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
Would recommend this recipe, easy to make and a lot to share. Delicious and moist!!!
it was very good, but it was very heavy. what did I do wrong.
Did you add extra banana?
no I did not
I can’t say for sure as I haven’t had it turn out dense. Did you use soured milk or buttermilk in the recipe and check the expiration date of your baking soda?
I was very excited for this cake. I do not know where I went wrong, but it was not what I was expecting. I bake frequently and followed the recipe but it did not live up to my expectations. Not a lot of banana flavor and was not as moist as I expected it would be. I did enjoy the frosting though.
Just to be clear I bake a lot so my family has very high expectations. I made this recipe for my husband’s birthday dinner.
Everyone loved it ! My husband said it could easily be the best cake I have ever made ! I followed every step including putting it in the freezer. It is the moistest cake ever ! Thank you Holly for sharing
That is high praise! I am so glad he enjoyed it so much, Katherine!
I made this recipe and cooled in the freezer for 45 minutes. It’s still not cooled completely. The frosting is made, should I be putting it in the refrigerator until I can frost the cake? Can this just sit on the counter covered? For how long? Thanks in advance!!
Hi Anna, the frosting can sit on the counter for a few hours but I would store it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
the cake was very bland not my favorite banana cake recipe. It was not sweet enough, I will stick with the vegan version.
I am sorry to hear that this recipe wasn’t quite what you expected, Jessica. But thank you for trying our recipe!
When you freeze the cake should it be covered then placed in the freezer or as it is?
When putting in the freezer in step 7 you don’t need to cover it.
Fantastic no fail recipe, gets rave reviews every time. I mash 4 large ripe bananas for that extra banana flavour. For the frosting I make a butter cream icing with orange juice instead of milk, a few tablespoons at a time until I reach the desired consistency.
I find the orange flavour takes the lovely banana cake to a whole new level, the cream cheese over powers the flavour of the banana IMHO.
I’ve made this cake previously in a 9×13 pan – so good! Now I’d really like to try the recipe for cupcakes. What changes to bake temp and time should I make? I don’t know if this question has been asked already… Thank you!
I would suggest filling your cupcake liners ⅔ full and baking for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. I would love to hear how they turn out for you!
This cake was so moist and delicious! I served it as dessert for a dinner party with friends and it received rave reviews! I used a 9″ springform pan which produced a nice 2″ high cake. Thanks for another great recipe Holly!
WOW! that’s how i would describe this recipe. i used applesauce instead of eggs and didn’t even use real milk, i used almond milk and it still came out better than i could have hoped for! i only baked it for a good 45 minutes because my oven runs hot and it came out PERFECTLY. 10/10 recipe i’m obsessed, this is my new go to recipe for banana cake! simply the best :)!
I made it exactly as instructed. I only cooked it for 60 minutes. It’s quite dense and dry. Not my favorite.
Thanks for trying our recipe. I’m sorry it wasn’t quite what you expected.
This recipe lives up to its name! This will be my forever banana cake recipe from now on. Everyone that I have made this cake for has also raved about it. I’ve also made banana cupcakes and a banana Bundt cake with this recipe and they’ve all turned out fabulous
Wonder if you changed the quantities of the ingredients for Bundt?
I made this last night for my husbands birthday and it was my first time making this banana cake. I followed everything except I used 2 medium ɓananas because thats wat i have on hand and 3 duck eggs and still turned out really really good . My husband and I love it. thanks for the recipe 3>
I made this for my brother in law’s birthday & it was a big hit loved all the great comments about the cake
thus recipe is BUM!!!! OUTTA THIS WORLD. ID GIVE IT 6 STARS IF I COULD.I ALSO MADE A”HAPPY” mistake. I used baking powder instead of baking soda for 6 muffins, 3 mini loaves and a binding cake. the bundle cake was the o ly one that formed up in me. so I tasted it and it wasn’t awful, but needed rescue. so I chopped up the dense cake, added about 5 over ripe bananas, grabbed a few eggs and made a very sweet egg custard ‘Nana flavored custard with the ripe ‘nanas and a few pecans and walnuts made an impromptu banana bread pudding. so tasty the kids thought I made it on purpose!! lmao. I dod nothing to persuade them otherwise of secret grandmother recipe for the family only banana bread pudding custard!! our son swears he had this when he was little at nana’s house i. delaware!! wow, kids a bigger liar then me lmao!!as I cant tell him w/o embarrassing him( he’s autistic and prone to a bout or two of acute embarrassment followed closely by the darkest cloud of dread silence you’ve never heard bit only feel as if a tangible miasma of heavy, wet dank swamp cloud has you trapped inside and there’s no way out till he decides a few days later!!
I love our kids and this is a small price to pay for all the joy , love, attention he showers us with!!
Just wanted to say that this was the absolutely perfect cake. Followed directions to a tee and it was perfect!
I do have one question: if and only if there are any pieces left over when I make it again can you freeze it even with icing on?
Thank you
Can almond milk be used instead of cow milk?
I have only tried the recipe as written, so can’t say for sure. Other readers have commented that they used almond milk with success.
Hi, I’ve made this as my son’s birthday cake 2 years in a row (soon to be 3), always get so many compliments on it! Just wondering could I 1.5x the recipe to make a taller cake to save me cooking 2, or would it not cook properly? Thanks.
Hi Greer, I have never tried but I think it should work well. I would love to hear how it turns out for you!
Delicious!
I don’t typically review recipes but I just had two on this one. This is the best, most moist banana cake I have ever made. I followed the recipe as presented and it turned out. Wonderful thank you for such a great recipe. I did have one question, because this cake was so moist, would it be the same if I put layered baked cakes in the freezer after baking to have the same moistness?