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.