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!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 2 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice divided
- 1 ⅓ cups mashed bananas about 4 medium bananas
- ⅔ cup unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- ⅓ cup butter softened
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice or vanilla extract
- 1 ½ teaspoons lemon zest from 1 lemon, optional
- 3-3 ½ cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. 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.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
This recipe has been retested and updated 11/20/16.
Very slightly adapted from food.com
I have made this cake so many times I’ve lost count and every time it’s been moist and delicious. The freezer trick is “ da bomb!” I love browned butter icing on this.
:) That sounds great Del! So glad you enjoy the cake!
Can you please let me know if you used salted or unsalted butter for the cake recipe?
I have baked for many years. This does not turn out light and fluffy but dense and mucky. I really didn’t get taking something really hot and putting it in the freezer.
I’m sorry to hear that the cake didn’t work for you Linda. Putting the cake into the freezer is a critical part of making this cake. I have made this cake many times as written, and it works well for me, and other readers. Thank you for trying it.
Okay let me preface by saying I’m still learning to bake. I used my Kitchen Aid Stand mixer for the entire process. Well, I didn’t do so good on this :-(. My cake came out dense, heavy and the bananas were clumped throughout the cake even though I mushed them with a fork. I used cake flour because that is all that I had. I also used one large round deep cake pan to bake it because I didn’t have a rectangle pan. The pan was deep enough that all of the batter filled it to 3/4 full. Could these have made the difference?
I absolutely love banana cake and want to try this again because it looks soooo delicious! Now the icing….OMG!!! That was amazing! I didn’t put the full 3 cups of sugar because by tasting it I didn’t think I needed to, but it came out fabulous!!
Would love some tips and guidance so that I can master this recipe! Thanks!
Yes, Sonja, using different flour and a different pan than indicated will make a difference to how the cake turns out. You may want to mash the bananas even more, as they should be evenly distributed throughout the cake. I hope that you can try it again with the 9 x 13 pan and have great success next time! And yes, I do LOVE the icing. It tops the cake off so nicely!
I made this amazing recipe for my fiance and his sons this weekend and they all had a fit over it. I doubled the icing just because I love icing but I only used about 2/3 of it in the end. I had to stretch the icing out with a bit of water as it was super thick..but just by a few tablespoons.
Super delicious cake and I will definitely be making this again. Thanks for posting it!
First time making this, and im not much of baker, and it came out very delicious. Definitely will make more for family get togethers. Thank you for this recipe.
Yay, so glad it worked out well for you Tish!
Easy PEZ so easy . Frosting was to die for
Yay! So glad you loved it Mary, I agree, I could just have a bowl of frosting and call it a day! :)
Omg the best! Thank you
It was so good,I used halo orange and vanilla in the frosting.Thanks, it’s a keeper!!
Delicious additions, thank you for sharing!
Making the cake now. Do you drain off the lemon juice from the mashed bananas?
You mix it all into the cake. Enjoy!
This cake was amazing!! I used coconut milk instead of regular and it was just fine.
Love this cake. The kids and I make this every few weeks. Definitely a family favorite.
Hi, I am baking this cake right now and had a quick question. I have never baked a cake that goes from the oven to the freezer. Sorry if I sound silly asking this but I take the cake out of the oven then out of the pan …wrap it up in seran wrap and put it in the freezer. Correct?. Please advise.
I put the pan right into the freezer. If I use pyrex, I let it cool slightly (20 min) before putting it into the freezer.
This banana cake with its wonderful cream cheese icing is definitely the best Ever! I need to have it on hand whenever my adult children and grand children come to visit; good thing though because I am not to be trusted with a whole cake at my disposal!
I know exactly what you mean. Ha ha, I can’t be trusted around this cake either!
Very good moist and flavorful. Will make again.
Glad you enjoyed the cake Toni!
Very good cake. Moist and full of flavor. I found it a little difficult to just whip it up. My fault though as I started it about the same time I started cooking dinner. So many different bowls to use everything stayed a mess. Will be better organized next time.+
Glad you enjoyed it Toni!
I made the cake but not the frosting. I happened to have some leftover frosting I needed to use. I mashed the bananas in a food processor with 1/2 cup of pecans. It was excellent.
I made this last night and it is delicious however it is super dense. I followed the instructions including putting it in the freezer. Any thoughts on what might have went wrong?
I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you, we’ve made it several times and it always comes out moist and delicious. A few things to consider. Did you use over ripe bananas? Did you mix the flour only until combined? If you over mix, it will make a denser cake. Did you turn the oven down? Hope that helps!
Absolutely delicious!!!! Great for banana lovers!!! Do u suggest storing in fridge??
Glad you loved it! I usually store it in the fridge and try to leave it at room temp at least 30 min before serving.
What if u dont put in freezer after baking? I have no room in mine. This sounds so good! I want to make it.
It doesn’t get quite as moist if you don’t freeze it. I’m not sure what the temp is where you live, but do you have a covered deck or cold area you can put it outside?
I’m sorry Ms. Holly… had wrong name b4