Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This banana cake is so light and fluffy. A lot of banana cake recipes seem more like banana bread with frosting. NOT this cake! After you make this recipe, I promise it’ll be your go-to banana cake batter recipe for cake or even banana cupcakes. 

There is a bakery that we frequent in our area called Icing on the Cake. This bakery is one of the bakeries that, on the weekend, you can find a line out the door. Cookies and cupcakes are flying off the racks.

One of my favorite things at Icing on the Cake is there banana cake recipe. Their cake is light and fluffy. If you’ve ever tried making banana cake before, you probably know that it can be really heavy. It sometimes seems more like a quick bread.

This recipe is perfect for making not only cakes but banana cupcakes. And the cream cheese frosting is soo good with the sweet cake.

Lucky for me, my friend Kit had worked hard to recreate their recipe. It turns out that Icing On The Cake’s Banana Cake was her family’s favorite too!

Kit brought over this cake one afternoon and showed me how to make it. Since then, I’ve made it several times. It ‘s a hit every time!

Why This Is the Best Banana Cake Recipe

• Who doesn’t love a fluffy banana cake with cream cheese frosting?
• I love feeling like I know the insider secret to make something exceptional that has people stumped.
• Whenever I serve this cake, it makes people so happy, and I get a million requests for the recipe.

Recipe Notes

Not only is this banana cake easy to make, but it’s also super easy to eat. Here are a few tips before you get started!

Ingredients

• Dry Ingredients: Flour, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt. I’ve used both all-purpose flour and cake flour in this recipe. I didn’t notice a significant difference either way. The cake is moist and fluffy, using either type of flour.
• Sugar: I use granulated white sugar in this cake recipe.
• Butter and Eggs: Make sure the butter and eggs are room temperature. I always use unsalted butter when baking.
• Bananas: 3 very ripe banana. The blacker, the better. Overripe bananas have a lot of sugar and give this cake it’s sweet banana flavor. You will want to peel and mash the bananas with a fork or a potato masher. Add the vanilla to the banana and mix.
• Sour Cream: Sour cream is the key to getting a light, fluffy crumb in this cake. Sour cream has a perfect balance of acidity and fat. The acidity helps to bolster the performance of the baking soda. The fat and acid help to inhibit the formation of gluten in flour, so the cake crumb remains tender and moist.
• Other: Vanilla and Salt

Directions

1. Get Ready to Bake: Preheat your oven to 350℉. Then grease and flour two round cake pans. Alternatively, you can bake this cake as a sheet cake in a 9 by 13-inch cake pan.
2. Sift together the dry ingredients: If you don’t have a sifter, you can add the dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk them together.
3. Cream the butter and sugar: after the butter and sugar are light and fluffy, add the eggs and then continue to mix until blended.
4. Alternately add the bananas and flour: Add half of the bananas and then half of the flour mix until everything is just incorporated. Then add the remaining banana and then flour. Mix again. Do not overmix.
5. Bake: Add the batter to the cake pans and then bake 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake.
6. Cool: Before frosting, allow the cake to cool for several hours.

Variations and FAQs

Can I use gluten-free flour?

I haven’t tested baking this cake with gluten-free flour. I would love to hear about it if you do try it, though. I have swapped out King Arthurs Gluten Free flour for many recipes and not had an issue.

Piña-Colada Filling for This Cake

I have made several times a pineapple and coconut filling for this cake. To do this, beat heavy cream and coconut milk together with a little bit of coconut extract. Drain crushed pineapple and fold it into the mixture. Fill the middle layer with this piña-colada whipped cream filling.

Other recipes you might like

If you like this cake recipe, here are a few more of my favorite cake recipes. Give one or two a try!

• Gluten-Free Carrot Cake
• Vanilla Cupcakes
• Guinness Cupcakes with Whiskey Ganache
• Bleeding Halloween Cupcakes
• Mocha Cake
• Swedish Birthday Cake
• Apple Cake
• Pavlova with Berries and Lemon Curd