Six Years Old Today! Birthday Banana Split Cake!

Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to Paris Pastry! Six years old today. Six years ago I wrote my very first blog post! I think I must have baked more than 500 recipes for this blog in the past 6 years. While I've slowed things down just a little bit the last few years, the early days were marked with 2 or 3 recipes every week, and only a handful of visitors.

Thinking about that time makes my heart full, as I've encountered so many nice messages and people through this blog. Thank you ALL! I've been longing to go all out again and make a dazzling, show-stopping birthday cake, and here it is! I spotted the recipe on a food blog, and I immediately knew this was going to be perfect for PLP's birthday!

It took some time to make the time. I baked the banana cake a day before, and did the rest today. The cake has a chocolate mouse filling, and a banana buttercream frosting! Made with tons of love and adoration, I think it turned out pretty well. What do you think? I give it a 4.5 out of 5!









Banana Split Mousse Cake: The Kitchen McCabe

*I'm only going to post the recipe from the banana cake and frosting. I used a store-bought chocolate mousse to save time. If you want to take a look at the original recipe, see the link above.

Ingredients:
• 2¾ C. Flour
• 1 tablespoon Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• 12 tablespoons Butter, room temperature
• 2½ C. Sugar
• 6 Eggs
• 1 C. + 2 tablespoons Buttermilk
• 1⅓ C. Pureed Ripe Banana

Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease and flour two 8" round cake pans.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Mix in the banana puree.
- Mix in half of the flour mixture. Mix in half of the buttermilk. Mix in the rest of the flour, and then add in the remaining buttermilk, mixing until just combined.
- Divide batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove cakes from the pans after 10 minutes.
- Let cool on a wire rack.




Banana Buttercream Frosting:

Ingredients:
• 2 sticks Butter(8 oz), softened
• 4 C. Powdered Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Banana Extract
• Yellow Food Color
• 3-4 tablespoons Heavy Cream

Instructions:
- Place the butter in a stand mixer and beat until creamy. Slowly add in the powdered sugar. Mixture will be thick. Add the vanilla and yellow food coloring(use as much color as desired). Slowly beat in the heavy cream, 1 tablespoon at a time, starting with 3 tablespoons. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat the frosting on medium/high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add more cream to thin frosting, if needed.



As busy as I am, I never forget a blogoversary!
Here are the countdown recipes on previous birthdays:

6th blogoversary: Banana Split Mousse Cake




5th blogoversary: Birthday Cupcakes




4th blogoversary: Luscious Chocolate Raspberry Cake




3rd blogoversary: Blackberry Meringue Cream Pots




2nd blogoversary: Marzipan-filled Almond Cupcakes




1st blogoversary: Chocolate Éclairs




This year's dessert definitely takes the cake!
Although I'm lusting after those chocolate éclairs again...