This is my all-time favorite banana cake recipe, made completely from scratch! Perfectly flavored with extra bananas, soft, fluffy, moist, and topped off with a silky smooth cream cheese frosting and chopped walnuts, this is the banana cake of your dreams!
This recipe is a result of many, many emails and comments from so many of you writing to tell me how much you enjoyed my best banana muffins (see, I didn’t call them the “best” for nothing). A few of you wrote to ask me if it would be possible to bake the muffin recipe into a banana cake, but I had a few reservations. I was worried that the original recipe wouldn’t make the best banana cake, and so I started recipe testing to develop the perfect moist cake.
I went through a lot of overripe bananas (and some not-so-ripe ones, in a few moments of desperation), and finally ended up modifying my pumpkin cake (of all things) to land on this winning banana cake recipe.
Soft and fluffy with a tender, moist crumb, this is banana cake perfection. It’s easy to make and is perfectly complemented by a liberal topping of cream cheese frosting.
For this banana cake, I used a variation of my favorite cream cheese frosting that I shared the other day. Today’s recipe uses a bit less sugar and has you whip heavy cream into the frosting so that it’s smooth and silky.
This variation is much less sturdy than my other recipe and isn’t one that I recommend for your standard cake or cupcake, but it suits this cake perfectly (no piping required here!).
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Tips for Making Banana Cake
- The riper your bananas the better! I prefer mine to be mostly brown (which I did not have when I made the video below… food blogger fail), the riper they are the more flavorful your banana cake will be.
- I top the frosting off with chopped walnuts, but if you’d like you can also bake walnuts or pecans into the cake, too. About 1 cup of chopped nuts would work nicely in this recipe.
- You can add cinnamon to spice up this cake! I ultimately decided to leave it out for maximum pure banana flavor, but you can add 1/2-3/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon in with the dry ingredients if you’d like.
- When I made this banana cake in my glass baking dish, the top browned faster than I expected it to. Because of this, I’ve included instructions in the recipe to monitor your cake at the 30 minute mark, and if the edges are browning too fast, lightly tent the cake with foil.
Enjoy!
How to Make the BEST Banana Cake
The Best Banana Cake
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (170g)
- ¾ cup canola or vegetable oil (175ml)
- 1 cup light or dark brown sugar (200g)
- 1/2 cup sugar (100g)
- 4 ripe bananas, peeled and well-mashed (this is about 2 cups mashed) (470g)
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten room temperature preferred
- ¼ cup buttermilk (60ml)
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (312g)
- 1 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Silky Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 oz cream cheese softened (225g)
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened (113g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2½ cups powdered sugar (315g)
- 1 Tablespoons heavy cream
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and spray a 9x13 pan with baking spray or lightly grease and flour. Set aside.
- Combine butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl and use an electric mixer). Beat until well-combined and light and fluffy.
- Add oil and beat to combine.
- Stir in mashed bananas.
- Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla extract and stir until well-combined.
- In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Gradually add to wet ingredients until completely combined.
- Spread batter into prepared pan and bake on 350F (175C) for 45-55 minutes* or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with few moist crumbs. Allow to cool completely before covering with frosting.
Silky Cream Cheese Frosting
- Combine cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and salt in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until creamy.
- With mixer on low-speed, gradually add powdered sugar until completely combined.
- Add heavy cream and gradually increase speed to high. Beat on high for 30 seconds.
- Spread over completely cooled banana cake. Top with chopped walnuts (if using). Slice and serve!
Notes
Nutrition
Lidia Bayliss says
Cake was tasty but too much fat (2-3 times other recipes). I’ll use half the amount next time and see how it turns out. The frosting was delicious, the best I’ve had. Thanks!
Mika Pickard says
I cannot thank you for this recipe!!! The cake was super moist. And that fantastic icing!!! OMG!!!! I’ve received so many compliments on this recipe!!!!
P.s. Thanks so much for the information about using the foil to tent the cake. Thanks again!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed the cake, Mika! 🙂
Lori chesney says
Why is there a choice of light or dark brown sugar? Which one should I use? What is the difference between the two when baking? Help me please!!!
Sam says
Hi Lori! Either will work perfectly fine. Dark brown sugar lends a tad more moisture, richness, and color to the cake. I usually use whichever one I have on hand. I hope you love the cake 🙂
Galeb says
I had several bananas I needed to use ASAP. I just usually make banana bread but I decided to look for a recipe that used a significant amount of bananas. Once I saw that this banana cake used a whole 2 cups of bananas, I decided to make it. It is delicious and full of banana flavor. I followed recipe exactly and was very pleased with the results. The addition of whipping cream to the frosting lightened the usually heavy cream cheese. I will make this again.
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed the cake, Galeb! 🙂
Lorraine says
Hi, I made this yesterday, but amended as i went, i didn’t put in the white sugar, only put in 120ml oil, my eggs were small and added another one, and added a bag of chocolate chips, I’ve never had so many complements on a cake before, but I did have a cunning plan which was to arrive with it just out of the oven, oh and I added apple pie spices though, I usually go by the recipes and hate people who tweak them, so sorry, but your muffins were fab, and this is another recipe to add to my growing collection,
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed the cake, Lorraine! 🙂
Dawna Meier says
Absolutely amazing. Super moist and delicious
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed the cake, Dawna! 🙂
Midge says
I made this cake on Saturday late in the afternoon. Today is Monday morning and the cake is gone.
My husband told me not to make it again, he can’t stop eating it. My son love it also. We all loved the cake.
I followed the receipt and it was the best cake I have ever made.
All because no one ate the bananas this week.
Thank you so much.
Sam says
😂 Sounds like they secretly want another cake! 😉 I am so glad everyone enjoyed it. 🙂
Vandana says
This is one hell of a recipe! I instinctively knew when I read the recipe that it is it! I read all the comments and became slightly skeptical about people saying it’s oily. I used exact measurements except I used 3 eggs. I added cinnamon. Instead of butter milk i used half cup milk and one lemon juice left unstirred for sometime. I made the exact icing but used a pinch of cream of tartar and a dash of coconut powder. This is s really really good recipe. It’s going to be my best banana cake ever!
Sam says
Thank you so much! I am so glad you enjoyed the cake! 🙂
Claudia says
Hallo Sam,
the cake sounds lush to me, will give it a go next weekend. Since I am from germany, please tell me if the 9×13 tin size are inches ? I will have to convert:-)
Thanx 4 ur help
Rgds from Alzey
Claudia
Sam says
Hi Claudia! The metric size of a 9 x 13 inch pan is 33 x 23 x 5 cm. 🙂
Liz says
Tasted awsome.. But my cake did not rise.. Everything was as per meaurement
Sam says
Hi Liz! Could your baking powder or baking soda have been bad/expired? That might have kept the cake from rising. I’m glad you enjoyed the taste! 🙂
Kris Lutz says
Sam, thank you so much for this fabulous recipe! My husband asked for a banana cake with cream cheese icing for his birthday. When I came across this recipe, I appreciated all your effort to perfect it. And all the comments were glowing. So I made it. Oh. My. Gosh. Fabulous! Moist, rich, banana taste; creamy icing; deliciousness. Thank you for helping me treat my husband on his birthday!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Kris! 🙂
Carl says
Taste ok but came out extremely oily. Might cut back on the oil next time. Made it once using measuring cups then again with weighed out ingredients and the same result.
Sam says
Hmm I am disappointed to hear it was so oily. I will do some trouble shooting in my kitchen to see why that could have happened. 🙂
Aanchal Soni says
My cake turned out a little sour in taste perhaps because of salt. Also it was too oily. Do we need to cut down butter or oil’s measure???
Can i skip salt the next time i try??
I used the exact measurements.
Sam says
I wouldn’t recommend cutting down the salt, nor do i recommend cutting the butter or oil. I’m really not sure where the sour taste might’ve come from (not from the salt, though), if it was too oily I’m wondering if the flour may have not been measured properly, did you use cups or a scale?
Aanchal Soni says
I used the scale. If I forget the salty taste, oil was dominating banana’s flavor.
Katt says
So I love this recipe! I used salted butter and didn’t add any salt. For cake and frosting. Also the second time I baked this cake, I added a third egg and made it a two layer cake. The extra egg made it 👌. Moist and delicious. Not nearly as thick and dense as with only 2 eggs. Thanks for posting this recipe! Everyone asks for it now!