Food & Cooking Recipes Dessert & Treats Recipes Cake Recipes Banana Cake 3.3 (248) This simple snacking cake is easy to make and easy to love. Servings: 12 Jump to recipe Put overripe bananas to good use in this simple snacking cake. It’s one of our easiest cake recipes, a comforting, nostalgic treat to pair with coffee, tea, or a glass of milk after school. Our banana cake recipe comes from Lucinda Scala Quinn, the former executive director of food and entertaining for decorvow Living. It’s a much-loved family recipe she grew up enjoying and went on to make for her sons. We’re very glad she shared it with us as well as in her book Lucinda's Authentic Jamaican Kitchen. The cake is moist, light, and fluffy, and full of sweet banana flavor. Many banana cakes are topped with frosting but this one has a crumb topping that’s easier and quicker to make—meaning the cake is ready as soon as it’s cooled from the oven. Cut it into small portions because it’s so good it’s hard to have just one piece. 31 Easy Cake Recipes Every Home Baker Will Love Simple Cake, Simple Ingredients Ripe Bananas Just as for banana bread, the bananas you use for this cake must be ripe; the riper the better as the riper they are the sweeter they taste and the more banana flavor they have. That’s why banana cake, as well as banana bread and banana muffins, are great ways to use up bananas that might be a bit riper than you like to eat or top your oatmeal with. If you have too many or too ripe bananas on a week when there is no time to bake, simply freeze the ripe bananas to save them for when you can bake banana cake. Baking Powder and Baking Soda It might look rather shallow in the baking pan before it goes in the oven, but this banana cake bakes up nice and fluffy because it is leavened with both baking powder and baking soda. Is Your Baking Powder Still Good? Here's How to Tell Buttermilk The recipe calls for buttermilk, which activates the baking soda, helping the cake to rise. Buttermilk also adds a pleasant tang and balances the sweetness of baked goods. While this recipe only uses 1/2 cup of buttermilk, buttermilk keeps well in the fridge, so you’ll be able to make banana cake next week too. (Alternatively, use this banana cake recipe when you have buttermilk leftover after weekend pancakes). If you don’t have buttermilk, add some yogurt to whole milk to make 1/2 cup liquid or add vinegar to whole milk to create sour milk to use. Directions Preheat oven and combine dry ingredients: Preheat oven to 300°F. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Add melted butter: Blend in the melted butter, mixing together until moist. Add 1/4 cup buttermilk: Add 1/4 cup of the buttermilk and combine. Mix remaining buttermilk with eggs: In a separate bowl, combine the other 1/4 cup of buttermilk with the eggs and blend into the flour mixture. Add vanilla and bananas; put batter in pan: Add the vanilla and mashed bananas. Beat for 1 minute. Place the batter in a greased 9-by-13-by-2-inch pan. Make the topping: To make the topping, squeeze the flour, brown sugar, and butter together with your hands. Crumble the topping evenly over the batter. Bake: Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely before serving. When the cake is done, an inserted toothpick or fork should come out clean from the center. Storing Banana Cake Store banana cake in an airtight container for up to four days. Freezing Banana cake may be frozen for up to three months. Make sure the cake has cooled completely before freezing. We also suggest cutting the cake into portions so you can defrost just as many pieces as you need (It’s also easier to store in portions rather than a 9- x 13-inch cake if you have limited freezer space. Frequently Asked Questions Do bananas ripen faster in the fridge or on the counter? The hands-down answer is the counter! If you refrigerate bananas, you will slow down their ripening. They ripen much better at room temperature on your kitchen counter. The only time to store bananas in the refrigerator is if they are ripe and you want to hold them for a day or two before using. Does microwaving bananas ripen them? Yes, if your bananas aren’t as ripe as you would like them to be and you want to use them for baking, the quickest way to ripen them is to use the microwave. Use a small fork to poke holes in the unpeeled bananas, place them on a microwave-safe plate and microwave in 30-second increments until they become as soft as you want. 7 More Banana Cake Recipes to Try Banana Cake with Cream-Cheese Frosting Banana Chiffon Cake Banana Bourbon Layer Cake Banana Sheet Cake with Passion-Fruit Frosting No-Bake Banana Split Cake Banana-Pecan Cake Chocolate, Banana, and Graham Cracker Icebox Cake Updated by Victoria Spencer Victoria Spencer Victoria Spencer is an experienced food editor, writer, and recipe developer. She manages the decorvow recipe archive and is always curious about new ingredients and the best techniques. She has been working in food media for over 20 years.