Pinspiration in the Kitchen- Banana Bars with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

You have a couple of over ripe bananas sitting on the counter.  What do you typically do?  Make banana bread, of course.  But there has to be something else you can do with over ripe bananas, right?  I have asked myself this question again and again.  But usually I end up sticking with a traditional banana bread with walnuts or maybe chocolate chips.  Or I will make Once Upon a Chef's super decadent Chocolate Banana Bread.  


I stumbled across a recipe for Banana Bars with Cinnamon Cream Frosting on Pinterest the other day, and knew I had to give it a try.  Pretty much anything with any kind of cream cheese frosting is a winner in this house. ;)  Click the link for the recipe- http://cookingclassy.blogspot.com/2012/01/banana-bars-with-cinnamon-cream-cheese.html

The recipe called to mix all ingredients (both dry & wet) all together in a large bowl.  I felt like I would be committing some cardinal baking sin doing that, so I did mix the dry and wet ingredients separate & then combined.  I had an extra ripe banana, so I added it in along with about a 1/2 cup extra of flour.  I also threw in a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter.  


I actually brought this to a family barbecue and it was huge hit.  The kids especially seemed to love it- a few of them even went back for seconds.  By the end of the barbecue, only 2 small pieces of the 13x9 inch pan were left.  This is definitely an alternative for banana bread that I will be making again in the very near future.


To go directly to this pin for repinning, click here- 
http://pinterest.com/pin/203295370649518591/