Recipe: Festive Flag Cake (banana cake with yogurt icing, strawberries and blueberries)

FESTIVE FLAG CAKE

FOR THE CAKE:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 6)
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
FOR THE ICING:
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup low-fat yogurt
2 tsp. vanilla
FOR DECORATING:
About 1 quart fresh strawberries, cut in half lengthwise
About 1 pint fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13x9-inch square pan with nonstick coating and set aside.

In a bowl, cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the 2 teaspoons vanilla and bananas.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. To the egg mixture, add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk as follows: 1/3 flour mixture, 1/2 cup buttermilk, 1/3 flour mixture, the remaining 1/2 cup buttermilk and the remaining 1/3 flour mixture. Beat well after each addition. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.

Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake's center comes out clean. Let cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely on a rack before frosting it.

To make icing, combine confectioners' sugar, yogurt and 2 teaspoons vanilla and mix until smooth. Spread over cake.

Decorate the cake with a flag design. Arrange blueberries side by side in upper left corner of cake, creating a 4x5-inch rectangle. For red stripes, arrange strawberries end to end in rows, with pointed ends facing the right side of the cake.

Makes 1 (13x9-inch) cake, 20 servings
Adapted from source: American Institute for Cancer Research