Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Soft, tender banana cake with cream cheese frosting! The cake balances delicate banana flavor with a mixture of warming spices and brown sugar. Super easy to make in one bowl and then frost in a 9×13 inch baking dish.

Perfect banana flavor that isn’t overpowering. Bananas make baked goods naturally tender and moist, and the banana flavor is balanced with the ideal spice blend and a cake’s soft, fluffy texture! Just the right amount of sweetness from the brown sugar coupled with a tangy cream cheese frosting make this cake next level! 

One bowl recipes like this one transform pantry staples into the best desserts (or snacks) with almost no clean up! This cake joins the ranks of my easy and popular favorites with one bowl brownies, my spectacular one bowl carrot cake, and this rich, yet unassuming one bowl chocolate layered cake.

Professional Tips

• Taste and smell your bananas. You know from my banana cream pie that you should smell and taste your bananas to ensure they are at optimal ripeness. Check them once they are peeled and maybe even before. They are ready if you can smell that wonderful banana smell! The peel will also have small brown spots.
• Make sure you use melted butter that is still warm but not hot. I have found that warm, melted butter produces banana cake with the best texture.
• Use room-temperature eggs. If your eggs are at room temperature they’ll incorporate more evenly into the batter and your cake will have a smoother texture. Pre-whisking them will also help guard you from over-developing your gluten when you combine the wet and dry ingredients.

Ingredients

For the Banana Cake:

• All-Purpose flour: I use all-purpose flour for this recipe like I do in my hummingbird cake, but you could use cake flour. The resulting texture will be lighter.
• Baking Powder: Double acting baking powder will react instantly when it is mixed with an acid, and then again when it is heated. It allows for a much more even rise than baking soda would.
• Kosher Salt
• Ground Cinnamon
• Large Eggs
• Vanilla Extract
• Ripe Banana: One cup of mashed banana is about 3 medium-small bananas. Which banana is best for banana cake? Use bananas that are anywhere between spotted to completely brown. This is the peak flavor for this, banana bars, banana crumb bread,  and vegan chocolate chip banana bread! Bring on the potassium!
• Granulated Sugar
• Dark Brown Sugar: You could use light brown sugar instead but the extra molasses and richness in the dark brown sugar does make a difference in this cake like it does in butterscotch brownies.
• Unsalted Butter: The butter is melted. That means you could substitute coconut oil if you would like. This substitution will also make the banana cake dairy free! There is no sour cream or buttermilk like other recipes.

For the optional frosting:

• Cream Cheese: I find the brick-style full fat cream cheese to be best in frostings like my cream cheese frosting recipe. Low fat or whipped become too loose.
• Unsalted Butter
• Powdered Sugar
• Lemon Juice
• Vanilla Extract

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Variations

• Mix in some chopped nuts, chocolate chips and more! This cake would be nice with chopped walnuts, pecans or macadamia nuts, or make it more decadent with chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or butterscotch chips like I did in these double chocolate banana muffins.
• Add a Nutella or peanut butter swirl. Add some dollops of softened Nutella or your favorite nut butter then swirl like I did in this Nutella banana bread recipe. You could also make this recipe into cupcakes, and put nutella inside!
• Use a different frosting. Try spreading it with this cream cheese frosting for cookies, loosened slightly with cream or milk, or layer on a rich chocolate buttercream frosting! You can also use browned butter in the cream cheese frosting recipe below!

How to Make Banana Cake

Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below!

Bake the cake:

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 325°F (no fan). Line a 9 x 13-inch pan with parchment paper overlapping up two sides.

Step 2: In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon). Set aside.

Step 3: In another large bowl, whisk the eggs until no streaks of whites remain. Add the bananas to the eggs and whisk to combine.

Step 4: Add the sugars and vanilla to the banana mixture. Whisk until smooth then pour in the butter. Whisk until combined. Once you add it to the butter, the mixture will thicken slightly.

Step 5: Add the flour mixture to the bowl with the wet ingredients and stir just to combine. Just like with cookies, you don’t want to over-mix the batter at this stage.

Step 6: Pour the banana batter into the prepared baking dish, spread out with an offset spatula and bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes. The top will begin to brown. The very center of the cake will still appear a little glossy. A toothpick will come out with a few clinging crumbs.

Step 7: Cool completely (no need to use a wire rack) and prepare frosting while the cake cools.

Prepare frosting & frost the cake:

Step 1: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, beat together softened butter and cream cheese until smooth. It is important that both are softened or the resulting buttercream will be lumpy.

Step 2: Add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth. If your confectioners’ sugar is unusually lumpy, sift it into the cream cheese mixture. Add the vanilla extract and lemon juice and beat to combine.

Step 3: Dollop the frosting on the cooled cake and then spread with an offset spatula. You can make it perfectly smooth or swirl it decoratively.

Step 4: Slice into cake and serve.

Frequently Asked Questions

Before You Go

I hope you enjoyed this professional chef tested recipe. Check out our other delicious, chef-developed cake recipes!