So a couple of years ago when Sara and I were doing Time Out for Women, we got to be good friends with so many of the other presenters and behind-the-scenes people, especially the ones we were frequently traveling with. We kept hearing about Brooke Stone’s legendary banana cake, who sings in a group called Mercy River.
So after a couple of years of all the banana cake talk, I awkwardly requested the banana cake recipe. Turns out Sara did the same thing, so it’s good we’re on the same page here.
It was everything I was hoping for in a banana cake–light and fluffy and moist and banana-y. I topped it with cream cheese frosting, but the whole time, I was wishing I had frosted half of it in the brown butter frosting from this snack cake. I like options.
That said, according to Sara and the instructions, this cake is heavy and dense like banana bread. That wasn’t my experience at all–it was like the lightest, fluffiest, moistest cake in the world. And I liked it that way, so I’m gonna roll with it. I’m going to try and re-create every little thing I did to (unintentionally) procure the moistest and fluffiest cake in all the land.
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
- Salted butter – Always use real butter if you can. If you must substitute, try to find something that matches the fat content, saltiness, and texture of butter as closely as possible.
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs – Room temp is best to create a cohesive batter.
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Buttermilk – If you don’t have buttermilk, mix 1 1/2 cups milk with 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice or white vinegar and allow to sit for a few minutes to thicken before adding to the recipe. This adds back the acidity and viscosity you’d be missing if you swapped the buttermilk for straight milk.
- Lemon juice
- Mashed banana – You want your bananas nice and ripe. Look for large brown spots beginning to form on the peel.
How to Make Banana Cake
- You’ll start by creaming butter and sugar, then follow a pretty standard protocol for cakes, adding the eggs one at a time until well mixed, and then alternating wet and dry ingredients until everything just comes together. It’s important not to overmix this batter!
- Then you’ll add your bananas and transfer the cake mix to a prepared pan to bake. The baking time is pretty wide here, so you’ll have to check for doneness with a toothpick and remove the cake from the oven when the toothpick comes out clean.
- You’ll let that cake cool all the way and then top with your choice of frosting: cream cheese or brown butter. You really can’t go wrong with either one!
Storing and Other Tips
- If frosted with cream cheese frosting, you’ll want to cover the cake tightly with plastic and store in the refrigerator. Enjoy within 4-5 days for best results.
- If frosted with brown butter frosting you could leave this cake out, covered, at room temperature and enjoy within 2-3 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sure! If you’d like to plan ahead, make your cake a day ahead of time and cover tightly with plastic once cooled. Store at room temperature and then frost when ready to serve for best results.
This cake freezes best unfrosted. Wrap individual pieces tightly in plastic wrap and then foil. Place pieces in a zip top bag and freeze for up to 3 months.
Banana Cake with Cream Cheese or Brown Butter Frosting {You Pick!}
Ingredients
Banana Cake
- ¾ cup salted butter softened to room temperature
- 2 cups + 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour very lightly spooned into measuring cups and leveled with a knife
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 ½ cups mashed banana about 3 medium bananas
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 8- ounce packages cream cheese light works fine, although it will yield a slightly softer frosting at almost room temperature
- ½ cup salted butter at almost room temperature
- 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract or both
Brown Butter Frosting
- ½ cup butter salted
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ heavy cream plus more if necessary, just enough to reach desired consistency
Instructions
Banana Cake
- Grease a 9×13″ baking pan and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 375℉.
- In a small bowl, mix banana and lemon juice. Set aside.
- In another bowl, mix flour and baking soda.
- In large bowl, mix butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla. Add ½ flour mixture, followed by ½ the buttermilk. Mix until just incorporated, then repeat with remaining flour mixture and buttermilk. Add bananas. Do not overmix.
- Pour into prepared 9×13 pan, and bake for 35-50 minutes (mine was perfect right at 38, but my oven bakes fast), or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely, then frost with cream cheese frosting or brown butter frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Whip together the cream cheese, butter, and extract until light and fluffy. Add in the powdered sugar and whip until smooth and fully incorporated. Refrigerate any leftovers (or anything you’ve frosted that doesn’t get eaten immediately).
Brown Butter Frosting
- While the cake is cooling, place ½ cup of salted butter into a small saucepan and heat over medium, stirring frequently, until it starts to bubble. When it begins to bubble, reduce the heat to low. Don’t go anywhere–things can go south quickly.
- Once the butter becomes very frothy, you’ll start to notice a caramel-like smell–that means the butter is browning. When the butter is brown (and before it burns), remove it from heat.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine ¼ cup heavy cream, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, the powdered sugar, and the melted butter and mix on high speed with a stand or electric mixer. Add additional heavy cream in order to reach the desired consistency.
- When the cake is completely cool, spread the frosting over the cake and cut into squares.
Notes
- If frosted with cream cheese frosting, you’ll want to cover the cake tightly with plastic and store in the refrigerator. Enjoy within 4-5 days for best results.
- If frosted with brown butter frosting you could leave this cake out, covered, at room temperature and enjoy within 2-3 days.
Questions & Reviews
I have few recipes we make all the time in our house (we love to try new things!), but this one has been a frequent request for years! The brown butter frosting is out of this world!
This cake was delicious! I followed the directions exactly and it turned out great! It baked really quickly – mine was done at about 34 minutes, so you might want to watch it closely. Thank you for such a great recipe!
I have made this now twice and it is delicious! The first time I made my own buttermilk, see above comment, then followed the other directions exactly and it turned out perfectly. The second time I used 1/2 buttermilk and 1/2 regular milk (because I didn’t have very much buttermilk) and it still turned out great! I also put it in a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper instead of a 9×13 (just interested). It was the perfect size and the parchment paper helps it release easily. I baked it at 350 for about 22 minutes. It is about the thickness of a brownie.
This cake is the best banana cake I’ve tasted! So good!
I made this yesterday and it tasted great! We didn’t even do frosting. I am an experienced baker and I swear I followed the recipe exactly–not alterations or substitutions but it overflowed a bit out of my Pyrex glass 9×13. I will make it again, though, and just use my slightly bigger lasagna pan. Delicious!
My family has been making banana cake for years… At my brothers birthday parties they would tell their friends that it was ROTTEN banana cake so that there would be more left over:). We always did ours with a buttermilk frosting and it is heavenly.
This looks so good! Will try this out asap 🙂
I don’t have buttermilk! Can I use almond milk or regular milk?
You can use regular milk and “make it” buttermilk by adding 1 TB vinegar or lemon juice for each 1 c. milk. I did that the first time I made this cake a few weeks ago and it turned out great!
Wow. This was amazing with the browned butter frosting!
Wow, this was good! I’m not usually into banana stuff, but I can’t stop eating this. I subbed in whole wheat flour for a third of the white, because I like the taste, and it was very moist, although probably not as light as with white. Not being too into frosting on things, I only made a small portion of the brown butter frosting (although I used canned milk rather than cream since I didn’t have any), and as soon as I tasted it, I wished I’d made twice as much! Thanks for the great recipes!