Using this recipe for banana BREAD would be great - pretty perfect as is (I like that the recipe calls for butter vs. oil - bravo!) For a banana CAKE, however, I think a more tender, soft texture is in order. To accomplish this, I substituted cake flour in place of all-purpose flour. And you just gotta have vanilla extract in a cake; I added 1 teaspoon. And, dependent on the size of the bananas you've got, "4 ripe bananas" can yield anywhere from 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups of the stuff. My 4 bananas amounted to 1 1/3 cups and this quantity worked fine. I frosted the cake with a cream cheese frosting and pressed the walnuts onto the sides of the cake. It cut beautifully and my guests (and I) loved it.

This cake was a nice one, especially for Fall. It's somewhat like apple pie sitting atop cheesecake! Since the recipe didn't specify the type of apple to use, I used Golden Delicious and it worked out well. The only change I made to the recipe was dotting the apple layer with bits of butter to keep the apples moist. And, to those of you who found the crust (which was very tasty, by the way!) to stick to the pan, I believe this is because the apple juices drip throughout the cake and crust; the extra sugary sweetness causes the crust to stick a bit. A nice recipe - my family enjoyed it and I will likely make again.