Best Ever Banana Cake

By Addie

I've made this cake a few times now and everywhere I go people want the recipe and pig out on the cake (one guy ate 1/2 of one 8" square pan...oink oink. Anyone I share the recipe with says people love the cake too and ask them for the recipe. Absolutely delish!!

Ingredients

• Cake:
• 1 1/2 cups bananas, mashed, ripe
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/8 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• ...........................................
• Cream Cheese Frosting:
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups icing sugar

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 275°. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.

In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist.

For the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth. Spread on cooled cake. Sprinkle chopped walnuts over top of the frosting, if desired.
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REVIEWS: (1013)

This is one of (if not) the BEST banana cake I have ever tasted! I thought the oven temp of 275° sounded a little low, but this cake baked up (and rose) beautifully in my oven at this temp after pretty much exactly one hour. I do not know if the little “freezer trick” to this recipe is what ensured its moistness or not, but I did it, and it was exceptionally moist & delicious. Would be interesting to see if it still came out as great if this step was skipped. All I know is that I followed this recipe EXACTLY as stated (except that I had no buttermilk, so I subbed with a mix of lemon juice & milk) and I got exceptional results. So moist and yummy…a dense cake, similar in texture to a carrot cake… I personally would not call this frosted banana bread :o) Depending on the amount of frosting you like you can decide whether to half the recipe or not. I used the full recipe and had some leftover. I sprinkled on the chopped walnuts and threw this baby in the fridge and cut it the next day…TO DIE FOR! I really liked it slightly chilled, but great at room temp too! It got better each day it sat, I always make this cake at least the day before I need or want it. I was extremely pleased with this cake and will be making it over & over again!! So glad I came across this one!! (on another website). (* * Just to update the recipe, (based on some of the reviews), the baking time may vary based on individual ovens. It was RIGHT ON for my oven, but some others have stated it has taken 1 hour 10 minutes, 1 hour 20 minutes, and my sister just informed me that it took 1 hour 30 minutes in her oven!

This is the best banana cake ever! My whole family couldn't get over how moist it was! My husband loves the frosting and I have to make extra for him to put more on his piece! Thanks for an awesome recipe....only it picture shows it as a layer cake, and the directions say a 9x13, I suppose you could use either or, right?

So moist and yummy!!

Yummy!!! Easy to make. Took about 1 1/4 hours to bake. So good:)

Cake and frosting are very good, took about 1.5 hours at 275 degrees in a 9" tube pan.

I was a bit doubtful about this recipe--the oven temperature in particular. I tried it twice. Once with oven temp. at 275 degrees and one time at 300 degrees. Both times it turned out wonderful! No need to refrigerate it after it comes out of the oven. The tricky part is the time it needs to cook. I checked with a toothpick beginning at 1 hour. Both times it took between 1:30 and 1:15.

I'm posting my review again because I love this cake so much and everyone who I've made it for just cant seem to get enough of it. I've had so many requests for this for the wedding cakes I've done. The only exception to what I originally posted the first time is that I do throw in about 2 tsps of Cinnamon to the dry ingredients. And I also top it sometimes with Cool Whip instead of icing. Below is my original review.

This is probably one of the best cakes I've ever eaten or served!!! Everytime someone tastes it for the 1st time they immediately say MMMM and then request it for their next birthday. I do however use 7 mashed bananas instead of the cup and a half the recipe calls for because I like the extra banana taste.

This recipe is fabulous! I've made it a few times and it comes out perfect with rave reviews. I follow the recipe exactly except I add a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon to the dry ingredients. It took 1 hour 20 minutes to cook in my oven. Thanks for posting! :)

Made this for a 4th of July Party...Had bananas, buttermilk, cream cheese and some extra flour that needed a home. It was a huge hit! Baked as 2 9" rounds and frosted as a layer cake. I didn't put the cake in the freezer, as I didn't have the space and it was still very moist. Added a bit more than the called for bananas. Thanks for posting Rhonda J!

Excellent! I made this cake for my daughters birthday. It was moist, light and delicious! Easy to make too. I will be making this cake over and over again. Thank you so much for posting this!

To say this is the "Best Ever Banana Cake" would be an enormous understatement! This cake was FAN-TABULOUS!!! It took me back to my childhood, when we would get the little square banana cakes from the local deli. I made very slight changes. I substituted Splenda for the Sugar in the cake and for the icing, I used 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and 1 1/2 cups Splenda and it was soooo smooth and tasty. I also didn't have buttermilk, so I added about 2 teaspoons of white distilled vinegar to whole milk. The recipe makes a lot of batter so I made two 9x9 square pans of the cake. I brought one into work - it was gone in the matter of seconds! Thanks for the recipe that will most definitly remain in my top 5 cake recipe box!

Wonderful!!! Only thing I did different was bake it at 375 for about an hour. the first time I baked it for over an hour and it was really wet, even after a clean toothpick. the second time when I adjusted the temp it worked great. so good!!!

So good! I just made this with some ripe bananas I didn't want to waste. Actually, I made two batches. The first batch I split the batter between two 9 inch round disposable tins and one mini loaf pan (I plan on sharing so I didn't want to use real pans). The batter came up about 3/4 of the way on the side of the pan- BAD idea, they overflowed!! Good thing I had put everything on a large cookie sheet for stability and it caught most of the overflow. The second batch (after I ran to the store for more sugar and tins), I used 3, disposable 8" square pans, which were filled about halfway with batter. That was perfect! The first batch took about 1 1/2 hours, the second 1 hour and 20 minutes. I did put them in the freezer once they were done baking and used this cream cheese frosting recipe- delish! Thanks for the excellent recipe, I will use it again for sure!

Really delicious, but it was a little sweet for me. I might cut out some of the sugar next time, especially if I'm using bananas that were as ripe as these again. Also, I substituted about half of the butter with the same amount of banana to make it a tiny bit healthier and to give it an even more banana-y flavor.

I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while now and I finally made it this afternoon. I had to bake it about and hour and a half for the middle to get done. It is so moist and yummy! I think I'll half the icing the next time because it almost overpowers the cake with sweetness. This is THE banana cake recipe!

I've tried several recipes and this is by far the best. In my oven, it takes anywhere from 1 hour 20 min, to 1 1/2 hour. I sometimes get impatient and increase the temp to 300degrees and bake for 1 hour to get the same results. I've done the freezer trick or, I'll also place a layer of plastic wrap directly on the cake itself, once it has cooled a bit. This makes it extra moist as well. They make great cupcakes too at 325 for 17-20 minutes. Love it!

Delicious cake and a hit with all! The first time I made it, I forgot about the freezer part, but it turned out great! For comparison, I did the freezer step the second time and I didn't really notice a significant difference (except that it takes longer until it can be enjoyed!). I'll probably skip that step in the future - I like the cake on the warm side anyway. Oh, and time - mine took about an hour and 20 minutes.

This is a wonderful cake with a lot of resiliance in the baking! I found that the time was not enough - although I baked in a bundt pan, so perhaps that's the reason. I confess to not checking the readiness, but it looked nice and golden on top. I froze it a bit and turned it out of the pan and lo and behold, it was not cooked enough! I ended up having to cook it up a few more minutes in the microwave!!! and it still turned out moist and delicious. Since I was baking with my 4 year old, we opted to put chocolate chips in it and use chocolate frosting. I thought this would be too much, but I have to say that I actually think it may be a better combo than the cream cheese! The sweetness of the cake was wonderfully counterbalanced with the chocolate!

So yummy my whole family fought over it! I did modify a little . I only used 1 cup sugar and used sour cream instead of butter milk and I added 1/2 tsp more of baking soda because a few rating said it was to dense ,I used half butter half virgin coconut oil to then I used only 2 cups of sugar in the icing. I loved it and so did everyone at my Christmas party .

I made this for a football party recently and the crowd went wild! I made it into a three-layer cake (versus 13 X 9) and two batches of frosting - coated the outside with chopped pecans and it was gone before I knew it. Thanks for sharing such a great recipe!

This is a great recipe! I had one Huge problem though. I tried putting it in a 9x13 and the batter spilled over and made a huge, burnt mess. I ended up having to scoop the center out and put in mini loaf pans. I was so frustrated by the time it was cooked and my oven clean I didn't make the frosting. We just ate it as bread. Next time I am going to put in 9" cake pans and do a layered cake. Thanks for a great recipe!

This is THE BEST cake I have made! It is so good, I want to stand on the corner and give away samples! ( I AM a bit proud!) Instead of 9 x 13, I made two layers and I did use the freezer step. Incredibly moist. Thank you ever so much for sharing this tremendous cake.

This is more work than a newborn baby, but boy is it worth it! I made it exactly according to the directions; however, it took close to 2 hrs. in my oven. Don't freak out if the time isn't right. Just keep checking it. This really is the moistest, tastiest banana cake I've ever had; and since it's my favorite, I've tried a LOT. This is my new official banana cake recipe.

Wonderful! I was never a big fan of banana cake in the past but this totally won me over when I made it as part of a staff's birthday request. She said it was the best one she ever had and that banana cake has always been her favorite. Will certianly make again!

I love this cake, especially kept in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, every time I make it I gain a couple of pounds because I eat almost the whole thing myself, but it's worth it every once in awhile! Thanks so much for the delicious recipe!

Just perfect! Everyone loved it.

The cake itself is excellent. It delivers on taste and is indeed very moist. I am not sure about the icing, though. It set okay but it was still quite loose and not quite as set as I would have liked even after a night in the fridge. Also, the temperature is probably wrong. I put it in at 275 degreess and after about forty five minutes it had already started to burn. My gut feeling is to leave it in at 200 for a half hour and check on it. I took it out of the oven just in time. I'll definitely make this cake again and experiment with the temperature.

Wow! Totally awesome! The only thing is, I was making it for a potluck and no one wanted to wait the 45 minutes for it to be put in the freezer. They devoured the whole thing hot out of the oven, none the less. The other reason why I didn't put it in was because I baked it in pyrex. Would that have cracked the glass if it went directly from the oven to the freezer? Anyways, just something to consider if you're going to bake this cake. But really, totally worth the effort!

After spending half the day baking I had to use the 4 left ripe bananas I had,so I kind of threw all ingredients in same bowl,used applesauce instead of butter,buttermilk out of milk and vinegar,skip lemon juice,used honey for sweetener(couldnt say how much),and then 20 minutes at 300 F (with oven fan on)and muffins were done. Really soft and moist. Love this kind of recipes!

After spending half the day baking I had to use the 4 left ripe bananas I had,so I kind of threw all ingredients in same bowl,used applesauce instead of butter,buttermilk out of milk and vinegar,skip lemon juice,used honey for sweetener(couldnt say how much),and then 20 minutes at 300 F (with oven fan on)and muffins were

Love this kind of recipes!Yum! I am NOT a cake person so I was a bit skeptical, but this turned out better than expected. I used a small pan, so it was much thicker; baked it longer, still turned out moist & so banana-y. I am now using the "freezer" method for other baked goods. It cools it quick which means its ready to cut & eat sooner! Great frosting, much less sweet than store bought. Eat it for breakfast & dessert.

This is, without a doubt, the best banana cake I've made. The only change I made the second time around was to cut back on the sugar by 1/8 cup in the cake. And... I use ALL of the frosting...makes it so decadent and delicious. Everyone loves it. It took about an hour and a half to bake, but was well worth it. I also used the same recipe with blueberries instead of bananas (used 2 cups of frozen berries), and everyone loved it as well. Next, I'm going to try pineapple!

Amazing cake--moist, delicious and easy to make...followed recipe exactly and it turned out great! it did take 1 hour and 10 minutes in my electric oven. would definitely recommend it!

I made this cake according to the directions and temp. Well, after 1 1/2 hrs. it appeared done, so I removed it from the oven and immediatedly put it into the freezer. Went out for the day, and returned (with company coming in 2 hrs. for dinner), and there was alot of liquid and mush in the centre. So, back into the oven it goes for 15 min. Frustrated and ticked, finally I just scooped in out and ate it. Worth the hassle. So, I'll just call it pudding cake. Frosted it and stuck it back in fridge and devoured it all at dinner. It truly is the best but no more convection temp. and my oven will be higher next time(maybe tomorrow).....lol

Amazing! I never bake, but I kept seeing this recipe pop up around the site and had a bunch of bananas so I gave it a try. My family loved it, the whole cake was gone in 24 hours. I did everything according to the directions but added in some cinnamon as reviewers had suggested. YUM!

I halved this recipe with great success. Baked in 2 loaf pans at 275F for 55 mins. A tad too sweet, IMHO, but that's easily fixable.

Absolutely Delicious. It is so moist and gets better each day. My family couldn't get enough of it.

I needed a great recipe and I needed one fast, I looked up Best Banana Cake and in all honesty this is it.....I don't like to throw around 5 stars either but I have to give it to this recipe. If done correctly, you will have great results. For example I don't think anyone realizes how important it is to follow instructions with regards to mixing. When a recipe says cream untill light and fluffy, DO IT!! Little things like this make all the difference. I left the recipe as is except I added some cinnamon and I baked it in round pans (less bake time) so that I could use all the delicious icing in a double layer cake. Too sweet some say, I disagree. This is the way banana cake is supposed to be! And by the way I have yet to find any other recipe that smells this good while baking. I actually opened my windows and my neighbours came knocking!

I was all ready to jump on the 5-Star bandwagon, but it turned out to be just a cake... maybe I did something wrong? The reviews said it would be a dense cake - but mine is really heavy and clumpy. I added the walnuts to the cake batter vs. topping the frosting, otherwise I followed the recipe. Now,my husband, a banana fan LOVED it. So I'll try it again, and maybe it'll turn out different.

Fantastic results! Cake was moist. I didn't add as much icing sugar in the icing and next time I will see how it turns out if I cut back on the sugar in the cake itself. Overall though, I'm definitely going to make again and recommend it to others.

Excellent recipe! I just reduced the sugar to 1 1/8 cups and it was the right amount of sweetness for me .I also reduced the sugar in the icing by quite a bit and used vanilla bean soaked in milk instead of the extract.Other than that,everything else is great.Thank you for posting.

Wonderful cake. Moist and flavorful. I made it exactly as printed, baked in two 8X8 pans, buttered only (no flour) it turned out just right. Next time I'll make it as a 3 layer (round) cake. I cut the confectioners sugar by 1 cup because it tasted sweet enough, but when eating the cake, the sweetness was less obvious. I don't know why some reviews said it tasted like banana bread, mine does not. Maybe they aren't beating it enough? Thanks for sharing!

When I mashed my 3 bananas they only made 1 cup. But fortunately the measurements for the rest of the ingredients were easy to cut down by 1/3 as well. I thought with the smaller amount of batter I ought to bake it in an 8x8- but when I was done mixing it just looked like too much batter, so I went ahead and used the regular 9x13. I'm glad I did! It filled it so completely i can't imagine how others manage to make the whole recipe fit. I added an extra tsp. vanilla, 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, and 1/4 cup honey as it didn't seem sweet and spicy enough to me. I think I will add even more next time. I did the freezer trick, iced it with a whipped cream and honey frosting, and it was very good.

This is the best banana cake recipe I had ever had, It was a big HIT thank you. OMG...it is wonderful!! I did not bake it my co-worker did for my birthday today. I saw the recipe and I'm not a baker and so she tried it. She followed the recipe except cut back on the sugar a bit on both the cake and frosting. It is wonderful! Best banana cake ever! Simple to make, perfect crumb and tender and moist. You can't get better! I topped it with a simple Chocolate Chip Buttercream Frosting. Tonight I changed pace a bit since my bananas need a few more days to ripen and added a can of apple pie filling and a touch of cinnamon instead of the banana. Everything else stayed the same. Turned out just as nice as the banana cake! Thanks for posting this one!This cake is the best!!! everyone who tried it, loved it. I put my cake in the 'fridge' for the 45 minutes since there was no room in the freezer and it still stayed moist for 5 days. i made it twice already, this is a keeper.