The Best Banana Cake Recipe

Why This Recipe Works:

• The bananas do the heavy lifting. Overripe bananas are of course key for intense flavor, but they’re also full of natural sugars and pectin. These help lock in moisture and create a plush, super moist crumb, without making the cake dense.
• Oil for moisture, butter for flavor. Just using butter can leave you with a dry cake, while the flavor can fall flat without it. A balance of both works great here: butter adds rich flavor and oil keeps the crumb tender longer (especially helpful if you refrigerate the cake!). There’s a reason I use this blend of the two in so many cake recipes, like my vanilla cake and chocolate cake recipe!
• Cream cheese frosting, balanced just right. Cream cheese frosting is good enough to eat on its own by the spoonful, but the tangy element of it works especially well here to counter the sweet, banana-rich base. A little acidity balances the whole bite, so it doesn’t feel too heavy! Psst: If you really want to make this cake luxurious, try my cream cheese-based brown butter frosting!)

I went through a lot of overripe bananas (and some not-so-ripe ones, in moments of desperation), and finally ended up modifying my pumpkin cake (of all things) to land on this winning banana cake recipe. It’s incredibly soft, fluffy yet moist, and topped with a smooth and creamy version of my popular cream cheese frosting (though to make things extra decadent try it with my brown butter frosting!).

What You Need:

My banana cake recipe was carefully and intentionally designed to be sweet, simple, super flavorful, and moist. When developing it, I largely drew from my pumpkin cake (of all things), and it worked wonderfully. Let’s talk about a few of the key players:

• Bananas. For the best flavor & moistest cake, you should use ripe, spotty bananas. Have some that are looking a little overripe on your counter and starting to attract fruit flies? Grab those. Ideally I prefer mine to be browner than the too-yellow ones shown in the photo above (but my recipe is versatile, so use what you have on hand!). King Arthur has a great guide on choosing the best bananas to use.
• Butter AND oil. Those of you who have made my Funfetti cake or marble cake recipe know that a blend of the two yields a better cake than simply using all butter or all oil. For my banana cake recipe I sought balance, and a blend of the two yielded a perfect moist cake. For the oil, any neutral cooking oil (canola or vegetable are most common) will work.
• Sugar. Another best-of-both-worlds scenario. Granulated sugar adds sweetness without weighing the cake down too much, while brown sugar adds depth of flavor, thanks to the molasses.
• Leavening Agents. Baking powder and baking soda create a perfect rise. The baking soda reacts with the banana and buttermilk (and helps create that beautiful golden surface), while the baking powder ensures a reliably even lift across the cake. Without the two of them we’d have a dense, gummy cake.
• Buttermilk. While this plays a role in helping the banana cake to rise a bit when combined with the baking soda, perhaps more importantly it adds moisture and a very subtle tangy flavor. You may use my buttermilk substitute if you can’t find buttermilk in stores (or just don’t have any), but the “real” stuff is best here as it will yield the best texture.

This is just an overview of a few of the main ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

How to Make Banana Cake

Make the cake

1. Mash the bananas! A potato masher or even just a fork works well. Try to mash out as many lumps as you can, but it’s OK that you won’t be able to get all of them.
2. Beat together the sugars and butter. Look for a light, creamy, well-combined mixture, then stir in the oil until it’s well incorporated.
3. Add the bananas to the butter/sugar mixture and stir well to combine.
4. Add the eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla extract and stir well. The batter most likely won’t be smooth since your mashed bananas are bound to be a bit lumpy, but everything should be thoroughly mixed (especially since you need to be quite light-handed in the next step.

5. Whisk together the dry ingredients.
6. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet. You want the ingredients to be thoroughly combined, but as with banana bread or pancakes, over-mixing can result in dense, dry results.
7. Spread the batter evenly into a greased baking pan. I use a metal pan, if you use a glass one note that your cake will take longer to bake than indicated.
8. Check the doneness of the cake by inserting a toothpick into the center. The toothpick should come out mostly clean, or, preferably, with some moist crumbs (but not raw batter!).

Make the Frosting

1. Combine (softened!) cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and salt and beat until smooth and creamy. There should be no lumps remaining (if it’s lumpy, your cream cheese may have been too cold).
2. Gradually add the powdered sugar until completely combined.
3. Add the cream. If you want a thicker frosting, you can skip this step, but I like the looser, silky feel that adding a splash of cream adds.
4. Spread the frosting over the (cooled) cake. Top with regular or toasted pecans or walnuts (or a drizzle of caramel sauce! Or dulce de leche!) for a finishing touch!

Frequently Asked Questions