from oven to freezer)."

"I used to love Sara Lee Banana Cake when I was growing up. This recipe, from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book, is just like it...but fresher and lighter. Yum!"

http://www.project-insomnia.com/colleen/ki...bananacake.html

Edited March 6, 2007 by infernooo (log)

[highchef]

Oh mi god, TrishCt! i remember that Spanish Bar cake too! It came in a loaf shape,didn't it? We used to have an A&P 2 blocks from our house and my mom always bought that cake! That brings back so many memories. Thank you for bringing that up.

←

Do you think we could figure out this cake next? I loved the icing, Dad used to get bent because I'd eat half of it off the top, and pick out the raisens. I'd love a piece of this cake today, raisens and all!

[Owl242]

I have some questions about your Banana Cake recipe.

1. How long do you bake Wendy's Secret Banana Cake (chefperson)

2.What is the recipe for this Italian buttercream I do appreate the link to the flavoring but need the RIGHT Italian buttercream recipe. (takomabaker)

Thanks for any help you can give me for these questions