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
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 2 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice divided
- 1 ⅓ cups mashed bananas about 3 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
Delicious!! I used buttermilk (time saver) instead and it turned out very moist.
I’m but now the occasion we were going to have is not coming, so can I put it in the freezer and then take it out to frost it later will it freeze well that way should I just leave it in the freezer from the cooling time should I cover it before I put it in there give me some ideas of what to do
You can absolutely freeze this cake and thaw and frost at a later date. Feel free to leave it in the freezer right when you put it in there.
Always wonderful! I have made it many times.Used oil instead of butter.
I tried the recipe minus the lemon juice, I used buttermilk instead and the cake came out perfect. For the frosting I used ermine buttercream and it’s so delicious. This is the most delicious banana cake I’ve had so far and it’s so moist and fluffy and it’s also my family’s new favorite cake. Thank you so much for the recipe.
So happy you enjoyed it, Cynthia! I am glad it worked so well for you.
I’m so glad that you commented that you used buttermilk instead of regular milk because I just bought buttermilk. I was thinking it would work, but still not sure I don’t wanna go changing someone else’s recipe without knowing for sure so thank you again. I’m hoping lowfat buttermilk will work in this recipe. It’s my mom’s birthday tomorrow (4/21/24) and her favorite cake of all time is banana cake so I’m gonna make this for her
Absolutely the best banana cake!!!
As all of Your recipes I have tried!!!
Thank you!!
I’m so glad you’ve loved all of the recipes Angie!
this banana cake was one of the best i ever made i topped mine with buttercream frosting and also added finely chopped up pecans to the cake and topped the cake with a pecan on every slice amazing my go to banana cake thank you for your recipe
I plan to make this cake for a two tier cake, using two 9” round pans. Do you think it’ll hold up okay for tiers or it too moist/soft? TYIA!
I will be making this tomorrow. Quick question, making cupcakes opposed to a cake. Any idea on baking time? Regular size cupcakes. Thanks for your help!!
Hi Brian! If you are making cupcakes instead of cake, I would follow the baking time for these banana cupcakes. I would love to hear how they turn out for you!
Thanks for the help!! I will let you know how they come out. Is this your recipe also? I have it saved.
It’s my grandfather’s recipe from my childhood! :)
Wow! This cake is amazing! Followed recipe exactly as printed except the freezer. Baked it in a glass pan so I didn’t want it to shatter and ruin the cake but it still turned out wonderfully moist. Will make it again in a metal pan and try the freezer step to see what the difference is. Thank you for sharing!!
The cooking time on this is way too long. My oven normally takes longer than the recipe calls for and at 60 minutes it was dark brown with dry crispy edges. Probably would have been good in 45 minutes. Flavour is good but the cook time is way off
The recipe says ‘bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean’. As with all baking, oven temperatures vary so it’s important to check your dish often to avoid over-baking.
Can I make this in 8” or 9” pans for a layer cake?
I haven’t made it as a layer cake Mary Beth, so I can’t say for sure. I know other readers have successfully made this in different pan sizes. I would suggest two 9″ pans and to start checking the cake around 30 minutes for doneness with a toothpick. They should still go in the freezer out of the oven. Let us know how it goes!
Delicious!! I used cake flour. I also added a layer of banana slices on top of the batter prior to baking. I also used only 2 cups of powdered sugar and double the lemon juice and the icing was incredible. Very fluffy!!! Thanks for this recipe!
Hello
I haven’t made the cake yet because I have a question. Instead of putting lemon juice in the milk can I just use buttermilk?
Thank you
Rhonda
P.S. I’ll be sure to leave a comment after I baked the cake.
You sure can Rhonda! Let us know how it goes!
very good but my frosting is not super thick. very tasty though. do I need to store this cake in the fridge, or is it fine wrapped up on the counter
I like to keep it in the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before I serve it.
I don’t understand why you say to preheat oven to 350 and then when you’re ready to bake reduce the oven to 300…please explain. Also do you let the cake cool before you place it in the freezer….your recipe sounds like you take it out of the oven and immediately freeze it. I’m confused.
Hi Patricia, preheating to a higher temp and then reducing the temp once the cake is in the oven allows it to cook at the higher temp as the oven temperature drops. We used to cook it at a lower temperature however many readers were having trouble with the results. The recipe was retested several times with this new temperature change and updated for consistency for all readers. As for putting it in the freezer, we do put it directly into the freezer from the oven but you can leave it on the counter to cool slightly before putting it in the freezer if you prefer. It doesn’t freeze in those 45 minutes but it cools the cake rapidly and helps make it extra moist.
Delicious cake! I ran low on cream cheese so I added more butter and made brown sugar pecan topping. Amazing
Hands down the best banana cake I have ever made. Thought it was funny at first about putting the cake in the freezer, but seriously I understand now after making it. It was the most moist banana cake. Just go ahead and make this you won’t regret it!!!
Amazing!
This cake was excellent. I followed the recipe exactly, and it was very moist. We really enjoyed the the lemon juice and zest in the frosting, which balanced the sweetness also. I would not have thought to add lemon to a banana cake recipe. It was also the perfect amount of frosting for the top of a 13×9 cake. Will definitely make it again! Thanks!
Just pulled this cake out of the freezer to frost with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting and obviously had to sneak a little piece……WOW ~ WOW ~ WOW so delicious. Just the right amount of sweetness and moistness to this cake. I followed the recipe to the tee. Thanks for sharing.
I couldn’t wait to make this, I read 3 eggs room temperature, it’s 63 degrees in here so I wrapped the eggs in my heating blanket, go back to surfing recipes and twenty minutes later I hear this chirping, then dog nails sliding on the tile, end table banging into the wall, lamp hitting the floor. I’m like what the, is going on out here, it was chaos I tell you, one dog trying to chase three chicks running in all directions, he didn’t know what way to go,,,,,.there has to be a better way?
Kidding, I don’t have a dog! Cake was Fabulous, Butter makes everything better! I did go Almond extract on the frosting.
Haha Dana, your comment made me laugh this morning! LOL! So glad you loved this cake.
whatbstage do the bananas need to be at to use
Hi Darren, for this recipe we use fully ripened bananas to make sure it gives the cake a nice banana flavour.