let's bake banana cake! (updated)

let's bake banana cake! turned out a little lopsided, but delicious. recipe follows.

cake ingredients:
1 1/2 cups bananas, mashed, ripe
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/8 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups buttermilk (i used 1%)

frosting ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened (i used low-fat)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups icing sugar (confectioners, i presumed)
(walnuts optional for garnish)

1. Preheat oven to 275°.
2. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.
3. In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside.

mushy bananananananana!

4. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
5. In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy.

fluffy? i guess this is fluffy.

6. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla.

yep, i licked 'em.

7. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
8. Stir in banana mixture.
9. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

i baked three layers -- it was yummo. however, i wasn't sure that i liked it WITH the frosting. at first i only frosted the bottom layer. then the next morning, i thought the frosting tasted much better. so i frosted the second layer, too. we kept the third layer aside, frosting free.

10. Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist. deliciously and cake-a-liciously dewy.
11. For the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
12. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla.
13. Add icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.
14. Spread on cooled cake.
15. Sprinkle chopped walnuts over top of the frosting, if desired.

the original one-tier.
this one was more level because i used dental floss and skimmed off the top of the cake. that was seriously very yummy! so on round two, i left the top layer as-is, lopsided and all. but i did floss through halfway down layer two, in order to add another layer of frosting. so it's two tiered, but three layers:

the revised, two-tier.