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!
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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
Made this tonight 100% per recipe (baked 45min). It was fantastic! Dense, moist, delicious!
This is the best cake! Make it! People keep asking me to make this for them over and over.
Can I use this recipe in a bread pan?
Hi Karen, we’d recommend using our banana bread recipe instead.
Can I add dried cranberries to this recepie?
Hi Celie, that should work just fine. Feel free to add about a cup. Enjoy!
this is a great recipe thank you. I am a retired chef/Baker and I enjoy reading your recipes.
I tried this the other day and it turned out perfect. I have used many of your recipes in the past and enjoy all of them. I bake a lot of yeast, breads, bagels, sourdough, pita and flatbreads.
Awesome turn out
Thank you for best recipe
Has anyone made this in a jelly roll pan/cookie sheet?
Hi Austin, here’s everything you need to know about cake pan sizes and conversions.
I love banana cake- like banana bread, only Lighter and sweeter and the icing– mmmmm! I just made this recipe and put it in the oven and I cannot wait to taste it!! The batter was almost weightless, it was so light and fluffy! I know this is going to be amazing. I have never made anything from her site that is less than awesome, so I’m confident it will be great. I’ll let you know if it’s not, but no reply means it was as awesome as I assume it will be!!
Sally this is disgustingly sweet. America.
Is this what u eat over there? .. bring me Coca cola before modern day. But it is a cake and it does work. But rI recommend .. very little sugar in icing cream cheese that will save it for.. Baltic tastes.
Why would you make such a negative comment? It’s a cake. Period.
I second that, Lucid!!
We think it’s delicious. I made this last night for the first time. I can relate to you in saying it’s very sweet with the frosting. I tried some today with just a little whipped cream cheese on it (like you’d put cream cheese on a bagel) and i liked that better. But my family liked it best with the frosting. (I think next time I’ll try making it with a looser fluffy cream cheese topping that uses less powdered sugar.) It’s fine and great to have different tastes, but l you could phrase things in a gentler tone. Being nice costs zero dollars.
This was the best banana cake I ever ate , so moist and delicious. I did not frost it , put cool whip on it. Thank you so much.
Loved this recipe! It’s so easy and makes a large cake. Great for taking to events. Very light and fluffy.
I baked this cake recipe yesterday – it’s DELICIOUS! So moist and full of banana flavour, we LOVE it. I sadly didn’t have buttermilk so I “soured” the milk with lemon juice. I added extra cinnamon and fresh grated nutmeg to the batter. And I used 3 1/2 VERY ripe bananas. I sadly didn’t have cream cheese on hand either so I made an buttercream frosting and instead of the milk I added lemon juice to give the frosting a tart cream cheese flavour and also added fresh grated nutmeg & cinnamon to it. This is the BEST banana cake recipe, thank you so much for sharing
We’re so glad you love this cake, Tina!
Do you have recipe advice for a twin-toddler-birthday class treat? (2 classes = 54 kids!) I love this cake and love that it makes a lot (I could double it), but it’s pretty high in sugar. I also love Sally’s heathy apple muffins, but the recipe only makes 12.
Hi Lauren! A few batches of those apple muffins could work well, or make them into mini muffins so they can spread farther. We also love these baby oat muffins!
Thank you so much for this delicious recipe my family loves it, but not as much as I did. Yes it was sweet and delicious. C. J.
I have tried a very similar recipe, published after yours, that is very similar. I am looking forward to trying your version to see what the difference is. The other recipe is at: https://www.howsweeteats.com/2020/03/banana-cake-coffee-frosting/
I really like the taste. I made it during the pandemic and it rose nicely. I made it twice this week and both times my cake did not rise. It looked like I had too much moisture in the cake. Any suggestions?
Hi Megan! Could your baking soda or powder be getting old? We find they can lose strength after just a few months.
I will try changing it. I am going to make the cake again. I will let you know.
Moist but a little sweet. I wanted more/deeper banana flavor.
very good! my family loves banana bread. this was a hit!
Nutrition Facts
Servings 12.0 Amount Per Serving calories 700 Fat 34 g Cholesterol 322 mg Sodium 443 mg Potassium 195 mg Carbohydrate 83 g Fiber 1 g Sugars 59 g Protein 14 g
But it is a great recipe ps .. worth the making.
A beautiful recipe, even without buttermilk I thought is was really tasty. I am making my second cake now, and attempted to make the buttermilk, but only had apple cider vinegar. The cake has risen so much and looks and smells amazing.
The best banana cake I have ever made and the frosting is to die for! Thanks for an amazing recipe ❤️
I topped the batter with seeds and chopped walnuts before baking and it turned out very good!
i made this for my family, and before i could frost the cake, it was already dug into! We all thought that it was so good, even without frosting!
I would like to bake this with cake four and substitute extra virgin organic olive oil in place of the butter. I have been quite enchanted with baking olive oil cakes lately for my friends and colleagues, who love them!
What do you recommend, my olive oil of choice is Organic EVOO from Whole Foods, which has been giving be excellent results, yet I know that cakes are difficult and substitutions may not work. I often infuse the Olive oil overnight for a fragrant baking experience, various styles.
Kind regards,
Hi Katherine, we don’t recommend subbing liquid olive oil for butter, which is a solid at room temp. You could try using solid coconut oil instead, but we fear the texture will be greasy and, of course, lacking the butter flavor and/or olive oil flavor that you’re looking for. If you do give anything a try, we’d love to know how it turns out!
can i substitute all purpose flour for Presto,and would i have to change anything in the recipe? thanks!
Hi Ejr, we don’t recommend using self rising flour in this recipe. It would take additional recipe testing to ensure accurate results.
Holy moly. This is my go to recipe! I add chock chips and pecans on top
What do I do with two bunches of ripe bananas? Well, you make banana cake, of course! I read the reviews and decided to give this recipe a try. It’s fantastic and easy! I thought it tasted better the next day when the cake and frosting flavors had time to meld. Really good cake, will make again when ripe bananas show up at my doorstep.
Can I use low fat buttermilk? That is all they have at my grocery store
Absolutely.
Loved the recipe! One question i have is that my thawed bananas release juice. I read the recipe notes and it’s stated to omit the juices. Why is that? I was under the impression that it contains a lot of banana flavor and moisture. Can I use the thawed banana liquid?
Hi MT, Mashing up your thawed bananas with this liquid might work for some recipes, but we’ve found it makes most baked goods overly dense and heavy. That’s because your mashed banana mixture is thinner, almost liquid-y instead of being chunky. You can read more about it in this post on how to freeze and thaw bananas for baking.
This is such an easy recipe and it always produces a terrific cake. I get compliments every time I make it.
Could I add a small can of drained crushed pineapple and some coconut like I do for my carrot cake?
Hi Peggie! We haven’t tested that, but would try replacing some of the mashed banana with crushed pineapple.