Ingredients
**Banana Cake:**
- – 2 1/4 cups mashed bananas
- – 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- – 4.5 cups all-purpose flour
- – 2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- – 1 teaspoon salt
- – 3 cups white sugar
- – 1 1/8 cup butter (18 tablespoons)
- – 5 eggs
- – 2 tablespoons vanilla bean paste or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- – 1 teaspoon almond extract
- – 2 1/4 cups buttermilk
**Chocolate Ganache Icing:**
- – 8 ounces dark chocolate (70%)
- – 6 tablespoons butter
- – 1 1/4 cups sugar
- – 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
- – 2 teaspoons vanilla or 1.5 tablespoons vanilla bean paste
- – Pinch of salt
Instructions
**Banana Cake:**
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Mash ripe bananas with lemon juice and set aside.
- In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter for 3-5 minutes until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla and almond extract.
- On low speed, alternate adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.
- Mix in the mashed bananas until just combined. Pour the batter into 3 greased 9” round cake pans.
- Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pans for 10-15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
**Chocolate Ganache:**
- Place chocolate, butter, salt, and vanilla in a bowl.
- In a small pan, heat the cream and sugar over medium heat until hot but not boiling.
- Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate mixture and let sit for 1 minute. Stir until smooth.
- Chill the ganache in the fridge until it thickens but is still spreadable.
**Assembly:**
- Once the cake layers are completely cool, spread the ganache over each layer and stack them.
- Cover the entire cake with the remaining ganache.
- Let the cake set before serving.