Easy Banana Cake

by Sabrina Snyder

Last Update:

17 Comments

5 from 12 votes
18 servings
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
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Easy Banana Cake is a moist sheet cake topped with homemade cream cheese frosting. Perfect for breakfast or serving a crowd. Try it today!

Banana Cake is a delicious Cake that is good for breakfast or dessert. Just like Carrot Cake and Pumpkin Sheet Cake, you can enjoy after a holiday meal or for the start of your day. Try your favorite today!

Cake topped with bananas and fork with bite
Collage showing frosted and unfrosted
side view of cake on plate
Top view of cake with fork on the side

Sabrina’s Banana Cake Recipe

This is the best cake for potlucks, birthday parties, or just a weeknight dessert. 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.

Recipe Card

Dinner, then Dessert

Easy Banana Cake Recipe

Easy Banana Cake is a moist sheet cake topped with homemade cream cheese frosting. Perfect for breakfast or serving a crowd. Try it today!
Yield 18 servings
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Cake topped with bananas and fork with bite
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

  • 2 cups very ripe bananas , (about 4 bananas) mashed
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar , packed
  • 3/4 sugar
  • 2/3 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 4 cups Cream Cheese Frosting , (Homemade Recipe)

Instructions

  • Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×13 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

Serving: 1g | Calories: 508kcal | Carbohydrates: 78g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.04g | Cholesterol: 36mg | Sodium: 349mg | Potassium: 140mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 62g | Vitamin A: 109IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 30mg | Iron: 1mg

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Note from Sabrina

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. You could also pop the cake into the freezer for about 15 minutes. This will firm it up and allow you to frost it faster.

Table of contents

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About this Recipe

Rich, buttery Banana Cake has all the flavors of delicious banana bread, but is less dense and topped with an easy Cream Cheese Frosting. This cake is a perfect summer dessert for backyard cookouts.

Can this be made ahead of time?

You can make the 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.

Baking Tips & Tricks

To know when your 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.

Pairing Suggestions

Top your cake with some homemade Cream Cheese Frosting. You can also make this Banana Cake a sweeter, more decadent dessert by drizzling your frosted cake with Salted Caramel Sauce and sprinkling with chopped pecans.

How to Store

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

Ideas to Serve

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. Refrigerate a frosted cake for a couple hours before serving for a cool summer treat.

Variations

  • 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 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 cake.
  • Bananas: Give your 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 cake crunch.
  • Banana Cake Cupcakes: Make Banana Cupcakes by lining a muffin tin with cupcake liners and bake for 18-22 minutes.
  • Banana Cake Bundt Cake: Pour 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 Delicious Banana Cakes

cake pin image

Photos used in a previous version of this post.

Unfrosted Banana Cake
Banana Cake Collage
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.

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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