Banananananananana sheet cake

Without the attitude.  Or mostly anyhow.  I haven't actually made this one.  It's in my big sis's handwriting, but something tells me this is actually our Aunt D's recipe.  Who knows? Recipes wander throughout most of my mom's side of the family.

Oh, and the reason I haven't made this one is that I already have a really spectacular recipe for a banana cake.  Which I make into 9" rounds and layer with cream cheese frosting, along with some sliced bananas in with the frosting holding the two layers together.  It's easier than this one--well, at least one fewer ingredient in the cake itself.  If you're really really nice to me I might give you that one too, but I have no idea regarding its provenance. I know it's not from the family, but beyond that, not a clue.  So here's the family edition. Just not mine.  Try it out, tell me if you like it.  Tell me what went wrong, what went right.  So far as I know, at least three members of the extended family make it on a regular basis.

Glad to know bananas are finally working for big sis.  I remember some really horrific banana bread failures over the years.  But she didn't give up, and as a result, here you go.

1 & 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temp.
2 eggs
1/2 pint sour cream
3 ripe bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

Brief intermission.  You should know this already. That's real butter. Regular sour cream, not low fat, non-fat, or any of those other abominations. Real vanilla. Go out and buy the darn $0.50 box of baking soda as the one you've had in the cupboard for two years--aside from now having picked up the smell of the kitty litter box--is probably totally flat. It's called soda for a reason. If it doesn't fizz when you mistakenly drop some in the sink full of dishes? It's dead, Jim. And as for the flour: you wash out your flour canister in between uses, right? Or if you don't use your flour up within a month or so, you store it in the fridge or freezer, right?  It does go bad, you know. If you're saving energy by filling your freezer up with giant bottles of water, just put your flour in there. It doesn't need to thaw when you use it and it has the same energy-saving effect as the water. If you neither have washed out your flour canister or your flour has been sitting next to the stove unused for the past three months, do us all the favor and go pick up the $2.50 10lb bag of flour along with the baking soda, throw out the old stuff, stick the storage canister in the dishwasher (or donate it to a thrift store) and put the new flour in the freezer.  Or fridge.

Back to the recipe.

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream butter and sugar together til fluffy. Beat in eggs, sour cream, bananas and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix. Grease and flour a sheet cake pan (purportedly 15X10X1": aka a cookie sheet with sides or a jelly roll pan). Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool and frost.

Oh, bravo, my sister comes through with saving the day. Good thing I turned the recipe card over. Cream cheese frosting. Although it looks a little weird to me in terms of ingredient choice. (this is NOT my cream cheese frosting).  Plus, there's too much vagueness happening here.  So give it a shot, you can always fix the too much powdered sugar with the milk.

1/2 c butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 & 1/2 -2 lbs powdered sugar
1 ripe banana, mashed
1/2 t lemon juice
milk to consistency

This is where she stopped.  No instructions.  I'll give you the benefit of my years of experience with a) cream cheese frosting and b) family recipes.

Beat the butter and cream cheese together til smooth: absolutely no lumps.  This is when the giant mixers come in handy.  Don't try to do this by hand unless you have somebody with some really well-developed delts around.  Since those are in short supply in our family, we rely on mechanicals. Mix in the powdered sugar: this is going to be really, really stiff if I'm even close to the mark on this one.  Then beat in the mashed banana and the lemon juice. (Or skip the lemon juice.  Wouldn't it just curdle the dairy? I don't understand this at all.)  Then--about tablespoon at a time--pour in the milk while beating until the frosting is a spreadable consistency.

If you're not serving this at work, go ahead and substitute Christmas Mix (rum & brandy) for the lemon juice.  Bet that will improve this by leaps and bounds.  And it won't curdle the dairy, either.