These Frosted Banana Bars are a favorite family recipe from long ago first discovered and made by my sister, Carole.  My son loves anything banana bread like, and so I knew he would love these.  They are a mix between banana bread and banana cake and while the frosting is technically optional, (they are good just by themselves too as a snacking bar), the frosting makes them more decadently delicious.  My hubby is a huge maple frosting fan, so I often make the frosting with maple instead of vanilla.  Maple extract is much stronger than vanilla, so if you do maple, do 1 tsp, if you do vanilla, do 2 tsp.

Ingredients:

Bars:

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1-1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt

Instructions: 

1. For bars:  Grease a 15×10 pan.  
2. In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter. 
3. Beat in eggs until nice and fluffy, then beat in the bananas and vanilla.  
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and combine well. 
6. Pour into greased pan.
7. Bake at 350⁰ for 20-25 minutes, (until golden brown and a toothpick in the center comes out clean.)  
8. Cool before frosting.
9. For Frosting:  Cream the butter and cream cheese in a mixing bowl.  Gradually add powdered sugar and vanilla.  Beat well and then spread over the cooled bars.