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
What type of pan did you use for this? Also, how many people can this cake serve?
We used a 9×13 pan Greg and sliced it into 15 servings.
What does the 3-3 1/2 cups of powered sugar mean?
You will want to add between 3 and 3½ cups of powdered sugar to the frosting until you reach your desired consistency, Peggy.
Hi! I have 2 questions. Which would be better to add in this recipe, crushed almonds or walnuts? And if we did add nuts, which mixture would we add it in?
You could add either Katie. Most readers have tried with walnuts with great success. I would add about ½-1 cups when I fold in the bananas. If you toss the nuts with a little bit of flour before adding to the batter, they won’t sink the bottom. :) Enjoy!
This really is the best banana cake ever! I have made it several times now and both my husband and son love love love it thank you for sharing
Excellent recipe. Easy to make and very flavor. It’s a keeper
Not fluffy…
I followed the recipe exactly.. It took a really long time to get done though
received this from a friend. It was absolutely delicious. Probably the best banana cake I have ever tasted right down to the frosting (I am not a frosting person). She added a bag of walnuts though. We love nuts.
Should I use salted or unsalted butter? Thanks
Hi Jessica, we used unsalted butter in this recipe. If using salted butter, I would omit the salt in the recipe.
I made this cake for the first time and was very disappointed. It was dense and heavy but lacked flavor and sweetness. I did not use the frosting that accompanied the cake, instead I used cool whip and banana pudding mix together as the frosting. I will never make this cake again, I feel there are better cake recipes to try.
Sorry to hear that Christine, this recipe is a reader favorite! If it was dense it may have been over-mixed. Usually, it results in a soft, moist, and rich cake!
It probably also depends on the type of flour used because it doesn’t specify…
If you did not follow the frosting recipe, it makes me question if you followed the ingredients for the cake as specified.
Perplexed as to why you would even offer a critique…
I have baked this cake so many times, and it ALWAYS gets rave reviews. My entire family LOVES it. I don’t even bother making banana bread anymore with overly-ripe bananas. This initial recipe I got years ago was with a frosting (Carmel?) using milk, brown sugar, cream cheese and powdered sugar, so I haven’t made this lemon frosting. My thinking is “why mess with perfection?” I have goofed up on this recipe a few times, but it is always so good!! My initial cake directions did not call for freezing the cake either, so I don’t think I ever have. I messed up one time and didn’t bake it long enough, but that was my fault. This is a recipe I will hand down to my granddaughters. Thank you so much! Hey, why did you change the frosting?
Yay!! So glad you’ve loved it Robin! We updated the frosting recipe a few years ago as some readers were having trouble with the original frosting setting.
Excellent cake. Very moist and the icing goes great with it. Mine took 55 min at 350.
My baby loves banana, and I was thinking about using this recipe for a smash cake for his first birthday. Would it hold up well to being stacked? And do you happen to know how long it should bake in a 5-6in cake round?
That sounds like such a fun idea Rachel! You will have to tag us on Instagram @spendpennies, we would love to see how he likes it! As for stacking, we haven’t tried but other readers have it seems to work. If splitting it into smaller pans I would watch it carefully as the cooking time will be reduced. Then just bake it until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let us know how it turns out!
I didn’t put in freezer, and was still super moist. Everyone loved it. Great alternative to banana bread to use your over ripe bananas.
I never review but felt like others needed to hear this was so delicious and easy to make. I brought the cake (Most of it lol) to work the day after I made it and the flavor was even better! Rave reviews from my coworkers. Best when cold in my opinion. Thank you for the recipe:)
This cake is delicious! Read the tips and obey them.
This as delicious! Lol, I usually fail at cakes so I was expecting it to be dense but it’s as light as advertised. No icing required
I am not a baker but my husband saw this recipe and said it looked good so I am going to try! What milk do you use? Whole, 2%, 1%? Does it matter?
Hi Amy, this recipe should work with any type of milk.
Can you put a hot out of the oven glass pan in the freezer?
Hi Carla, you can let it cool for 15-20 minutes before transferring to the freezer.
OMG! This cake was great. I followed the tips and they were on point. I used 2 9-inch cake pans and baked them for 55 minutes. I also used the cream cheese frosting recipe and garnished with toasted pecans. The cake was moist and delicious!
I made it exactly like the recipe said and put it in the freezer. For 45 minutes I’ll leave it in as stated but what’s the purpose of that? And do you cover it or leave it uncovered?
No explanation for this. Other than to keep it moist. Never heard of doing that.
I usually leave it uncovered. I find it keeps it nice and moist.
i can’t have regular flour so I modified this a bit… I used 3c almond flour and 1c paleo flour. I also baked it for 1.5 hours before it was done. With the almond flour, you have to cover the edges so they don’t burn. I think next time I’ll reduce the milk by 1/2 c. The cake is incredibly moist, and the taste is outstanding!! No need to “freeze” for 45 minutes with the modifications as almond flour has a high moisture content anyway. Thanks for the base to start with!! I imagine the “regular” version is outstanding !!
So happy to hear you were able to modify this recipe Sandi! Glad it turned out delicious for you :)
Sounds yummy. I will make it today.