Yes, we have no bananas, but we do have banana muffins and cake!!

"Yes, we have no bananas

We have-a no bananas today.
We've string beans, and onions
Cabbages, and scallions,
And all sorts of fruit and say
We have an old fashioned to-mah-to
A Long Island po-tah-to
But yes, we have no bananas.
We have no bananas today."
~ by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn

My day didn't start out with no bananas. Instead, I had an abundance of very ripe bananas that needed using! We eat a lot of bananas, and we almost never have this many that are going to ruin, if not used. What to do with all those bananas?

Because he was off today, Larry and I were able to start our day with nice long walk. On the way home from walking, we noticed the Warren Construction Crew was working in our neighborhood. This is a great group of Christian men who built our house many years ago and spent most of last summer working here on some remodeling. They were guinea pigs for lots of my muffin recipes! Larry said if I'd fix the guys some muffins, he'd run them down there. That took care of a one part of the bananas.

Later, Larry mentioned that a cake for work tomorrow would be nice to help celebrate the 4th. If you got to work on a holiday week-end, you might as well have some good eats! A banana cake would be a great way to use the rest of the bananas!!

Here are the recipes I used:

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 c. self-rising flour
1 1/2 c. mashed very ripe bananas
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
6 tablespoons melted butter
1 c. chocolate chips, coated with a tablespoon of flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray muffin pan with cooking spray. Combine flour and sugar in a mixing bowl. Combine bananas, eggs, butter and vanilla in a small bowl.

Make a well in the flour mixture. Stir in wet ingredients just until combined; stir in chocolate chips. Spoon into prepared muffin cups. Bake until golden brown, about 10 - 15 minutes.

Yummy Banana Cake

Yummy Banana Cake

This made a bit too much batter for my pan. I poured the extra into a cake pan and made a small cake for us, too!! It was really good!!

1 1/2 cups bananas, mashed, ripe
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/8 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Garnish:

chopped nuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla.

Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.

Stir in banana mixture.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist.

For the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.

Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Add icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.

Spread on cooled cake.

Sprinkle chopped nuts over top of the frosting, if desired.