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
This cake was delicious!! It reminds me of an italian cream cake in texture and sweetness—a heavier-duty cake that is just my style. I actually turned this recipe into a banana-coconut tres leches by poking holes in the baked cake and pouring on a mix of coconut cream, milk, and condensed milk, and topping it with an “icing” made of homemade whipped cream/condensed milk/coconut cream. It was DIVINE. I served it at my nephew’s baptism party and my whole Cuban family loved it! Everyone told me I should keep the recipe ;) As far as leftovers go, because the cake isn’t super sugary, it will dry out relatively quickly so make sure you cover it after it’s been cut. Thank you for this recipe!
So happy everyone enjoyed it, Sophia!
Hello,
To make this a layer cake, do I need to change anything, or can I simply split batter into 2 9″ pans?
Thank you!
DJ (the boy kind)
Hi DJ, I would check them for doneness at 35-40 minutes. But otherwise it should be the same.
The taste very good, not sure if I did something wrong because it was dense not a fluffy cake but it was moist. It looked fluffy until I put it in the freezer, so I would skip that part. I also had to use baking powder, and 3 bananas that weren’t super ripe.
Hi Brenda, I would definitely try again with baking soda and ripened bananas. Putting it in the freezer helps make it moist so I wouldn’t skip that step!
This is the best banana cake recipe I’ve made and will take the place of one that I’ve used for years. I even forgot to add in the vanilla, and it was still delicious and moist. It raised up much higher than I expected too. Thank you for the recipe!
I made this for an early Valentines Day dinner. My husband, who is a diehard chocoholic, just informed me that I don’t ever have to make another chocolate cake for him. This banana cake has now officially become his favorite. The only thing he said I might do on a future cake is add a little chocolate to the cream cheese frosting. I’ll try that next time!
I am so happy he loved it, Tammy! I think a little chocolate in the frosting sounds like the perfect balance.
Hi Holly
This cake is super simple and an absolute treat, great recipe. I was curious about the freezer step, until I started eating the cake and it’s so moist and delicious. Now I’m wondering if I should put all my cakes in the freezer for 45min after I have made them.
Looking forward to trying some of your other recipes!
Thanks from NZ!
I made this cake for my hubby’s birthday, and it was so yummy. Grand daughter’s also loved it. Definitely will be printed and added to my recipes
Was more like banan bread then cake ruiend my doughters Birth day
It’s definitely disappointing that the cake didn’t turn out as expected for you, I can’t say for sure what went wrong. This recipe has almost 850 reviews and is highly rated and enjoyed. While the texture of the cake wasn’t as expected, hopefully you could still enjoy the rest of your daughter’s special day. Happy birthday to her!
Follow recipe exactly follow the temp drop when placing in oven. It goes in the freezer right from oven. Place towel under the cake pan while cooling. DO NOT OVERBAKE. Start checking the temp at 45 minutes I usually take mine out about 49 minutes because my oven heat varies it’s usually hotter. This is a awesome banana cake. Hope it works for you.
My spouse declared this the best cake I ever made. Moist, flavorful, and pretty easy. I used 4 over ripe bananas, Gold Medal AP flour, mixed in a stand mixer, and baked in a Bundt pan in a convection oven to 208 F. Didn’t have room in the freezer, but outside in Northern Illinois in January worked just fine. No cream cheese in the fridge, so I substituted a lemon glaze. Just as moist and tasty the next day. Will most certainly make again and would serve to company. Looking forward to trying your other recipes!
That sounds delicious, Teresa! Thanks for sharing.
I make this recipe it was absolutely delicious and moist. I though the idea of putting the cake in the freezer for 45 mins was crazy. But I was so surprised it was super good. I did two bars of cream cheese because I really like to taste the cream cheese and added more vanilla to the frosting and then sprinkled with very fine pecan chips. Wonderful and I will make this again!
Banana cake with lemon frosting-my family did not like the lemon frosting with the banana cake. My 13 year old granddaughter scraped the frosting off and said-Yuck! I was very disappointed!
I am sorry to hear that, Jill. We love the combination but you can use any frosting you prefer on this cake!
Would this recipe, in your opinion, bake up well in a bundt pan?
We haven’t tried this recipe in a bundt pan, but other readers have with success. We would love to hear how it turns out for you, Sherri!
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.
Lemon juice combined with milk = buttermilk. If you have buttermilk on hand you can use it in place of the lemon juice/milk combo.
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.