Name: Banana Sheet Cake with Orange Cream Frosting
Ingredients: ¼ cup sifted cake flour; 2 teaspoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon baking soda; ⅓ teaspoon salt; ¼ cup dairy sour cream; 2 cups mashed ripe bananas; 1 cup unsalted butter softened; 1½ cups sugar; 3 eggs

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Banana Sheet Cake with Orange Cream Frosting

Oven350°F

Time30 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Generously grease jelly roll pan.
Sift dry ingredients together onto wax paper.
In small bowl stir together sour cream and banana.

Make the batter

In large bowl of electric mixer beat together butter, sugar and eggs for 3 minutes.
Stir flour mixture alternately with banana mixture into butter mixture.
Beat by hand after each addition until batter is smooth.
Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top with spatula.

Bake and finish

Bake in preheated 350°F oven for 30 minutes.
Cool completely on a wire rack then top with frosting.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

889Calories

38 gProtein

19 gFat

141 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Banana	1 medium (118g)	105
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Dairy	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Banana + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,536 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Mashed ripe bananas: Add moisture and natural sweetness to the crumb.
Cake flour: Provides the starch structure that holds the cake's crumb together.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour cream and bananas to lift the batter.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking to help the cake rise.
Unsalted butter: Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor to the crumb.

The step that matters

Beating the butter, sugar and eggs. Beating for 3 minutes traps air in the creamed fat and sugar, which gives the batter lift. Adding the dry and banana mixtures alternately, with a smooth batter after each addition, keeps the emulsion stable and the texture even.

Swap the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream, butter, sugar, egg):

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Coconutfits about as well
Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream, butter, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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Banana Sheet Cake with Orange Cream Frosting