Banana Pudding Cake

One of my favorite aspects of blogging is being creative and transforming something that is ordinary. Whether its reinventing a classic dessert, repurposing an everyday item, or adding an unexpected ingredient, I love experimenting and adding my own twist. I recently watched an episode of Trisha Yearwood's Food Network show where she did just that with a Southern staple - banana pudding. I was so intrigued by the recipe, that I knew I had to try it myself! Trisha transforms the classic dessert into a cake, while maintaining all of the important elements - bananas, vanilla pudding, and vanilla wafers.

Both the vanilla wafers and the bananas are included in the cake which contribute to its rich flavor and moist texture. In fact the vanilla wafers replace the flour, I'm definitely trying that in other cake recipes! The final element of banana pudding is vanilla pudding. In the cake recipe, the pudding serves as the filling between the two thin layers of cake. Trisha's original recipe calls for a homemade pudding, but I used an instant box mix.

I've made a couple recipes lately that call for powdered sugar to be dusted on top of the dessert, such as my bananas and brown sugar french toast. Every time I have a recipe that calls for that I wish that powdered sugar was sold in a shaker dispenser at my local grocery instead of a box. My go to buttercream recipe calls for a whole box and I hate to open one just for finishing a dessert! After saying this multiple times, I finally decided just to make my own powdered sugar dispenser by repurposing a small Parmesan cheese dispenser. It seals nicely so I will have powdered sugar on hand the next time I need it to dust a dessert with powdered sugar; no more partially used boxes laying around!

 Here's the delicious recipe, I'm making it a second time this week to share with friends!

Banana Pudding Cake ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 11 oz box vanilla wafers (crushed)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large box vanilla pudding 
• 3 cups milk
• Powdered Sugar

Banana Pudding Cake instructions

• Preheat oven to 325F
• Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy (~5 mins)
• Mix in eggs one at a time and completely combine
• Alternate mixing in buttermilk and crushed vanilla wafers, starting and ending with buttermilk
• Mix in bananas and vanilla until completely combined
• Prepare two 9 in pans with cooking spray
• Split cake batter in between the two pans
• Bake around 50-55 mins, or until a toothpick comes out clean
• Cool 10 mins and then pop cakes out of pan
• Once cakes have completely cooled, prepare pudding per mix (3 cups cold milk whisked into pudding mix and set 5 mins)
• Once pudding has set, fill pudding in between cake layers - use as much pudding as desired (I used about 1/2 of the pudding)
• Refrigerate at least 30 mins
• Sprinkle powdered sugar on top of cake before serving