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 used a rectangular cake tin and baked it at 140°C in a 900mm oven. It came out perfectly baked in 22min. I left out the icing as I prefer unadorned cakes. This will be my go to recipe for soft and delicious banana cake.
Amazing recipe! Tried it twice and turned out beautifully, moist, high and so full of banana and vanilla flavours. I changed it a little bit to my taste ( 1 cup plain flour, 1 cup chesnut flour, 1 cup almond meal and replace half of the sugar by honey), it was still perfect! Thank you!
Lo from Sydney
So glad you loved it!
This cake lives up to its name! It is so light and moist. I made a few alterations, based on what I had on hand. I had some honey yogurt that I wanted to use up, so I substituted 1/2 c. of that for 1/2 c. of the milk, using only 1 Tbsp. lemon juice in 1 c. of milk. I almost always substitute almond extract for vanilla because I love that flavor, and it was a perfect complement to the banana. I didn’t have cream cheese but did have mascarpone, so I made a mascarpone frosting and its lightness worked well with this light cake. Thanks so much for this recipe! It’s a keeper. I think the base would work well with other additions–peach puree instead of the banana? I’m looking forward to playing with it.
I’ve never tried a marscapone frosting, I bet that is delicious! Thank you for sharing!
Great recipe, made this twice already, but you can just mix the milk and bananas in before the flour and it comes out the same. Best banana cake I’ve had in a long time. Thank you.
Made this cake, instantly became my family’s favorite :) Trying it today with a salted caramel frosting just for a change of pace! Thanks for the recipe
Oh, salted caramel sounds amazing! Thanks for trying this cake, it’s one of our favorites!
Hey quick question is it lemon extract, or fresh lemon juice?
This recipe uses fresh lemon juice.
Amazing cake !! Followed the instructions to the T and wow it turned out great!! Thank u so much !! Is there a substitute for baking soda or could we avoid it ?? Whenever I use it in baking ,it tends to leave a drying feeling on my tongue !!
Made this this morning, along with your Millionaire spaghetti casserole! Both were fantastic! I rarely make a 2nd recipe from a blog, unless I really like the first one. I took a chance on 2 of yours, in one day I might add. I am so very pleased, and so was my family, that I did!!! DELICIOUS!!! Or Dewishus as my daughter likes to say! :) Thanks so much.
Thank you so much Shannon! I love this cake too!
do you cool the cake before you put it in the freezer??
Definitely!
Doesn’t say that in the recipe!! Wondering if going straight to the freezer is what made it so god- awful dense and thick. It wasn’t light and fluffy at all and I didn’t even use a mixer to put the flour in, just stirred by hand.
This recipe has great reviews and always turns out well for me. Did you follow the troubleshooting tips in the post.
Made this today, it came out really good. ♥
Dear Holly,
Your cake seems amazing! For my birthday I would like to do a banana layer cake. So I’m looking for the best recipe :) do you think yours could work ? (I’m a little bit afraid that the weight of the top layer will be too much for the bottom one if they’re really fluffy). I need to make 3 rounds layers of 6” , do you have an idea of how I can adapt the quantities ?
Thanks so much for your help!
(Sorry for my English, I’m French ^^
I haven’t tried this as a layer cake so I can’t say for sure. If you do make it, please let us know how it turned out for you.
I made this tonight after a pregnancy craving for banana cake lead me to your recipe! It did not disappoint! I probably could have cut the confectionate sugar down to 2 cups as I had a ton left and it was a little more sweet than I would prefer but it was still scrumptious! Thanks for being so detailed in your recipe! Can’t wait to eat it tomorrow too!
I am so glad this helped with the cravings Breanna!!
Delicious!!!
Can cake batter be GORGEOUS? This is the best cake I have had in a long stretch. The process reminds me of baking with my mom. I’m opting to serve it without the frosting. The cake stands on its own. Thank you for utilizing the brown bananas on my kitchen counter!
I’m so glad you loved it Jojo! :)
Holly, do you really take the cake out of the oven and put it in the freezer for 45 minutes?
Yes, I clear a space and cool it in the freezer (or in the winter, I just put it out on the deck). :) It makes a big difference!
Thanks Holly! I did put it in the freezer. Delicious cake!
The frosting is particularly scrumptious!
You’re so welcome, I’m glad you loved it Marty!!
Should I use a metal pan? I would think a glass pan would break once you put the hot cake in freezer directly from the oven?
Yes, this works perfectly in a metal pan. If I use pyrex I let it cool slightly (20 min) before putting it into the freezer.
When I made the frosting I only used 2 cups of the powdered sugar. Came out fine.
This is fantastic! Not only tasty but so quick and easy to make.
Very Nice Article…
Going to make the cake. I am wanting to do this using a bundt cake pan. Does anyone think that would make a difference?
Is the brown sugar packed in this kitchen recipe?
Thanks :)
Yes, the brown sugar is packed.
Hi Dear,
I was searching a recipe of banana cake. Recently, I’ve seen your article and read it. You’ve explained very good. I really liked it. So, keep up the good work.