An Easy Banana Cake recipe which uses yoghurt to make it light and moist, and topped with a generous layer of Cream Cheese Frosting. Perfect for using overripe or frozen bananas.
Easy Banana Cake
My husband and I tend to agree on most things, but something we cannot convince each other of is the perfect stage of ripeness for a banana. I like my bananas to be somewhat ripe – no hint of green on the peel and maybe just a speckle of brown here and there to indicate that it is good for eating.
Monsieur, on the other hand, likes his bananas to camouflage with the avocados in the fruit bowl; and to clarify, I am referring to the brown variety of avocados, and not the ones with the lovely smooth green skin.
In the early days of our relationship, a banana past its prime for eating was usually quickly turned into a banana cake or a batch of banana muffins.
Whenever this happened, my husband would always look at me in disbelief that I could do such a thing, for he had been waiting for days (and days) for the bananas to ripen to the point where fruit flies would emerge in the midst of winter.
Where I thought I was salvaging a lost fruit by transforming it into a lovely baked product, my husband was faced with constant disappointment on missing out on his beloved bananas at breakfast.
The Secret to a Moist Banana Cake
The key ingredient to good, moist banana cake is to use ripe bananas. The bananas need to be fairly ripe because the more ripe they are, the sweeter they are.
Unripe bananas contain more starch than sugar, so using unripened bananas in baking would produce less optimal results.
How to Freeze Bananas
If you are faced with a bunch of ripe bananas which are perhaps a bit past their best for eating, my recommendation is to freeze the bananas.
I simply freeze the peeled bananas in pairs in ziplock freezer bags, and I often break them up beforehand to allow for quicker thawing later.
Once thawed, the bananas can be mashed and then used in any recipe which calls for fresh bananas.
Another benefit of having frozen bananas on hand is that they make for great smoothies, in which case, you can pop them in their frozen state straight into the blender.
Easy Banana Cake Recipe
I wasn’t planning on making a banana cake the other day, but I discovered several bags of frozen bananas which were taking up valuable real estate in our tiny freezer (similar to those found in hotel mini-bars), and the solution to this dilemma was pretty simple.
There are a few banana cakes which I make frequently, and this easy banana cake recipe reminds me of the ones I used to make as a child from the packet mixes, except that this is made from scratch, of course!
Cream Cheese Frosting
The banana cakes of my childhood were always plain, but I think they go really well with a simple cream cheese frosting.
And whilst we rarely eat frosted cakes in our home, an iced cake does have a way of conjuring up a celebratory mood, something which is always welcome in the middle of the week when you have nothing in particular to celebrate but just want to see some happy faces at the dining table!
More Banana Recipes
If you are looking for banana recipes, you might also enjoy:
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
More Cake Recipes
If you are looking for more cake recipes using fruit, you might also enjoy:
Apple Cake with Caramel Glaze
Butter Cake with Peaches and Raspberries
Pavlova with Cream and Passionfruit
Easy Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 60 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 6-8
- Category: Cakes
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
An Easy Banana Cake recipe which uses yoghurt to make it light and moist, and topped with a generous layer of Cream Cheese Frosting. Perfect for using overripe or frozen bananas.
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RateIngredients
For the cake
- 1 1/2 cups (200 g) plain flour (all-purpose flour)
- 1/2 cup (50 g) cornflour (cornstarch)
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/8 stick (125 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups (300 g) caster sugar (superfine sugar)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 3 ripe bananas
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 8 oz (250 g) natural yoghurt or Greek yoghurt
For the frosting
- 2 1/4 stick (250 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup (250 g) cream cheese, softened
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 5 cups (600 g) icing sugar (powdered sugar), sifted
- 1–2 teaspoons lime juice
- pecan nuts, chopped for decorating
Instructions
For the cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) (without fan).
- Line a 9 inch (23 cm) springform cake tin with baking paper and grease the sides with butter.
- Measure the flour, cornflour, salt and baking powder into a bowl.
- Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla extract together in the bowl of a stand mixer until it is pale and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time, alternating with a tablespoon of the dry ingredients.
- Gently add the rest of the dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, mash the bananas with the lemon juice. Add the yoghurt and mix to combine everything together. Add this to the batter and stir through to combine.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin.
- Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Leave the cake in the tin on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before carefully removing the cake and leaving it on the wire rack to cool completely.
For the frosting
- Beat together the butter, cream cheese and vanilla extract until it is smooth.
- Add the icing sugar (powdered sugar) and beat until you have a thick and smooth consistency.
- Add 1-2 teaspoons of the lime juice, or to taste.
- If the frosting is too soft, put it in the fridge for 10 minutes or so until it has firmed up a bit.
- Spread the icing over the cake and decorate with chopped pecans.
Kitchen Notes
FREEZER TIPS
Frozen bananas work well in this recipe. I like to freeze ripe bananas by breaking them into small pieces and placing them into a ziplock freezer bag. Once defrosted, discard any excess water.
SIZE OF BANANAS
As bananas vary in size, you may need to adjust the baking time depending on how small or large your bananas are. Larger bananas will make the batter more moist, which means you may need to bake the cake for a few minutes longer.
OVEN TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer’s handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly.
CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: Nutritional info per slice
- Calories: 618
- Sugar: 67.9g
- Sodium: 161.6mg
- Fat: 28.8g
- Carbohydrates: 86.5g
- Fiber: 1.1g
- Protein: 5.7g
- Cholesterol: 114.5mg
Update
This recipe was first published on 27 March 2017. It has been updated with more comprehensive recipe notes.
This looks so good! I love banana cake and I agree with your husband I like my bananas quite brown, but at the same time they have to be completely bruise free.
I don’t understand how some people can eat them green.
Fantastic cake!
Hi Angela! You’ve made my husband very happy to know that there is someone else out there like him 😉 And I agree – green bananas are awful! 😉
My household loves banana cake. Your cake looks perfect. I need to know what corn flour is in American. Lol is it what I’d use for corn bread or is it corn starch? Thank you.
If you are using the American term, you should use “cornstarch” in this recipe. Hope you will enjoy this recipe!
I’ve never actually had banana cake but what a wonderful idea to use up bananas. Love the cream cheese frosting on this.
Oh my goodness – you’ve never tried banana cake?! I wish you could come over for afternoon tea so I could share a slice with you 🙂
I think it was a great sacrifice to make! 😀 I’d love a slice of this yummy cake!
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Thanks, Debra 🙂 Sending a slice your way!
What a gorgeous cake. Cream cheese frosting is my favorite because it isn’t too sweet.
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Thanks, Brandi! I agree – I love cream cheese frosting on most cakes for the same reason. You can adjust the sweetness of course, but I also love to add lemon or lime juice for a bit of tang.
This cake is gorgeous! I like my bananas still a tiny bit green. I can’t imagine eating them all black and mushy! When they start to get black spots, I peel, chop and throw in the freezer for nice cream and smoothies 🙂
Thanks, Michelle 🙂 My husband doesn’t eat his bananas bruised or mushy, but the skin definitely has to be brown all over! I love bananas in nice cream and smoothies too 🙂
This looks like a delicious cake! We are lucky to have a banana tree in our garden which produces very small but sweet bananas. I’m not too fond of over ripe banana’s either, I like them still a bit green! 🙂
Oh how lucky you are to have a banana tree in your garden! I grew up in Australia and we had a banana tree in some of the places where we lived. It was always exciting when they came into season, and I remember my mum making lots of banana desserts and banana fritters with them. Yum!
Awesome trick about freezing the bananas in ziplock bags. The photos you took for this post are beautiful love the light.
Thank you so much! Like frozen peas, I’ve always found frozen bananas to come in handy 🙂
Fabulous cake!!!! There was an anniversary party of my friend’s sister, We amused our party with this awesome cake, Thanks for
sharing this recipe. Thanks alot!!!!!!!
Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Hi Thanh,
I couldn’t help but smile when I read that you learnt baking as a child through packet cake mixes and home economics classes in high school! That certainly brings back memories, I think I learnt more ‘life skills’ in those classes than any other subject. I’m also an Aussie who moved across the globe, to Germany ( a couple of hours drive north of Zürich actually!) nearly 18 years ago, married a Dutchman and stayed. Love searching for recipes on your blog and looking forward to trying your banana cake that just came out of the oven! 🙂
Hi Suzie!
How lovely to hear from another Aussie 🙂 I look back fondly on my “home ec” classes and I certainly took away a lot, more than I would have imagined at the time. I don’t even know if such classes or similar are taught in Switzerland, but I certainly hope so for my children’s sake. Wow, 18 years is a long time … but that must mean you are enjoying the beautiful landscape and lifestyle in Germany 🙂 I hope you will enjoy the banana cake! Grüss aus Zürich, Thanh xx
Thanks for showing the ingredients in sensible units! It drives me bananas having to decipher “sticks” or “cups”of butter (really?), and other weird units when grammes and millilitres work so well with a kitchen scales. And degrees Fahrenheit? lol!
Hi Pat, I’m from Australia so I’m more familiar with using the metric system as well. It’s so much easier to weigh ingredients most of the time, but there are times when I appreciate using cups as well. But I’ve also seen recipes for cups of butter – too fiddly in my opinion! 😉
Thank you for your detailed material description! It will make me finish this banana cake without asking for any help.
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Oh my gosh I need to try ASAP! This is delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
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I plan to make this cake for my partner’s birthday. He would also like dark chocolate in it. How much chocolate would you use? Would you add chocolate chips or melt chocolate and swirl it through the batter? Thanks in advance ?
Hi Rachel,
Chocolate chips would work great in this recipe. I would add at least 100g (1/2 cup) of dark chocolate chips, but use a bit more or less to your liking. Hope you will enjoy this recipe!
I see you live in Zürich, where do you buy cream cheese? or do you buy Frischkäse or Philadelphia Käse?
Hi Betty,
For cream cheese frosting, I generally use either Philadelphia Frischkäse Nature or the Bio Naturaplan Frischkäse from Coop – both work well in this recipe. Hope this helps!
I couldn’t reply to your answer about Frischkäse. Thank you
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The recipe made far too much icing. Need to halve the quantities. Enough for 4 cakes!