PREP THE COMPONENTS (A DAY IN ADVANCE)
For the wafers and cake, prep a half batch of the Homemade Lady Finger recipe from the Kitchen McCabe.
Pour 2/3 cup of batter each into two 4″ round cake pans, prepped with butter and flour.
Pour the remaining batter into a piping bag fitted with a 1/2″ round tip.
Pipe half-dollar size rounds onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silpat.
Using a fine mesh sieve, sprinkle confectioners sugar over wafers, only, not cake batter.
In a 400 degree oven, bake cakes for about 15 minutes, until just cooked through, and wafers for about 8-10 minutes, until lightly golden brown; once cooled, store wafers and cakes in ziplocks or airtight container overnight.
Make my basic vanilla custard recipe; store covered in fridge overnight.
Make a half-batch of my go-to cream cheese frosting recipe. Find that recipe here, but omit the candy caps. Prep frosting in a piping bag fitted with a star tip.
Make a vanilla simple syrup by combining 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup boiling water and 1 tsp vanilla; stir until dissolved and, once cooled, store in sealed container in fridge overnight.
ASSEMBLE THE CAKE
Using a cake leveler, cut cake layers to desired height. I made my layers just 1″ tall.
Using a pastry brush, coat each sponge layer with a generous amount of simple syrup until layers are soaked through.
Place bottom layer on cake board and pipe cream cheese frosting in tight stars around edge to create a wall, ensuring there aren’t any gaps between frosting and cake for pastry cream to seep out.
Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of pastry cream into center of bottom cake layer and spread to fill layer within cream cheese frosting.
Top with chopped banana slices.
Place top cake layer over bananas.
Cover top layer with piped cream cheese frosting, homemade wafers, wafer crumbs and fresh banana, and serve immediately.*
*To keep bananas from browning for longer display time, brush lightly with lemon, orange or pineapple juice.
