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
I am pre rating because I know it will be great. Making this next week and I wonder if my frozen bananas which I use to make banana bread and they are so sweet would be fine. I freeze when they are really ripe and dark because of the sweetness of my bread? Going to make the cream cheese with peanut butter. I always loved banana peanut butter sandwiches growing up and still do.
Thank you
Hi TG, yes, you can use frozen bananas. Here’s our guide to freezing and thawing frozen bananas for baking!
Oh what a great tip. I have always frozen them whole and have always used the juice but my recipe doesn’t use a liquid, just eggs and sour cream. I will definitely drain first and incorporate into the amount of buttermilk. It should be amazing. Nice. Thank you!
Love the cake. I’ve made it several times and it’s a family favorite.
I have leftover smashed banana, and I’m wondering about putting it in the cream cheese frosting. Any thoughts ?
Thanks,
Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth! So glad you love this cake. We don’t recommend adding banana to the frosting. It is quite wet and will alter the texture (and make it lumpy!).
Recipe sounds so good ,I wondered if you could add pecans to this cake ,if so, how many?
Hi Nancy, absolutely. We’d recommend about a cup of pecans.
Great banana cake recipe, not too sweet, good crumb and not at all dry, it is exactly how I like banana cake to be so I am really happy I tried this. Thank you for the recipe!
So I made this recipe a couple of days ago for my son’s birthday cake. Let me tell you, SO SO GOOD! It checks all the boxes for a good cake 🙂 my kids and my husband loved it. My hubby even went back for seconds, which he rarely ever does for desserts.
I did have to adjust the bake time; it took a little over an hour to bake – maybe due to the type of vessel used to bake this. I used a Pyrex glass dish.
Overall, lovely cake. I will make this again 🙂
Exciting to make, its in the oven – cant wait to taste it
I made this cake today and it tastes great! I guess it really is the best banana cake! Cream cheese frosting is very good and adds alot to this cake. My husband says “it’s a coffee cake”
So disappointed! I normally love the recipes from this site but this was a disaster! The cake was dense and didn’t rise much at all, the cream cheese frosting is an incredibly sweet soup. Just bad bad bad 🙁
I normally use plain flour in my cakes, would this be acceptable for this recipe?
Hi Diane, yes! Plain flour is essentially the same as all-purpose flour.
The title of this recipe definitely holds true. I defrosted overripe bananas I had in the freezer and followed the recipe as written. The cake rose nicely, was incredibly moist, and could easily be enjoyed with or without the yummy frosting. So satisfying – this is a keeper for sure!
Hello everyone I was wandering if I could use self rising flour instead of all purpose flour?
Hi Linda, we don’t recommend using self rising flour in this recipe. It would take additional recipe testing to ensure accurate results.
Incredible! My son now wants this for his birthday cake every year. Loved it
Every banana cake recipe I have tried is literally so dense! I’m looking for a light and fluffy banana cake like at the bakery I want to make one like that does anybody have any hits hints?
Hi Mary, with all the banana in this cake, it’s definitely a denser cake (than, say, a light white cake). If your cake tasted heavy over overly dense, it’s possible the cake batter was over mixed — that’s usually the culprit for dense cakes. We share more helpful tips on how to prevent dry and dense cakes here, that you might find helpful for next time.
Absolutely correct. Best banana cake ever. My daughter doesn’t like banana and she loved it.
Great recipe. I’ve made this recipe a number of times and follow Sally’s instructions to the book. It never fails. This time I added ground walnuts and it came out perfectly.
This is a good banana bread, but it’s definitely not a cake, so don’t expect that. It’s easier to just make your own favorite banana bread, and skip the extra steps.
Amazing cake recipe! Added a small banana cream pudding packet to the cake recipe and cooked in a 8 inch round for about 50 min.
Also made a pecan/banana foster filling & some peanut butter cream cheese frosting and it was a huge hit! Thank you!
Could I make this using a loaf tin?
Hi Kelly! We recommend following our similar banana bread recipe instead.
If you want your guests to oooh and aaah and basically not be able to carry on a normal conversation because they are enjoying the cake so much, this is the one.
Omg I’m a bloke who doesn’t know how to cook and Sally’s recipe is so easy to follow , it’s turned out to be a little Rippa
This really is the best banana cake recipe I have ever made. I made them into cupcakes ( recipe gave me 28) and baked 25minutes. I did not ice them, served with ice cream and toffee sauce, delicious and everyone loved the dessert. Keeper recipe, pinned but also writing it out on a recipe card. Thank you for sharing this recipe, easy, delicious and moist cake!
Would American style or European styule butter work best in this banana cake?
Hi Susan, We typically use American style store-brand butter, unless it’s a recipe where we think it’s noticeably improved by using European butter with a higher butter fat percentage. You could use either here.
Thank you
Hi,
Could this recipe work as cupcakes ? If so, many would it make, also would my cooking time change?
Hi Amanda, here’s our banana cupcakes recipe 🙂
I was disappointed, cake tasted heavy to me, followed by all directions and cooked for 50 minutes , did add some finely chopped pecans to dry ingredients. Cake did not really rise and don’t know if it should have
So good! I subbed the AP flour for bobs red mill gluten free 1to1 baking flour (blue bag) and it came out fab, for any gf folks wanting to try! I do prefer a thicker frosting, so I would prob go with a different frosting recipe in the future-just personal preference!
This is the best recipe.
It has great flavor! Everyone raved about it.
Very easy to follow recipe and delicious cake!!
If I halve the recipe, how many eggs should I use and what size pan?
Hi Theresa, you can halve this recipe for an 8×8 baking dish. The bake time will be shorter, though we can’t say exactly how long. Use a toothpick to test for doneness. For the eggs, use 1 egg then crack a 2nd egg, beat it, and use half of the mixture.
I want to make a 3 tier cake.. what is the best way to do this? I fear splitting the batter into 3 9″ pans it would be too thin. But doubling the recipe (6 cups of flour!!) seems like it’d be too much.
Hi Kyrstin, here’s our banana layer cake.
I have made this many times and it is always perfect and delicious. Instead of icing, I sprinkle dark chocolate chips over the top right out of the oven. Let it sit a minute and then smooth out with a spatula.