An easy Spiced Banana Cake filled with warm spices and moist bananas, then topped with a cream cheese frosting and caramel sauce.
Since bananas are an all-year fruit, I love adding them to my grocery cart whenever I do my groceries. Unfortunately, this time I accidentally ordered a little too many, and had to come up with ways to use them up. I made a delicious Strawberry Banana Cake with some of the bananas, and then used some for this moist and flavorful Spiced Banana Cake that has the same base cake. This Spiced Banana Cake has warm fall spices, but I think banana cake can be eaten all year long and no one would judge you! There's an optional caramel sauce on top, but I highly recommend it. I even have a perfect caramel recipe!
Why You'll Love this Recipe
- Moist: This Spiced Banana Cake is so moist from the oil, bananas, and buttermilk.
- Small cake: I love small batch baking and this cake is made in an 8x8 pan, so it's perfect for small crowds.
- Flavorful: The spices, bananas, and optional caramel sauce all add delicious flavors to this cake.
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Ingredients You'll Need
Spiced Banana Cake
- Banana: Use very ripe bananas. For this Spiced Banana Cake recipe I used two large ripe banana.
- Flour: All purpose flour gives this cake the best crumb.
- Spices: I use nutmeg and cinnamon.
- Leaveners: Both baking powder and baking soda are used.
- Salt: Always needed in cake.
- Butter: I use softened butter, and make sure it's unsalted.
- Sugar: Both brown and granulated sugar are used.
- Oil: Vegetable or any neutral oil.
- Eggs: Room temperature, large eggs.
- Buttermilk: If you don't have any buttermilk, you can make your own by adding ½ tablespoon of vinegar to the milk and letting it sit for 5 minutes before using.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream cheese: Full-fat block cream cheese. Make sure it's cold out of the fridge.
- Butter: Softened, unsalted butter.
- Vanilla & salt: Both are for flavor and to compliment sweetness.
- Powdered sugar: To sweeten and create a frosting texture.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Spiced Banana Cake
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350℉ and line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper and set aside. Mash the banana and set aside.
- Mix dry ingredients: In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon, mix and set aside.
- Cream butter & sugars: In a large bowl, using a hand mixer with beater attachment cream together the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth. Add oil and beat for 30 seconds, then add the eggs and beat another minute until combined.
Wet & dry: Alternate the dry ingredients and the buttermilk, starting with the dry ingredients and mixing after each addition.
Add Bananas: Fold in the bananas using a spatula.
Pour & Bake: Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Depending on your oven, it could take more or less time. If you feel like the top is browning too much, cover it loosely with foil. Start checking at 25 minutes.
Hint: Start checking the cake for doneness at around 25 minutes because every oven is different. Mine took close to 35 minutes.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Beat: In a medium bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until combined and smooth, for about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and salt and beat until combined, then add the powdered sugar ½ cup at a time until each addition is incorporated, and beat for a few minutes until it's very smooth.
- Frost: Once cake is completely cooled, frost.
Substitutions
Buttermilk: Instead of buttermilk, you can use whole milk, with a ½ tablespoon of vinegar added. Let sit for 5 minutes to curdle.
Variations
This cake would be SO delicious with the addition of nuts, like walnuts or pecans.
Storage
Storing: Store cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Freezing: You can freeze the cake once wrapped tightly for several months. To thaw, let sit overnight in the refrigerator.
Pro Tips
Measure Ingredients Correctly: As always, with any recipe, use a kitchen scale, as it is the best form of measuring your ingredients. If you don't have a kitchen scale, fluff your flour, scoop flour with a spoon into a measuring cup and level off.
Don't over mix: Once the flour is incorporated, stop mixing. Fold in the bananas.
Don't over bake: Start checking at 30 minutes.
Cool completely: Let the cake cool completely before frosting.
Ripe bananas: If you don't have any ripe bananas but want to make this recipe, bake bananas on a lined baking sheet at 350 degrees F. for about 15 minutes until the peels are black.
Buttermilk: Instead of buttermilk, you can use whole milk, with a ½ tablespoon of vinegar added. Let sit for 5 minutes to curdle.
FAQ
If you don't have any ripe bananas but want to make this recipe, bake bananas on a lined baking sheet at 350 degrees F. for about 15 minutes until the peels are black.
Instead of buttermilk, you can use whole milk, with a ½ tablespoon of vinegar added. Let sit for 5 minutes to curdle.
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📖 Recipe
Spiced Banana Cake
Ingredients
Spiced Banana Cake
- 2 large banana, very ripe see notes
- 1½ cups (180g) all purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoon cinnamon see notes
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon all spice
- ⅛ teaspoon cloves
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (50g) brown sugar
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- ½ cup buttermilk see notes
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 6 oz. cream cheese, cold block, full fat
- 4 tablespoon (56g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1½ cups powdered sugar
Optional Topping
Instructions
Spiced Banana Cake
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350℉ and line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper and set aside. Mash the banana and set aside.
- Mix dry ingredients: In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon, mix and set aside.
- Cream butter & sugars: In a large bowl, using a hand mixer with beater attachment cream together the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth. Add oil and beat for 30 seconds, then add the eggs and beat another minute until combined.
- Wet & dry: Alternate the dry ingredients and the buttermilk, starting with the dry ingredients and mixing after each addition.
- Add Bananas: Fold in the bananas using a spatula.
- Pour & Bake: Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Depending on your oven, it could take more or less time. If you feel like the top is browning too much, cover it loosely with foil. Start checking at 25 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Beat: In a medium bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until combined and smooth, for about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and salt and beat until combined, then add the powdered sugar ½ cup at a time until each addition is incorporated, and beat for a few minutes until it's very smooth.
- Frost: Once cake is completely cooled, frost, and drizzle caramel sauce if desired.
Kaylee says
Step 1 mentioned straw errors however they are not in the ingredients?
Hakima says
Apologies for that. This recipe is based off my Strawberry Banana Cake recipe and I must have missed removing the strawberries from the recipe card. I got that updated. Thank you for pointing that out! 😊