Easy Banana Cake

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on Last updated

17 Comments

5 from 12 votes
18 servings
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Jump to Recipe

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.

Easy Banana Cake is a moist sheet cake with ripe bananas, dark brown sugar and sour cream topped with homemade cream cheese frosting.

Banana Bread is one of those classic baked goods we all love for breakfast, but what if it was a dessert? This Banana Cake is a Dessert Recipe that you can enjoy after a holiday meal or for the start of your day.

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

BANANA CAKE

Rich, buttery Banana Cake has all the flavors of delicious banana bread, but is less dense and topped with an easy Cream Cheese Frosting. Banana Cake is a perfect summer dessert for backyard cookouts. Refrigerate a frosted Banana Cake for a couple hours before serving for a cool summer treat.

Ripe bananas are one of the best baking ingredients to have on hand! They make delicious desserts and keep baked goods recipes moist while adding a natural sweetness. You can even use ripe bananas in place of some oil for a healthier twist on many of your favorite sweet treats.

This is the best Banana Cake for potlucks, birthday parties, or just a weeknight dessert. Don’t worry about having to wait for the cake to cool down, it takes just 30 or so minutes and if you place it on a cooling rack or on your stovetop grill (this increases the airflow under it), you can be icing and serving this cake in no time. It is not recommended to cool the cake in the refrigerator as this affects the texture in an unpleasant way.

Easy Banana Cake Collage

You can of course serve your Banana Cake for breakfast with or without the cream cheese frosting, especially for a holiday breakfast to feed a crowd. Make this Banana Cake a sweeter, more decadent dessert by drizzling your frosted cake with Salted Caramel Sauce and sprinkling with chopped pecans.

You can make Banana Cake ahead of time and freeze unfrosted for up to 3 months. Thaw your cake in the refrigerator overnight. You want to frost after you’ve thawed the cake so the cream cheese frosting is fresh and doesn’t collect moisture or freezer burn.

To know when Banana Cake is done, use the toothpick method. Stick a toothpick (or butterknife) into the center of your cake and if it comes out clean, then your cake is done. Cool your cake completely before frosting. The fastest way is to pop it in the refrigerator for an hour or two.

Easy Banana Cake slice on plate

MORE DELICIOUS CAKES

Easy Banana Cake Slice on plate

VARIATIONS ON BANANA CAKE

  • Chocolate: Chocolate and banana is a no brainer. Add a handful of dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips or white chocolate chips to your cake batter for yummy chocolatey bites.
  • Peanut Butter: Top your Banana Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting or stir in peanut butter chips for another classic combo!
  • Yogurt: Instead of sour cream, you can use greek yogurt to add tang and moisture to this Banana Cake.
  • Bananas: Give your Banana Cake more banana flavor by adding sliced bananas to the topping of you cake after you frost it.
  • Nuts: Stir in a half cup of pecans, almonds, or walnuts into the cake batter before baking to give your Banana Cake crunch.
  • Banana Cake Cupcakes: Make Banana Cake Cupcakes by lining a muffin tin with cupcake liners and bake for 18-22 minutes.
  • Banana Cake Bundt Cake: Pour Banana Cake batter into a greased bundt pan and bake for 55-65 minutes. Cover with foil after 30 minutes to keep from getting too browned.

MORE EASY BANANA RECIPES:

HOW TO STORE BANANA CAKE

  • Serve: Unfrosted Banana Cake can be at room temperature for up to 3 days or 2 hours if frosted.
  • Store: Keep Banana Cake in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container.
  • Freeze: Freeze Banana Cake without the cream cheese frosting for best results and up to 3 months. Cool completely before freezing in a sealed container.

Slice of Banana Cake with frosting and banana slices

Pin this recipe now to remember it later

Pin Recipe
Dinner, then Dessert

Banana Cake

Easy Banana Cake is a moist sheet cake with ripe bananas, dark brown sugar and sour cream topped with homemade cream cheese frosting.
Yield 18 servings
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Banana Cake with frosting on white plate
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

Instructions

  • Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 baking pan with baking spray.
  • Whisk together the bananas, dark brown sugar, sugar, sour cream, vegetable oil and eggs until smooth.
  • Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt.
  • Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
  • Pour the batter into the baking dish, spread evenly and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  • Cool completely before frosting with Cream Cheese Frosting (Recipe).

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 476kcal | Carbohydrates: 74g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 77mg | Sodium: 266mg | Potassium: 154mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 55g | Vitamin A: 648IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 50mg | Iron: 1mg

Want to save this recipe? Create a free account to easily save your favorite recipes

Banana Cake Collage

Photos used in a previous version of this post.

Unfrosted Banana Cake Banana Sheet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

Categories

Leave a comment & rating

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comments

  2. This is seriously the best banana cake!! It’s so moist & I love how thick it is. Plus, the frosting is to die for!! SO yummy!

    Reply

  3. I could eat this cream cheese by the spoonful. So creamy, tangy and delicious! Pairs perfectly with the delicious banana cake.

    Reply

  4. This banana cake is a guests pleaser! Made this for my friends when they visited our home and they instantly loved it! So moist and decadent! Must-try!

    Reply

  5. This banana cake was so tasty! The perfect texture and profile of flavors. I will be making this again soon!

    Reply

  6. This is the easiest and most delicious cake I have ever made! The cream cheese frosting is next level! I need to stop eating it now…

    Reply

  9. My mom is a big fan of banana cake and I made this for her on her birthday and it was so good! She and my whole family loved it. Thanks for such a great recipe!

    Reply

  10. Love the idea of making banana cake in a tray like this, one huge cake. I usually make mine in a bread loaf tin, but really keen on the tray idea.

    Reply

  11. So interesting with sour cream in a cake – I never tried that! but soo delicious, thank you for the recipe!

    Reply