Hello– My grandma Rose was a farm girl, one of 11 children, whose parents immigrated from Switzerland. When I was small, she lived in a tiny house, surrounded by tree roses, flower beds, grape arbors, corn stalks, rhubarb, and a variety of fruit trees. And chickens. It was a treat to help Grandma feed the chickens– not to mention her Sunday chicken dinners.
And our Grandma was famous for her apple pies and banana bread– So here is her banana bread recipe changed a bit into banana cake with the welcome addition of cream cheese frosting. Thank you Grandma Rose.
BANANA CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
Cake:
2 very ripe bananas
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped*
Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature
4 oz. cream cheese (1/2 block)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 box powdered sugar (2 cups)
1-2 tab. milk
Candied Walnuts (garnish):
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
Smash the the bananas in a large in a large mixing bowl. Then stir in the sugar, eggs and oil. Next mix in the flour, baking powder, salt and walnuts.
Spoon the batter into a 9″ or 10″ cake pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake it up in at 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes until the cake is browned and a small knife inserted comes out clean.
Let the cake cool before you frost it.
To make the frosting, use an electric mixer to beat together the butter, cream cheese and vanilla. Then beat in the powdered sugar. If the frosting seems too thick, add 1 tablespoon milk. Beat it up and if still a little dry, add the 2nd tablespoon of milk. Beat again.
To candy the walnuts, drop the 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts into a heavy skillet. Cook over medium heat until the sugar melts, turns to a a golden caramel and coats the nuts. Stir it the whole time so the sugar will not burn. Turn the nuts out onto a piece of foil on your counter. Let them cool completely (just a couple minutes).
Now– spread the frosting on the cake, arrange the nuts on top. It’s ready to serve.
The Thankful Heart 
This looks absolutely delicious!
Peeked at your blog Carlos– those Canneles look like they are straight from a French pastry shop! Your baking is beautiful.
Thank you very much!
Hi Rhonda 🙂
This lovely Banana Cake is like a happy ray of sun shine ☀️!!! I love the cream cheese frosting with the candied walnuts too. Thanks for sharing the lovely memories of your dear Grandmother Rose too. Happy Leap Day!!
Thanks Melody– I am remembering your grandmother stories… Funny I told my 4th graders about leap day today and they were incredulous! xo
What a beautiful story of your Grandma! You drew such a vivid picture of the cabin, the roses, and the other growing plants…I can almost see it! The recipe sounds and looks wonderful!
thanks Daisy– I do miss my grandmother. She lived to be 102 and I have so many memories of her… xo friend.
WOW – grandma rose – sounds like it was fun visiting her – the banana bread was a US recipe though, didn’t she hand down any Swiss ones to her american family members? Love grandmother stories..
Hi Poli! No, she was a pretty American cook. Her parents came here with 9 children and my grandma and her brother George were born on the farm. That would be lovely to have her old family “rosti” recipe or some beautiful cake from Switzerland. Hope you are well, blog-friend. xo
Hi Rhonda – yes the canola oil in the recipe gave her away 🙂 – wow they arrived with 9 kids and had a farm in the US, amazing. Just think of the logistics of moving country with 9 kids…..People forget that not that many years ago Switzerland was not a particularly wealthy country..
Hey Poli– well, the canola oil is actually my swerving from her recipe. She used Crisco shortening. Heavy duty. But the rest of the recipe has been made year after year by mom, me and now my kids. Hope you’re having a beautiful week blog-buddy.xo
Ah Rhonda, Crisco shortening would also have been a give away :)! I have yet to discover a swiss recipe that isn’t based on butter – must be all the cows here. The only exceptions are Italian recipes that are based on olive oil 🙂
What’s better than butter? Happy baking there Poli!
Ah yes indeed 🙂 Happy baking to you too Poli
I don’t bake nearly as often as I should, but your mouth-watering pictures are so inspiring I may change my ways. Grandma Rose sounds lovely!
Hey Marcia– I wouldn’t bake as much as I do, but we have a big group of friends (ladies) here every Monday night to pray and read the Bible together— and on Thursday evenings about 30 young adults come. So I bake for them. Actually, two 63 year old empty nesters don’t need all this baking!! hahaha. Happy weekend ahead Marcia. xo
How lucky you are to have such willing victims (I mean visitors lol) to share your baked goods with! I love baking but really have to try to limit it or all the counters and cupboards would be full. Such a lovely cake and I can almost picture your Grandma Rose’s place: I’m glad you had so much time. 🙂
My Grandmother’s quickbreads used often used shortening, too. The older ones lard…then shortening, then margarine, the new ones oil. 🙂 I can just about guess what era the recipes were from by the ingredients. She didn’t live on a farm, though, so butter would have been a more costly item.
That’s interesting! Dating recipes by their fat source. Happy baking…
You, too! 🙂
I love cream cheese frosting. Definitely a beautiful addition to your Grandma’s moist banana cake (and those candied walnuts, yum! Walnuts are pretty much my favourite nut… on par with almonds). My late paternal grandma was a terrible cook, mostly as she hated cooking. She’d feed us frozen pizzas or sausages and mash when we went over, other than the odd bread and butter pudding (true to her English heritage haha). My mum’s mother was a wonderful cook but she’s in a nursing home now. I don’t think she wrote down any of her recipes but I’m inspired to ask mum about it now. It’s such a treasure to pass recipes down through the generations! xx
I don’t have so many of my grandmother’s recipes either. I think she’ cooked mostly as she had learned, not from written recipes. But I’ve made little recipe notebooks for my kids when they launched into their first place– and Christmas cookie cookbooks for them filled with old photos of Christmas as they were growing up. It’s fun to see them sitting on their bookshelf or to hear they’ve made the same Grandma’s banana bread. You have a great archive of your recipes i you blog!! They can be passed down and out around the world. That’s amazing isn’t it? Happy week ahead… xo