2 1/4 c. sifted cake flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. shortening (not butter)
1 c. (overflowing) mashed ripe bananas
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 c. buttermilk or sour milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease well and flour two 8 inch round by 1 1/2 inch high layer cake pans or a 13x9x2 inch baking pan.

Into large bowl of electric mixer, sift flour with baking powder, soda, salt and sugar. Add shortening, bananas and vanilla. At low speed, beat just until ingredients are combined. At medium speed, beat 2 minutes, occasionally scraping side of bowl and guiding mixture into beater with spatula. Add eggs and buttermilk. Beat 2 minutes longer.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake layers 30 to 35 minutes or until surface springs back when gently pressed with fingertip. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove from pans, cool thoroughly on wire racks.

If you only need a small amount of buttermilk and don't want to buy a whole quart, you can buy buttermilk powder - you can mix what you need and store the rest for another recipe.