Tillie's Banana Cake

Ingredients

• 2 cup cake or all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup shortening
• 1½ cup sugar
• 2 eggs, thoroughly beaten
• 1 tsp Amoretti® Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla W.S.
• 2 tbsp Amoretti® Banana Compound
• ¼ cup buttermilk (see TIPS)
• 1 cup mashed bananas

• 1 pint heavy whipping cream (very cold!)
• 4 tbsp powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp Amoretti® Vanilla Madagascar Bourbon W.S.
• 2 tsp unflavored gelatin powder (such as Knox)
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 firm bananas, sliced, for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350℉. Prepare your pans by lining the bottoms of two round cake pans with parchment paper, greasing the sides with oil or butter.
2. In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream together shortening and sugar.
4. Add in the (well beaten) eggs, Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla, and Banana Compound. Mix together until you reach a creamy consistency.
5. Add the dry ingredients, please be careful to not over-mix.
6. Now, alternate adding some buttermilk, then bananas, blending as you go until there is nothing more to add.
7. Divide the batter between the two pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
8. Let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then turn out the layers and let cool on wire racks. The cake layers must be completely cool before frosting!

9. For the frosting, you can just make whipped cream and slather it on, but we recommend making a stabilized whipped cream – it’ll hold up longer and better support the sliced bananas.
10. In a large metal bowl, stir together the cold heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla.
11. Place the bowl of cream and whisks of electric mixer in fridge for 5-10 minutes to make everything cold.
12. Meanwhile, combine powderer gelatin and water in a small bowl. Once water has been fully soaked up by the gelatin (about 5 minutes), microwave the mixture for about 10-20 seconds. It should become a thick, hot liquid. Stir well and let sit at room temperature.
13. Remove cream bowl from fridge and beat on medium-high until soft peaks start forming.
14. Still beating the cream, steadily pour the (slightly warm) liquid gelatin into the bowl.
15. Beat until you reach stiff peaks, and be sure to use within 30 minutes (after which smooth spreading will become difficult!).

16. Spread frosting on top of one layer (adding some sliced bananas here is tasty) then put the top layer on and frost the entire cake.
17. Garnish with sliced bananas, serve, and enjoy! Store leftovers (if there are any!) in the refrigerator.

• Grandmother Tillie used a LOT of bowls! For this recipe, you will be using 4 bowls – no, 6 (you’ll need a couple more for the frosting)… Better make sure your dishwasher is empty before embarking on the Banana Cake adventure!
• If you don't have buttermilk, make sour milk by adding 1 tbsp lemon juice to ¼ cup milk and let it curdle slightly before using.