Welcome to the Mardi Gras edition of Holiday Recipe Club! Interested in finding out more about the club, or want to join the fun? Contact me here!
Mardi Gras is the ultimate celebration.
A day of final sins (so to speak) before the fasting for lent.
Many people choose to participate in lent, others do it for religious reasons, and others simply love Mardi Gras celebrations (can you blame them?).
What ever you decide to do, it needs to be done with cake. Especially if that cake has 2 flavors!
The required ingredients for this post were either bananas, bourbon, or andouille sausage. I chose to go with bananas.
They are one of my favorite fruits, and New Orleans is the home of bananas foster!
But, this cake is great because you can choose any 2 flavors you like. Get creative!
The results of a checkerboard cake are gorgeous and so much simpler than you may think. All you need is this checkerboard cake pan set and you are on your way!
Have you ever been to Mardi Gras?
Banana Cake
Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups cake flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp + a pinch of salt
- 1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 large very ripe bananas)
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1 tsp + 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
To Make the Banana Cake:
- In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl combine the mashed bananas, buttermilk and vanilla extract.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl, then add the eggs 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Switch the mixer to low speed and alternate adding the flour mixture and banana mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
- Set aside this cake batter (in the fridge, preferably) while you make the lemon one.
Lemon Cake
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- zest of 1 organic lemon
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs + 3 large egg yolks
- 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 cup buttermilk
To Make the Lemon Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Grease and lightly flour the 3 cake pans in the checkerboard cake pan set and set them aside.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until very light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and switch the mixer to low speed. Add the eggs and yolks 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Mix in 2 tbsp lemon juice. Then alternate adding the buttermilk and flour mixture (beginning and ending with the flour mixture).
- To put the whole thing together follow the instructions on the checkerboard cake pan set. Basically using the center piece alternate the cake batters in the rings. Two of the pans will have the same pattern while the other one will be opposite. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes or until the cakes can pass the toothpick test.
- Allow to cool completely before removing from the pans. Frost with your favorite frosting – I chose a vanilla bean buttercream.
About bigfatbaker
This looks awesome!
I have often gazed at the checkerboard pan and wondered if I would ever use it enough. How often does yours come off the shelf and go on duty?
This cake is gorgeous any day of the year!
I LOVE it! I just recently made my first checkerboard cake (just vanilla and chocolate) and I love your flavor combo! Great choice for this go-round!
I think I have a lot of baking to do this weekend. Thanks for sharing!
“Happy Cooking”
What a FABULOUS cake. I love your flavor combination.
This cake looks fantastic!! I love that you combined lemon and banana!! Yum!!! Thanks for having the blog hop!!
lemon and banana..a tasty combo!! I want a HUGE slice!!
Oh my goodness this cake has to be marvelous! The combo of banana with lemon sounds wonderful! Thank you for sharing! I’ve never made a checkerboard cake, but I’m certainly wanting to now. what a fun theme this was and I loved participating for my first time!
Wow very impressive! I have never made a checkerboard cake before. And I am really liking the idea of banana and lemon together. Thanks for hosting another great holiday recipe hop!
I love that you made a checkerboard cake! So cool…and the perfect celebratory cake! Thanks for organizing another wonderful holiday blog hop~
Great cake! Love the 2 flavors together, and it looks awesome too! I need to get a pan like that!
This cake have both my favourite flavours of cake. Beautiful cake. Well done
Gorgeous bake!
I have not made a checkerboard cake, this gives me reason to try it. I bookmarked this for later. Thanks for sharing.
This cake looks so cool! I love the two different colors and the technique to make the cake! Yum
pinned! can I have that for breakfast?!