Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Today we are sharing a moist and flavorful homemade Banana Cake recipe with Cream Cheese Frosting that is truly the BEST!
Moist homemade banana cake layers are filled with butter pecan cream cheese filling and frosted with cream cheese frosting.
We love this recipe so much that we've used the recipe for banana cake layers in many of our favorite banana cakes, including Banana Pudding Cake, Banana Cream Cake, and Banana Split Cake.
Even better, we've paired it with a heavenly butter pecan cream cheese filling.
If you love banana cake recipes, make sure to put this one on your list!
Table of Contents
Why we Love It
There are so many reasons to love this banana cake with cream cheese frosting!
- Moist, tender Banana Cake Layers with lots of banana flavor!
- The butter pecan cream cheese filling
- It is so versatile as it tastes great with all sorts of fillings and frostings!
- Perfect as a birthday cake recipe, recipe for entertaining, for potlucks, or just because!
Butter Pecan Cream Cheese Filling
This flavorful filling is perfect with the banana cake layers! We find it best to go ahead and make the buttered pecans first, so that they have plenty of time to cool before combining with our filling of cream cheese frosting.
*Imagine that these pecans are chopped, they should be ;0) - You can chop them later or start with them chopped from the beginning.
- Melt 3 tablespoons butter.
- When melted, add 2 cups chopped pecans and toss into butter to coat.
- Spread on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes, stirring several times. Set aside for later.
How to Make Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
You can find the full, printable cake recipe further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps!
- First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, Grease and flour three 8 inch pans and line with parchment circles (or pan preparation of choice).
- In the mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients: sugar, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, & salt. Turn on the mixer and blend for 30 seconds to incorporate ingredients
- Next, add the softened butter to the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.
- In a separate bowl, slice and mash the bananas, add lemon juice, eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla and buttermilk. Lightly mix these ingredients with a fork to blend.
- Slowly add the banana/buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients beating on medium speed for 1 minute, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and beat another minute.
- Pour batter into the prepared pans and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the cake springs back to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool the cakes 10 minutes on the rack and then turn out.
Cream Cheese Frosting
We opted to frost our Banana Cake with luscious cream cheese frosting. We find that everything tastes better with a good slathering of cream cheese frosting.
We've used variations of this delicious cream cheese frostings for all sorts of cakes, from pumpkin spice cake to pineapple cake , Italian Cream Cake, and more.
This frosting is a simple combination of softened butter, confectioners sugar, and a pinch of salt, and vanilla extract. It is very versatile and can easily be changed up with spices or other flavorings and extracts.
Assembling the Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Place the first cooled banana cake layer on the pedestal. Spread with a layer of cream cheese frosting and sprinkle with about â…“ of the chopped, buttered pecans (or your desired amount.)
- Top with the next cake layer, and sprinkle with more chopped butter pecans, reserving some for the top.
- Top with the third banana cake layer. Fill in any gaps between the cake layers with frosting, and then frost a thin crumb coat of frosting over the top and around the sides of the cake.
- At this point, I like to chill the cake in the freezer for 15 minutes (or longer in the refrigerator) to firm everything up before applying the final coat of frosting.
- Frost the cake with the remaining frosting and top with remaining butter pecans.
FAQs
More Banana Cakes
We have more banana cakes for you to try! We have mentioned some already at the top of this post, but we also love our Hummingbird Cake, Banana Chocolate Chip Cake, Easy Banana Cake from cake mix, and more!
We also have a great recipe for banana pudding cupcakes that are so cute and easy!
Have you made this Cake? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Banana Cake with Butter Pecan Cream Cheese Filling
This super moist and flavorful homemade banana cake is sure to be a crowd pleaser!
Ingredients
Buttered Pecans for Filling
- 2 cups (190g) chopped pecans
- 3 tablespoons (14g) butter, melted
For the Banana Cake
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- 3 cups (342g) cake flour
- 1 teaspoon (3g) cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon baking powder (12g)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda (3g)
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 12 tablespoons (170g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1 /2 cup mashed bananas (about 3 bananas)
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups (363g) buttermilk
For the Cream Cheese Frosting (also used for butter pecan filling)
- 2 sticks ,1 cup, (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (total weight 452g) I use full fat cream cheese. Using reduced fat or the spreadable cream cheese will cause the frosting to be too soft. Soften very slightly.
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt (2g) optional - it will cut the sweetness, popcorn salt is best to use because it is fine and dissolves faster
- 6 to 6 ½ cups (690g to 747g) powdered sugar
Instructions
For the Buttered Pecans
- Melt 3 tablespoons butter. When melted, add 2 cups chopped pecans and toss into butter to coat. Spread on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes, stirring several times. Set aside for later.
For the Banana Cake (Makes 8 cups of batter)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, Grease/spray & flour three 8 inch pans and line with parchment circles (or your prep method of choice).
- In the mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients, sugar, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, & salt. Turn on the mixer and blend for 30 seconds to incorporate ingredients
- Add the softened butter to the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl
- In a separate bowl, slice and mash the bananas, add lemon juice, eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla and buttermilk. Lightly mix these ingredients with a fork to blend
- Slowly add the banana/buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients beating on medium speed for 1 minute, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and beat another minute.
- Pour batter into the prepared pans and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the cake springs back to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool the cakes 10 minutes on the rack and then turn out.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- In the bowl of your mixer, blend the butter and cream cheese until just combined. Add vanilla, with mixer on low speed gradually add the powdered sugar. Mix until smooth and combined.
- Recipe makes 4 to 4 ½ cups
- This recipe was inspired by the "Banana Cake IV" recipe on Allrecipes.com
To Assemble the Cake
- Place the first banana cake layer on the pedestal. Spread with a layer of cream cheese frosting and sprinkle with about â…“ of the butter pecans (or your desired amount.)
- Top with the next cake layer, and sprinkle with more butter pecans, reserving some for the top.
- Top with the third banana cake layer. Fill in any gaps between the cake layers with frosting, and then frost a thin crumb coat of frosting over the top and around the sides of the cake.
- At this point, I like to chill the cake in the freezer for 15 minutes (or longer in the refrigerator) to firm everything up before applying the final coat of frosting.
- Frost the cake with the remaining frosting an top with remaining butter pecans.
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This is a delicious cake. I made it for my daughter's birthday and she gave all kind of kudos. She said it is the most delicious, moist cake she has ever eaten. It is her knew favorite.
Marlene
Hi Marlene, That is wonderful, I'm so happy she liked the cake. Thank you so much for posting your nice review.
hi i live in nz we dont have cakefour what isbit or hiw do i make cake flour thanks
Hi Scarlett, I think in New Zealand your plain flour can be used to make cake flour. Measure out 3 cups of plain flour, remove 6 Tablespoons (42g) flour and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour). Whisk to blend and proceed with the recipe.
The formula is: for each cup of all purpose flour (plain) remove 2 Tablespoons and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch/cornflour.
Hope you will enjoy the recipe.
Would bake time shorten for cupcakes?
Hi Sierra, Yes, the baking time for cupcakes will be shorter. For standard size cupcakes, bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes.
Hey there, can I swap the butter (in the cake) for vegetable shortening? Thanks.
Hi Yuna, I think it could be done but I have never tried it so I am not sure how it will affect the flavor. Click on the link below for more information.
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2016/11/16/shortening-vs-butter-in-baking