by Holly
This is, hands down, the BEST banana cake I’ve ever had. It’s soft, moist and rich all at the same time! Once cooled this cake is topped with a totally irresistible lemon cream cheese frosting for a perfect dessert your family will love.
I love a good banana cake, it just reminds me of being a kid because my Grandpa and Grandma made the BEST banana cupcakes. I can still smell them baking in my grandma’s kitchen, waiting impatiently with my sisters.
This cake is reminiscent of my favorite banana cupcakes. It is soft and fluffy and incredibly moist and topped with my favorite ever lemony cream cheese frosting.
As much as I love a fluffy banana cake, I love it even more when it’s topped with an amazing cream cheese frosting! I add in a little bit of lemon zest and lemon juice for extra flavor in my cream cheese frosting but if you prefer, you can leave out the lemon and substitute vanilla.
Regardless of how you top it, once you try this cake, it’ll be your go-to. Every time you have overripe bananas on the counter you’ll want to make this recipe! In fact, I often buy extra bananas to ripen and make this cake!
Tips to ensure a soft moist result:
- Ensure your ingredients are at room temperature (eggs and butter)
- You need the acidity from the lemon juice (& milk) mixture. Subbing in just milk or cream won’t work. (You can use buttermilk in its place if needed).
- When mixing your butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla, beat the mixture until VERY fluffy, almost the consistency of a fluffy buttercream frosting. This should take about 5 minutes.
- When adding the flour mixture you want to mix until just combined. Over-mixing will cause a dense chewy result.
- The cooking time on this cake can vary! Check your cake at 55 minutes, if it isn’t ready, continue cooking until a toothpick comes out clean (this can be up to an additional 20 minutes depending on your oven). The result will be a moist and irresistible banana cake.
Happy Baking!
The Best Banana Cake
Prep Time 20 minutes
Servings 15 servings
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 2 ½ tablespoons lemon juice divided
- 1 ⅓ cup mashed bananas
- ⅔ cup butter softened
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 cups flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
FROSTING
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- ⅓ cup butter softened
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 ½ teaspoons lemon zest from 1 lemon
- 3-3 ½ cups powdered sugar
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.
- Place 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice in a measuring cup. Top to 1 ½ cups with milk. Set aside.
- Mix together mashed banana with 1 tablespoon lemon juice, set aside.
- Beat together butter, brown and white sugar until combined. Add in eggs one at a time and vanilla. Mix on high until light and fluffy (almost the texture of frosting).
- Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Alternate adding flour mixture and milk to egg mixture stirring just until combined. (Do not overmix). Fold in bananas. Pour into prepared pan.
- Put into the oven and reduce heat to 300°F. Bake 60 – 70 minutes (see note below) or just until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (do not over bake).
- Remove from oven and place in the freezer for 45 minutes to make the cake extra moist. Cool completely before frosting.
FROSTING
- Cream together butter & cream cheese until fluffy. Add in lemon zest and juice.
- Add powdered sugar a little at a time until you reach desired consistency. Spread over cooled cake.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
(Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.)
This recipe has been retested and updated 11/20/16.
Very slightly adapted from food.com
Turned out super moist. I used my 5 over ripe small (black skinned) bananas. I used vanilla and lemon juice in frosting. I had no real lemon. Took 60 min exactly for me in a gas stove. I chopped up some black walnuts and sprinkled on the top.
Wonderful cake! Thanks for this recipe.
Verry good! Only thing is i cooked it a 350 at convection Oven but it was crusty but to wet in side? It’s like it was missed ng 15 mins byt the top was going to be to cook?
What do you suggeste?
Byt it is good and icing Wow
Our suggesting baking time and temperature are listed in the recipe. A convection oven will cook hotter and crisp the outside more.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Once in the pan, put the cake into the oven and reduce heat to 300°F. Bake 60 – 70 minutes or just until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (do not over bake).
Absolutely amazing and soooo worth it!!
Made this banana cake, followed the directions exactly as shown, and omg delicious will definitely make this again.
Wow! I made it exactly as per recipe. Delicious. The lemon icing is amazing! It would be good with vanilla icing too, but the little touch of lemon is over the top.
Oh, my word! This cake is definitely THE BEST banana cake I have ever eaten! I followed the recipe as is, except I used buttermilk, which I had already bought to make a different banana cake before I found this recipe, and I am so glad that I did.
I made it in two square pans and gave one to my daughter and her family, as they were having company over for dinner. She said everyone raved about the cake. My husband even ate some for breakfast, something he has never done!
This will certainly be my go-to recipe for banana cake. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Banana Cake for breakfast, I love it, Susan! So glad this recipe was such a hit.
Where in the instructions does it say to add the buttermilk? I followed the instructions and ended up leaving the buttermilk out because I had set it aside and then never saw the instruction to add it… so much time wasted
It’s in step 5. Keli.
5. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Alternate adding flour mixture and milk to egg mixture stirring just until combined. (Do not overmix). Fold in bananas. Pour into prepared pan.
This is absolutely moist and delicious. I added my own touch and made cream cheese frosting with heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla, with a tiny pinch of sea salt. I used the buttermilk in the batter. It was truly a hit, and a recipe that I will make again.