Banana Caramel Bars

The amount of bananas I buy every week is kind of ridiculous, but I look after three two year olds who all could happily eat bananas all day long, however quite often I end up with a few over ripe bananas and that's when I go looking for new recipes to bake.  I found the recipe for these bars over at Yammie's Noshery and while the original recipe has walnuts on top of the frosting I decided to add them into the cake batter for texture.

 2 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup mashed bananas
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 and grease a 9x13 pan

In a large bowl, add the flour, baking soda and powder, salt and softened butter.  Mix together well. 

In a small bowl, mix together the egg, mashed banana, buttermilk and vanilla.  Add to the flour mixture and mix in the walnuts.  Pour into greased pan and bake for 25 minutes.

Caramel Frosting:
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp corn syrup
2 tbsp heavy cream
2 1/2 cups icing sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

In a small pan over medium heat, combine the corn syrup and sugar, heat until caramel coloured. Add the heavy cream and half the butter, salt and vanilla, mix together and let cool.

Once cool, beat the caramel in the bowl of a stand mixer, adding the remaining butter a tablespoon at a time.  Slowly add the icing sugar followed by the milk and beat until smooth. 

Frost the cake with the caramel icing and cut into bars.

2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick)
1 egg
1 cup mashed bananas (3 to 4 very ripe bananas)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Read more at http://www.yammiesnoshery.com/2013/05/aunt-pats-banana-cake-with-caramel.html#8yU91A3YCsS0zXhO.9