Remember that time I told you about the best banana cake I’ve ever had?
I enjoyed obsessed over it at a family reunion the other weekend. My cousin made it and I stalked her down like a dessert creep and proceeded to talk her ear off about cream cheese frosting and spotty bananas for 35 minutes straight.
What? You don’t do that at parties?
It was the moistest cake I’ve ever eaten. Stick-to-the-back of your fork moist. The perfect cream cheese frosting, both sweet and tangy, sinking into the top of the cake made it even moister. Sweet, but not overpowering. Mega banana flavor, certainly more banana flavor than any banana bread I’ve ever eaten. Very buttery and cakey from creaming the butter and sugars. Just a ridiculously rich, decadent dessert.
The banana cake was dense, but not heavy. If that makes any sense? (Coming from the lady who talks about rotting bananas at social gatherings, but stick with me here.) The crumb was very soft, but they were tight crumbs. The cake didn’t fall apart when you took a forkful.
She told me this cake comes out perfect every time she makes it. And such perfection is reinforced, she told me, when absolutely everyone who has a slice begs her for the recipe. It is, hands down, the best banana cake I’ve ever had.
And I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
How to Make Banana Cake
The recipe starts with 1 and 1/2 cups (345g) mashed bananas, or about 4 medium or 3 large ripe bananas (above). Now, make sure those bananas are nice and spotty. The bananas you see above are just right (and it’s what you want for banana bread, chocolate banana bread, and banana muffins, too). More brown spots = sweeter, more banana flavor. Your cake will thank you. I simply mash the bananas in my mixer—the same mixer I use for creaming the butter and sugars. Beat the bananas on high speed for a minute, then transfer to another bowl. I don’t even wash the mixing bowl—just throw the butter right in and start creaming!
Can I Use Frozen Bananas?
Yes and I do this often. Thaw the frozen bananas at room temperature. Drain off any excess liquid, mash, then use as instructed in the recipe below. See How to Freeze & Thaw Bananas for Baking.
Here’s the batter. There will be some lumps.
One more thing to note: buttermilk. As you guessed, buttermilk is the moist-maker in this cake. The cake wouldn’t be what it is without it! You also need the acid in buttermilk to help the baking soda do its job. I rarely have buttermilk in my refrigerator, so I always sour whole milk instead. For this recipe, you need 1 and 1/2 cups of buttermilk. If you don’t keep buttermilk on hand either, you can make this buttermilk substitute: measure 1 Tablespoon of fresh lemon juice or white vinegar. Pour into a liquid measuring cup. Then add enough whole milk until it reaches 1 and 1/2 cups. Stir together, let it sit for 5 minutes, then use in the recipe. To keep the cake extra rich, I recommend whole milk when you are souring milk.
Is this not the silkiest and smoothest cream cheese frosting you’ve ever seen? Well, it’s the silkiest and smoothest cream cheese frosting I’ve ever tasted! It’s pretty similar to our cream cheese frosting that we use for carrot cake, but there’s a little less cream cheese for the amount of butter. So, this makes the frosting a little more silky. And definitely more buttery!
There’s also a lot of cream cheese frosting. When you begin slathering it onto the cake, you’ll probably go “Sally, this is way too much frosting!” But it’s not. You want a nice thick layer. It’s essential.
If you love baking with brown butter, the brown butter cream cheese frosting from my zucchini cake would be fantastic here. If you are not into cream cheese frosting or just want to try something different, try it with traditional vanilla buttercream, this salted caramel frosting, or even white chocolate buttercream frosting instead. All are seriously delicious combinations!
The best banana cake I’ve ever had. We love it so much we turned it into a chocolate marble banana Bundt cake and banana cupcakes, too. And if you can’t get enough sheet cakes, you’ll want to try this fresh apple cake next!
Print
The Best Banana Cake I’ve Ever Had
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 5 hours (includes cooling)
- Yield: serves 12
- Category: Cake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This is absolutely the best banana cake I’ve ever had! It’s supremely moist with cream cheese frosting, tons of banana, brown sugar, and cinnamon flavor.
Ingredients
Banana Cake
- 1 and 1/2 cups (345g) mashed bananas (about 4 medium or 3 large bananas)
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) buttermilk, at room temperature*
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces (226g) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups (360g) confectioners’ sugar, plus an extra 1/4 cup if needed
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and grease a 9×13-inch pan.
- Make the cake: Mash the bananas. I usually just use my mixer for this! Set mashed bananas aside.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together. Set aside.
- Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until smooth and creamy—about 1 minute. Add both sugars and beat on high speed for 2 minutes until creamed together. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the eggs and the vanilla. Beat on medium-high speed until combined, then beat in the mashed bananas. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients in three additions alternating with the buttermilk and mixing each addition just until incorporated. Do not overmix. The batter will be slightly thick and a few lumps is OK.
- Spread batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45–50 minutes. Baking times vary, so keep an eye on yours. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you find the top of the cake is browning too quickly in the oven, loosely cover it with aluminum foil.
- Remove the cake from the oven and set on a wire rack. Allow to cool completely. After about 45 minutes, I usually place it in the refrigerator to speed things up.
- Make the frosting: In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter together on high speed until smooth and creamy. Add 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and salt. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then switch to high speed and beat for 2 minutes. If you want the frosting a little thicker, add the extra 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar (I add it). Spread the frosting on the cooled cake. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. This helps sets the frosting and makes cutting easier.
- Cover leftover cake tightly and store in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Prepare cake through step 6. Cover the cake tightly and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze up to 3 months. Bring to room temperature, make the frosting, frost, and serve. Frosted or unfrosted cake freezes well, up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, bring to room temperature, and then frost if needed and serve.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9×13-inch Pan | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Cooling Rack | Icing Spatula
- Frozen Bananas: You can use frozen bananas here. Thaw the frozen bananas. Drain off any excess liquid, mash, then use as instructed in the recipe. See How to Freeze & Thaw Bananas for Baking.
- Buttermilk: Buttermilk is required for this recipe. You can make your own DIY buttermilk substitute if needed. Add 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to a liquid measuring cup. Then add enough room temperature whole milk to the same measuring cup until it reaches 1 and 1/2 cups. (In a pinch, lower fat or nondairy milks work for this soured milk, but the cake won’t taste as moist or rich.) Stir it around and let sit for 5 minutes. The homemade “buttermilk” will be somewhat curdled and ready to use in the recipe.
- Cupcakes: I’ve gotten a few questions about turning this cake into cupcakes. For about 2 dozen cupcakes, fill the cupcake liners halfway and bake for about 20-22 minutes. Same oven temperature.
- Can I Turn This into a Banana Bundt Cake? I recommend using my extremely similar recipe for chocolate marble banana Bundt cake instead. (There’s a little extra baking powder for lift, which is helpful when baking in a large Bundt pan.) You can leave out the chocolate swirl in that recipe.
- Layer Cake: I use this recipe to make my banana layer cake. If you want to make a 2 layer cake, divide batter between 2 greased 9-inch cake pans, and bake at 350°F (177°C) for 26-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Looks yummy but we don’t care for cream cheese frosting. Can you recommend another frosting that would be good on this cake and not require refrigerating leftovers?
Hi Dee, you could try our favorite chocolate buttercream!
This recipe is delicious, my new go-to banana cake recipe. It makes quite a large cake.
I have used many of your recipes, and they are always so delicious!! THIS ONE!! my goodness- I thought it would be a little too big at 13×9..but I dont even think this cake lasted more than 2 days!! It was GONE! Thank you, thank you!!
I love this recipe. The first time I made it, it turned out perfect and everyone loved it. I made it again yesterday and it came out very dense and still wet inside, like it wasn’t cooked. Do you know why this may have happened? I used unfrozen bananas.
Hi Maria, Make sure not to over-mix your batter. Mix just until combined to prevent a dense cake. Hope this helps!
Hi, I only have 1/2 cup of buttermilk and wanted to know if I could mix in some half and half or heavy cream. Also, I plan to frost with strawberry cream cheese frosting with strawberry filling for a 2 layer square 9 inch cake.
Hi Mikah, buttermilk is imperative for this recipe. See recipe notes for how to make your own DIY version using milk and vinegar or lemon juice. We don’t recommend supplementing with half and half or heavy cream.
I have the same issue. It’s been in the oven for 50 mins and still very wet. Should I continue to bake (tinfoil is on top) or admit defeat?
Hi Elle, does it look like the edges are cooking? It may simply need more time to bake.
Beautiful recipe. I doubled this and made one large cake, one small cake and 12 muffins. Huge hit and absolutely lovely. Moist and soft and will make again.
I want to make this today but I’ve read in the comments that using frozen bananas can result in an overly dense cake. I have whole, frozen bananas that were overripened before freezing. Could I use these, and if so, should I adjust any of the other ingredients? Thanks in advance!
Hi Marysa, fresh (ripe) bananas are best, but you can use thawed frozen bananas if needed. We recommend draining them if there’s a lot of liquid.
Recipe is amazing, would love to make again with some raisins. Is this possible and how much grams would you recommend please?
Hi Dani! You can try adding 1 cup (140 g) raisins. Enjoy!
This is absolutely amazing
This recepie is great! I substituted buttermilk with yoghurt and also used half wholemeal self raising flour and it still turned out amazing. Even the batter was yummy. So light and fluffy. Will be making again. I had to try it warm straight out of the oven 🙂
Does it really need to cool for 5 hours? And is that 5 hours before applying the icing?
One another thing: can it be stored on the counter in room temperature (covered of course), or does it have to go in the fridge to not go bad/stale? We don’t have enough space in the fridge
Hi Abby! 5 hours is the total time required to make this cake. To fully cool will likely take 1-2 hours, then you can frost the cake. After decorating anything with buttercream or cream cheese frosting, it’s fine for 1 day at room temperature. After that, we would refrigerate it. But, use your best judgment and whatever you are comfortable with- we’ve never had any problems leaving frosted desserts at room temperature for a day.
Thanks so much for this incredible recipe! Such a great way to use overripe bananas! My question actually relates to the baking dish. Do you have a preference between glass and metal/aluminum? I have both and never know which to opt for in these cases. (Apologies if this is covered elsewhere on your site, I’m new here 🙂 Thanks!
Hi Jaclyn, opinions vary but I love baking quarter sheet cakes in a glass pan. I love being able to see when those edges brown. I also find that metal quickly over-bakes/browns the edges. I’m so glad you enjoy this cake!
Thank you for the recipe Sally. I made it this morning and it definitely is “THE BEST BANANA CAKE I’VE EVER HAD”.
Delicious flavor and great frosting – but – I found this recipe rubbery and dense. I made it twice! Not enough leveling agent for the heaviness of the batter. I sifted all dry ingredients and spatula mixed in dry to wet so I didn’t overheat. I was sure to use lower protein pastry flour the second time, 8.5g (first flour was 11g) Is there anything I’m missing? I’d love to master this. Why was mine so dense and rubbery?
Hi Irena, thank you so much for giving this recipe a try! The texture of this cake will definitely be on the denser side. Did you use fresh or frozen bananas? Frozen will sometimes be too wet to use. Also make sure not to over-mix your batter. Mix just until combined to prevent a dense cake. Hope this helps!
The first time I made this cake, I found it to be tasty but quite dense. The second time , using the exact same ingredients, I folded the dry ingredients with a spatula into the wet ones until just blended, but still with lumps. It was absolutely delicious, moist and not dense at all. I will save this recipe and keep on doing it this way forever more.
I found this recipe to be lacking. It’s very hard for me to believe that people were begging for it.
Can I replace the butter with coconut oil?
Hi Afra, You could try using solid coconut oil instead, but we fear the texture will be greasy (and, of course, lacking butter flavor).
Made this with no buttermilk because I had none. I used 1/2 cup cream and 1 cup of yogurt instead. It worked very well. Thanks for the recipe.
I enjoyed a lot making the cake but I think I made a mistake or something anyway went wrong because the cake is not soft at all. Do you have any recommendations for the oven? I did the test with the toothpick and because it went out clean I had to stop baking it after 32 minutes, even if I covered the cake noticing it was becoming brown on the top.
Hi Cate, we find the cake should take closer to 45-50 minutes (although exact time can vary by oven). If you find the top of the cake is browning too quickly in the oven, loosely cover it with aluminum foil (the top should naturally brown a little, though). If you can, use an oven thermometer to help get an accurate read of the temperature inside of your oven. It sounds like yours may be running much hotter than it reads. Hope this helps!
can I substitute brown sugar with honey? or just plain sugar? I don’t have that at hand… also, can I use almond milk?
Hi Evelyn, you could use plain sugar here instead of honey. Brown sugar contains more moisture so the texture of your cake may be slightly different than intended, but you can certainly try it! Almond milk will also work in a pinch for the DIY buttermilk.
I’m trying this today with gluten free flour. Can’t wait ti try it !
Amazing ,you can’t buy buttermilk where I live but sub with milk mixed with vinegar-perfect
Love it !!? So delicious!
Only thing I didn’t have was buttermilk so i used milk hehe and i also added chocolate chips too.
And it got demolished!! It was a hit..my family loved it .
This is one of my go-to, all time favorite recipes! I feel bad for the people that have had problems, maybe bananas were not ripe enough or something, but this is a truly amazing creation! Have experimented with caramel and candied nuts on top and you cant go wrong!
Just made this for the first time, it was DELICIOUS! Everyone thought so! I baked it in a light coloured 8” x 2” pan. It fell a little in the middle right after being removed from the oven, but the toothpick had no crumbs on it and I didn’t want it to overbake! Two questions: I need to make it into a taller 6” smash cake for a first birthday, do you suggest any changes to the ingredient quantities to fit the smaller, but higher pan? Also, it was quite tender and crumbly. What changes would you recommend to firm it up just slightly? I want to be able to cut it fairly easily. Thanks for all your delicious recipes!! And for using weights in ingredient lists
Our banana cupcakes recipe will be the perfect amount of bater for a 3 layer 6 inch cake! You can read more about using cupcake recipes for 6 inch layer cakes in this 6 Inch Cakes post.
My son & I made this cake for his 13th birthday. I do not recommend making this recipe at all. It is very DENSE!! It was a terrible recipe. I was so embarrassed to serve for his birthday.
Found this to be a very bread-like cake and far, far too much sugar. If I were to make it again
I would only use two cups of flour and the half cup of fine brown sugar is plenty.
I did not think this cake was too sweet. Just right for us. Glad everyone has different tastes and experiences.
Wait…Is this almost similar to your banana bread recipe?
Close, but not quite. This recipe is slightly scaled up and also includes baking powder and liquid for a cakier texture.
My teenager made the banana cake and she love it! so did the rest of the house hold. she did 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of almond flour.
i have seen a similar recipe in an old cookbook – they recommend frosting with caramel frosting. Doesn’t that sound amazing? I love cream cheese frosting but caramel is right up there next to it.
Funny you should mention caramel icing, I was just scrolling through the comments to see if anybody had tried that. I just so love the idea of a beautiful banana cake with caramel icing
Perfection! Sally was kind enough to message me when I asked about this recipe vs some others when I am looking to impress. This recipe def impressed! I did one little thing ~ I’ve done this for a warm pumkin pie too ~ I grind Werthers caramel candy to a fine powder and sprinkle over the top while it’s warm. Then after it all cools I did the icing. Adds a nice little caramel crunch to it. Not that it needed any help! Also, it’s amazing on the 2nd day after being in the fridge for a while. Sally is my complete go-to for recipes! (more entrees pleeeze!) ❤️
I made these for my granddaughters bridal shower, made them into cupcakes. I am I put some buttercream icing on top and these are so good! Also I used 3 oz of butter a 3 oz of oil oh, very moist and delicious! Grandkids love them!
This cake was so easy to make and worth the time. I followed the directions and ingredients. Cake turned out light and moist, which is different than your dense banana muffins. .
I LOVED THIS RECIPE!! THAT CREAM CHEESE FROSTING IN TOP JUST PUTS IT OVER THE EDGE OF DELICIOUSNESS!!! Sally, your recipes are always so great!! This one is too
I made this cake for the second time last night. And again, it was delicious (EVERYBODY at the office raved!). This second time, I had a bit of sourdough discard so I replaced some of the flour and buttermilk called for with the sourdough. OOOOHHH! Not that I was trying to improve on perfection (because YES, this cake is perfect), I just had some discard I wanted to use. You have given me the confidence to alter recipes to fit my particular situation, and I will always be grateful. Thanks for a wonderful site!
Can I substitute the all-purpose flour to Oat flour?
I added aashed banana to the cream cheese frosting!! I highly recommend doing that. This cake is PERFECTION