BANANA PUDDING POUND CAKE

• Please see post above for substitutions and recommendations

FOR THE CAKE

• Preheat oven to 325° F. (If you haven’t calibrated your oven recently, I recommend you calibrate your oven once a year. For info read: How to Calibrate your Oven.)
• Coat a 10-inch, 12-cup tube pan or bundt pan with solid vegetable shortening and sugar or Wilton cake release spray.
• In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the heavy whipping cream until stiff peak stage. Spoon it into another bowl and set aside to *add to the mixture later.
• In the same bowl of an electric mixer (bowl 1 electric mixer), beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Add granulated sugar and beat on medium speed until the mixture is fluffy. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides. Mix again.
• Remove 2 tablespoons of the instant pudding mix and reserve it for the glaze. Combine the remaining instant pudding, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in another bowl (bowl 2). Whisk to combine. Set aside.
• In yet another bowl (bowl 3) crack your eggs and add the banana extract and mashed bananas. Slowly mix this into your butter and cream cheese mixture. (bowl 1)
• Now, slowly add the flour mixture (bowl 2) to the butter/cream cheese mixture (bowl 1).
• Stop the mixer, scrape the sides, and mix again.
• By hand with a large spatula, *fold in the whipped cream. (This is the whipped cream that is the very first thing that you mixed.) This makes a lot of batter. Take your time and carefully fold until the whipped cream is mixed well.
• Spoon into your prepared pan and smooth the top.
• Bake for 1 hour 30 to 45 minutes at 325°F. Don’t open the door for the first hour that it cooks. Test with a wooden pick the cake is done with no crumbs or dry crumbs remaining on the pick when inserted into the center of the cake. (As well, you can test with a thermometer, the internal temperature of the cake will be 200°F when fully cooked.)
• Allow cake to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before inverting on a tray to cool completely. Wait until the cake is completely cool before frosting or glazing.

FOR THE GLAZE

• Mix the ½ cup heavy cream, ¾ cup powdered sugar, 2 Tablespoons Amaretto, and the 2 tablespoons of the instant pudding mix that you reserved. Whisk until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth. You can add more cream if needed.
• Spoon over your cooled cake allow the glaze to drip down the sides.
• For this cake, I recommend waiting until you’re ready to serve before garnishing it. Garnish with crushed vanilla wafers, banana slices, and mint.
• I recommend removing banana slices from the top before storing if you decorated the cake with them. Store in an airtight cake taker in the refrigerator. It will keep in the refrigerator for 5 to 7 days. See notes above for freezing.