Banana Layer Cake (Doctored Cake Mix)
Love bananas? You need this easy banana cake recipe in your life! It is so flavorful! We've paired it with a dreamy cinnamon cream cheese frosting. You can also substitute this easy banana cake for any of the scratch banana cakes in our recipes section (including our banana pudding cake).
Servings: 15 servings
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 box Yellow Cake Mix sifted (We used Betty Crocker Super Moist)- I like to sift the mix.
- ½ cup all purpose flour (61g)
- ¾ cup sugar (150g)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (4g)
- 1 teaspoon 3g cinnamon (3g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
- 1 ½ teaspoon 6g vanilla extract
- ¾ cup vegetable oil (160g or 5.5 oz)
- 3 eggs
- 3 ripe bananas mashed (approximately 1 ¼ cup or 305g)
- 8 oz milk
For the Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 16 oz cream cheese (452g) We used two 8 oz packages of full fat cream cheese.
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (8g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (2g) optional
- 6 to 6 ½ cups powdered sugar (690g to 747g)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon (3g)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour three 8 inch cake pans- I line them with parchment paper also.
- Combine all ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer and mix on low speed to moisten the ingredients for about 30 seconds. Then increase to medium speed and mix for two minutes.
- Divide batter between three prepared 8 inch cake pans. Bake at 350 F for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
- This recipe makes about 6 ¼ cups batter. Works for cupcakes also!
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
- Cut the cold cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated. If you are using a hand mixer you may need to soften the cream cheese a bit more.
- Add the vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar and cinnamon beating on low speed until blended. Cover the bowl with a towel to keep down the cloud of powdered sugar.
- Increase mixing speed and beat until fluffy. Don't over beat or it will become too soft. If it becomes too soft, just refrigerate a short while to firm it up a bit.
- This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.
Notes
* You can add chopped pecans to this recipe if you would like! Similar scratch banana cakes that I have made call for up to about ¾ cup. If you try this, fold the finely chopped pecans into the batter at the end after mixing.