Banana Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients:

Banana Cake

230g ripe bananas, mashed

250g (2 cups and 1 tbsp) Western Family all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon Western Family baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon Western Family ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

113g (1/2 cup) Western Family unsalted butter, room temp

100g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar

1/4 cup (50g) packed light or dark brown sugar

2 Western Family large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons Western Family pure vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

Chocolate Hazelnut Swiss Meringue Buttercream

3 large egg whites

200g (1 cup) granulated sugar

340g (1 ½ cup) Western Family unsalted butter, room temp (340g)

¼ cup Western Family Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

1 cup mini eggs, for garnish

Direction:

Banana Cake

Preheat oven to 350F and line a half sheet pan with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, mash bananas until smooth. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugars on medium speed until smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time and mix until combined. Beat in vanilla and mashed bananas.

With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients in two additions alternating with the buttermilk and mixing each addition just until incorporated. The batter will have a few lumps. Do not overmix.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 – 28 minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven and set on a wire rack. Allow to cool completely before assembling.

Chocolate Hazelnut Swiss Meringue Buttercream

In a large metal bowl, add the egg whites and granulated sugar. Whisk them together briefly by hand until just combined.

Fill a sauce pan with a few inches of water and bring it to a simmer.  Place the bowl with the egg white mixture on top to create a double-boiler. The water should be kept at a simmer and should not touch the bottom of the bowl.  While stirring, heat the egg white mixture until the sugar should be dissolved.

Once the egg white mixture is hot, pour the egg mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. 

Fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the mixture on high speed for 8 to 10 minutes. 

The meringue should hold shiny, medium-stiff peaks.

Switch to a paddle attachment. With the mixer on medium-low, add in the butter - a couple tablespoons at a time. Once the butter has been mixed in, add the chocolate hazelnut spread

Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed and mix until smooth and spreadable, 3 to 5 minutes.

Assembly

Using a round cookie cutter with the same diameter as the jar you’re using, punch out cake rounds, you should get 12.

Place one cake round to the bottom of the jar, pipe in a layer of buttercream. Sprinkle chopped mini eggs. Layer second round of cake and repeat previous steps two more times. Each cake jar should have three cake layers and three layers of buttercream. Top with whole mini eggs as garnish.

Repeat with the remaining three jars.