Scrumptious Creations: Banana Split Cake

There are times in life when you just need to indulge. In our health driven society, it's hard to justify sugar, cake, chocolate, or any sweet dessert. I am a health conscious individual, don't get me wrong, but once in a while there's nothing like having a slice (it can be small) of some delicious, non-healthy item. As long as you're not consuming it daily, a treat now and then can be good for the soul and make the heart happy…figuratively speaking. As my mother would always say "Everything in moderation." I agree.

My husband, Hayden, and I were heading to a pie social dessert night potluck (sounds sinful doesn't it? yum!) and needed to make something to contribute. I, of course, was going to fall on my very relying and delicious apple crisp. It's always a hit and easy to make. We had just recently been to a friends birthday party, however, where we tasted the most amazing banana split cake. Thus, my husband suggested we try it for the evening. There's nothing more intimidating then trying something new then taking it out where a vast multitude of people will be sampling it. But I was up for the challenge, as was Hayden. We searched for recipes online and found one to our liking, and then modified it further. Hayden is very ingenuitive when it comes to food, so I knew we could try it and our modifications would not only work, they would be delicious. Especially because it was a no bake dessert. Bonus!

The ingredients are:
about 2 1/4 cup oreo cookie crumbs (you can buy the boxed crumbs)
6 Tbsp butter, melted
1 pkg (250g) of cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp cold milk
Cool Whip whipped topping, thawed
Bananas
Strawberries
Pineapple
Magic Shell chocolate sauce

We opted for an oreo cookie crust over a graham cracker crust, because who doesn't like oreo cookies!
We used 2 1/4 cups of the crumbs, but next time I think we'll use the whole box to make the base thicker, therefore needing more butter as well.

Mix the cookie crumbs with the melted butter and then press into a 9x13 pan. Refrigerate until you're ready to add the other layers.

Beat together the cream cheese, sugar and milk until well blended. Then stir in or beat in about 1 cup of Cool Whip. Spread this on top of the cookie crumb base.

Add a layer of sliced bananas. (We were quite meticulous with our fruit layering as we wanted everyone to get all three fruits in every piece, if not every bite.)

Add a thin layer of Cool Whip

Add a layer of fresh sliced strawberries

Add a thin layer of Cool Whip

Add a layer of fresh sliced pineapple

Top with a thin layer of Cool Whip

Sprinkle with some small, chopped strawberry pieces and then drizzle with the Magic Shell chocolate sauce. We put it in the freezer to harden the chocolate.

Keep refrigerated until ready to consume. It's also a good idea to put it in the freezer for about 1/2 hr to an hour before cutting, to help firm everything up.

This was our first attempt and already we are figuring out how we would modify it further to create an even more delicious collision of flavours. perhaps adding another layer of the cream cheese mixture in there somewhere. No matter, the cake was a HUGE hit at the pie social and we hardly had anything to bring home. It was a good thing we indulged at the event :)

Thus, I highly recommend trying this recipe out. It took mere minutes to make and required no baking (always a bonus and especially nice during the hot summer months). Allow yourself to indulge, just a teeny bit, and sit back and enjoy.

till next time...