St. Patty’s Day is a great time of year to make this rich and delicious cake. Banana Cake is such a year-round wonderfully pleasing cake to bake.

When it’s topped with your favorite buttercream icing with a bit of whiskey caramel in it, even better. This recipe puts the classic banana cake on a pedestal. I chose to garnish this cake with a naked layer of Swiss meringue. You can decorate your cake any way you like, perhaps making a bit more of the caramel-added buttercream.

Make this dessert easy for yourself. Bake the cake layers a day or so before you are going to serve it. Refrigerate the layers, covered with plastic wrap. When you are ready to serve, make your buttercream fresh. This cake is actually delicious room temperature, cool or right out of the fridge.

Rich Banana Cake with Whiskey Swiss Meringue

2¼ cups of cake flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

½ teaspoon of baking soda

¼ teaspoon of salt

3 overripe bananas, mashed

3 large eggs at room temperature

1 1/3 cups of granulated sugar

1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature

¼ cup of canola oil

½ cup of buttermilk at room temperature

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sift together all of your dry ingredients. Cream your butter, oil and sugar on medium high for about two minutes. Add in your eggs, one at a time. Beat until the eggs are incorporated.

Mix together your bananas, vanilla and buttermilk. Set aside.

With your stand-up mixer on low, starting with your dry ingredients and ending with your dry ingredients, combine all well, turning off your mixer to scrape the bowl as needed. Divide the cake batter into 2 buttered and lined 8-inch or 9-inch cake pans. Either size pans will work for this recipe.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes, depending on what cake pans you used. Cool the cake in the pans for 10 minutes and then invert to remove each layer from the pan. Cool on a baking rack.

Decorate with your favorite buttercream, incorporating a little of the whiskey caramel to the buttercream.

Whiskey Caramel

1 cup of granulated sugar

½ cup of heavy cream

4 tablespoons of unsalted butter

2 tablespoons of whiskey

3 tablespoons of water

½ teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon of salt

In a medium saucepan, add your sugar and your water. Heat over medium high heat. Cook until the mixture turns a dark amber color. Be careful not to burn.

Remove from the heat. Slowly add in your butter and whisk. Slowly pour in your cream and place back over the heat. Heat over low heat, whisking so that the sugar is dissolved and that there are no lumps.

Take the pan off the heat and add in the remainder of the ingredients. Store in a jar and refrigerate. Use within two weeks.