This banana cake recipe is a hit with my family. One ripe banana was added to the cream cheese frosting, and confectioners’ sugar was dusted on top.
| Prep Time: | 45 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 9 hrs 35 mins |
| Total Time: | 10 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 96 |
| Yield: | 8 dozen |
Ingredients
- 8 ounces almond paste
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 4 large eggs, separated
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 6 drops red food coloring
- 6 drops green food coloring
- ¼ cup seedless red raspberry jam
- ¼ cup apricot jam
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line three 9×13-inch baking pans with parchment paper.
- Break almond paste apart with a fork in a large bowl. Add butter, sugar, and egg yolks; beat with an electric mixer until mixture is fluffy and smooth. Stir in flour to form a dough.
- Beat egg whites in a glass, metal, or ceramic bowl until stiff peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into dough until combined. Divide dough into 3 equal portions. Mix one portion with red food coloring, and one with green food coloring. Spread each portion into one of the prepared baking pans.
- Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned, about 8 to 10 minutes. Carefully remove from pan and remove parchment paper; cool completely on wire racks.
- Place green layer onto a piece of plastic wrap large enough to wrap all three layers. Spread green layer with raspberry jam and top with uncolored layer. Spread with apricot jam and top with pink layer. Transfer layers to a baking sheet and enclose with plastic wrap. Place a heavy pan or cutting board on top of wrapped layers to compress. Chill in the refrigerator 8 hours, or overnight.
- Remove plastic wrap. Top with melted chocolate; refrigerate for 1 hour or until chocolate is firm. Slice into small 1-inch squares to serve.
Reviews
I thought they came out delicious! My only issue is spreading the mixture because it is so thick and sticky. Other than that, they are pretty simple to make. I have made them twice now and everyone loves them!
I usually love allrecipes but this one was awful I’m not sure what I did wrong with it but it was SO GREASY!! And after I took it out the oven and let it sit until cool I went to put it on the cling wrap and it all CRUMBLED in my hands. I’m currently waiting the 8 hours to do the next step but as of right now DONT WASTE YOUR TIME.
I wasn’t impressed with this recipe. I added extra almond extract like others had suggested and I didn’t think it added enough flavor. The layers also needed more jam and more food coloring. I added extra drops of food coloring gel, again as others had suggested, and the dough was still very light after it was baked. I just don’t think these tasted very authentic.
I’ve made these cookies 5 or 6 times, each time with a different recipe. (couldnt find one that wasnt dry). THIS ONE, is NOT dry. Its the best one yet and a definite keeper. Slight changes I made were, grating the almond paste and adding a half a tsp of almond extract. For the chocolate top, I use Dolce Frutta (strawberry shell dip). Its thin, spreads easily and you can cut through it with a hot knife without breaking. Some reviews have noted its a wasted step to separate eggs. I think this is a necessary step that keeps the cookies moist.
Love this recipe. The cookies are nice and moist, i did follow other reviewers suggestions and added almond extract. Highly recommend. Delicious
Delicious! Everybody loved them! Replaced 2 sticks of butter with 2 sticks of coconut butter for a dairy free version and they tasted delicious! I also used 8 oz of almond filling instead of paste and 1 teaspoon of almond extract like other reviewers recommended.
I’ve made these cookies for over 30 years. I agree with another reviewer, almond filling works better than almond paste. Also, the tsp of almond extract makes the taste much better. However, I feel the separating of the eggs makes a lighter cake. Also, I skip the raspberry presever and only use apricot preserves. I personally think that the raspberry takes away from the almond taste and the apricot compliments it better. Most bakeries in my area (NYC region) use both preserves. I’ve never had them from a bakery with only raspberry preserves. But, it’s a minor point and to your taste. I’ve made them without cooling the cookies in the refridgerator. The only difference is that the layers stay together better, but if pressed for time, you don’t need to cool in the fridge.
I have made these cookies for several years. To get a really smooth almond paste (no lumps in the dough) I put it in the food processor with the butter, add the sugar and then put in a mixing bowl to add the eggs, extract, flour and egg whites. I have also made them for Easter with pink, blue and yellow food color.
Time consuming, but a great recipe! Made these for my husband – he’s from upstate NY and loved eating these back home. I’ve made these both with separating the egg whites and just using the whole egg, and haven’t noticed a difference, so that seems like an unnecessary step. I use almost a whole jar of raspberry jam (no apricot), and have used the tips given on adding in 2 Tbsp butter and 1/4 c heavy cream into the chocolate. I wish I could get the cake a little fluffier, but otherwise, this recipe is perfect!
Everyone loved my rainbow cookies. I’ve always wanted to make them but I thought they were much more difficult. Rave reviews from the entire family a definite must have for next year and years after that.
Great recipe but It definitely needs some adjusting. I read through the reviews and it was really helpful, I made the necessary changes and I’m very pleased! I’m from NY and I love rainbow cookies! As one reviewer had suggested I did add almond filling, however, please note, it does not have the same flavor as almond paste, I don’t feel it is an adequate substitution- rainbow cookies should Have a marzipan taste to them. I added 6oz of almond filling in addition to 8oz of almond paste (as one reviewer suggested, grate the paste so it distributes evenly within the batter, this will avoid clumps). I also added about 1 Tbsp of Almond extract to batter. I did not separate the eggs, not sure separating them is a necessary step as I prefer my rainbow cookies to be a little denser, just like they are in NY bakeries. I separated the dough and weighed it to make sure I had equal amounts for each layer. I highly recommend spraying your 9×13 pan with Pam then lining with parchment paper and spreading dough directly onto parchment paper. The dough is the consistency of a thick icing, it is manageable and not as bad as these reviews make it seem. The Layers are very thin so an even spread is important. Watch your bake time and check your dough, this cooks very fast because of how thin it is. As one reviewer suggested, I omitted the apricot jam as it’s traditionally made with raspberry jam. I placed saranwrap on a baking tray then assembled the layers and jam on top of saranwrap,
These tasted amazing and looked awesome, but there were a few problems that can easily be fixed! One of them is that My almond paste was very firm and I do not think that I mashed it up enough. I ended up with little clumps if almond paste in my cakes, and that can be fixed by just mashing it up more. Maybe with your hands? Another problem was that the colors weren’t very vibrant. this is obviously a pretty easy fix, and I think in all I put about 12 drops of food coloring in each of the separate portions of batter. My last (sort of) problem was that the recipe said to refrigerate the layers and there is no room in my refrigerator! If you don’t either, instead I just put it in the freezer for a lot less time. I am pretty sure that all that stuff has to do with look or texture though. They did taste AMAZING and I will make them again, because of that!!!
Perfect!
Mine came out beautiful! Just a few tips, I was having trouble whipping whites into peaks, so I went ahead and used them anyways, and it didn’t create any problems. Also, I did not have pans of the same size, so I just approximated some similar sized circles and then cut off edges of cake into a square after pressing and then covered with chocolate 🙂 Worked fine. I ended up with perfect shaped cookies.
I’ve made these twice. They are much better then the bakery!! Everyone loves them. I put a little extra raspberry jam in there because that’s what I like! Came out great. Very easy to make too. Can’t go wrong
Amazing!!!
I had an issue spreading the batter in the pans. After splitting it into thirds, I had JUST enough to fit a THIN layer of batter in each 9×13 pan. This is my first time ever attempting to make these. I would double the recipe if I ever make again.
Added 1/2 Teaspoon Almond extract, but otherwise kept to the recipe. Delicious!
I made these for a company holiday party and they were a HUGE hit! Everyone loved them and kept coming back for more asking if I made them! I used the recommendation of adding almond extract, otherwise everything was the same!
followed the recipe to a T, ended up not having enough batter for the 3 layers with 9×13 pans and they came out super thin despite beating the egg whites properly and not overmixing anything If I ever follow this recipe again I’d double everything
I listened to a reviewer and did NOT separate my eggs glad I did! Doesn’t make a difference. I just beat it on high for a few minutes after adding whole eggs. Didn’t have almond paste I substituted 1 cup almond flour and 1/3 c. Powdered sugar instead of 8 oz paste Added 1 tsp Almond extract to batter. Turned out great!!