How to Make a Banana Cake

Co-authored by Mathew Rice

Last Updated: August 26, 2022 Approved

Banana cake is one of those things that brings a smile to your lips and happiness to your heart. It's delicious and relatively easy to make. This cake has many variants and it is a great way to use up those leftover overripe bananas.

Ingredients

Simple banana cake:

300g of self-raising (self-rising) flour
150ml (2/3 cup) of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
150g of caster (superfine) sugar
3 eggs
80g (1/3 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 overripe bananas (brown are best)

Banana walnut cake:

1/2 cup cooking oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup mashed bananas (4-5 overripe bananas, brown are best)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup of mixed sultanas (optional)

Icing or frosting:

1 cup milk
2 level tablespoons plain/all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of sugar
Another 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Simple Banana Cake

1
Preheat the oven to 180ᴼC/350ºF. This cake takes 20 minutes to prepare, 1 hour and 10 minutes to cook and serves roughly eight people. This recipe resembles a banana bread, but is a little sweeter, with a thinner batter suited for cakes.^{[1]
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2
Grease and line a 2-pound loaf tin. You can use any sort of baking dish that you'd like, of course, but loaf dishes are nice and deep, allowing you to get thick, moist center to your bread. You can just as easily pour the batter into pie tins, a bunt cake, or any other baking dish.

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3
Sift the flour into a bowl, then add the milk, vanilla, sugar, and eggs. Beat using an electric mixer until the ingredients are combined in a light, consistent color, about one minute. If you don't sift the flour, whip it up with a fork at least -- this breaks up big clumps of flour to ensure that everything gets melted and mixed together well.
4
Melt the 1/2 cup of butter and mash the overripe bananas in, mixing well. Melt the butter slowly, in 15-20 second bursts, so that it is liquid but not hot. Then mash up your bananas, blending well. The more ripe the banana is, the better it will be. Dark brown bananas are often your best bet.^{[2]
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- You can pre-mash the bananas easily on a plate with the back of a large.^{[3]
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5
Combine butter and flour mixtures, stirring just until they are completely blended. Flour actually toughens up as you mix it, leading to chewier, less tender cakes. Just mix the flour in until their are no more dry bits and everything is taken one consistent batter.
6
Pour all the batter into your tin and cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes. The cake is done when you can pierce it with a knife or wooden skewer and the blade comes out clean, with only a few crumbs. If the skewer comes out with wet batter on it, let the cake cook for an additional 5 minutes or so and try again.
7
Let the cake cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan before serving. When ready, tip it out and allow to cool on a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool completely if you are adding icing or frosting, as the heat will make even frosting impossible.^{[4]
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Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Banana and Walnut Cake

1
Preheat the oven to 350ºF/180ºC and grease two cake tins. All you need is a little bit of butter spread across the pans with a paper towel, or a nonstick cooking spray.
2
In one bowl, mix together 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, sugar, and the beaten eggs. Use a whisk, an electric mixer, or a stand mixer (like a Kitchen-Aid). It usually helps, furthermore, to pre-scramble the eggs with a fork to make sure the yolks and whites mix in evenly.
3
Mash the bananas into the milk and vanilla and then mix in. Take these three wet ingredients and mix them together in a small bowl off to the side. Remember that, the darker and more ripe the banana, the better it will be for banana cake, as overripe bananas are sweeter and softer. When done mixing the wet ingredients, add to the oil and egg mixture.
4
In a different bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix together all of these powdered, dry ingredients and then use a fork or a whisk to break up any clumps. For perfect cakes, you should sift the flour in, which perfectly breaks up clumps for a nice smooth batter.
- Add the walnuts, and if using, the sultanas. Chocolate chips are also a wonderful addition that could go in now, if desired.^{[5]
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5
Slowly add the dry ingredients to your wet ones, mixing the entire time. If you have an electric mixer, this is your best choice. Turn it on low and slowly incorporate the flour mixture into your milk/oil/banana mixture, adding the flour, mixing in 80% of it then adding more flour. Mix until all of the dry ingredients are mixed with the wet.^{[6]
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6
Fill both pans equally with batter. Make sure it is level and without air pockets. A good way to do this is to bang fill the tins up and then bang the bottom of the pans on the counter top lightly, which should shake out any air bubbles.
7
Bake for 35 minutes, or until the cake looks golden brown. If you stab the cake with a skewer, it should come out with no wet batter, only a few crumbs. As soon as you remove the cakes, let them cool for 3-5 minutes and then turn them out onto wire racks to finish cooling completely.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Making Icing or Frosting

1
In a saucepan, whisk together 1 cup of milk, 3 level tablespoons of flour, and 1/4 cup of sugar. Turn the heat on medium-low and whisk everything vigorously, keeping it moving and making sure everything is well dissolved.
2
Bring to boil over medium heat. Keep an eye on it, and keep whisking. Icing is a quick-moving process that should not take too long to cook.
3
Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and cut the heat, letting it cool completely. Stir the icing completely as it cools, then let it sit. Note that you do not have to use vanilla extract here -- as banana, almond, or even cocoa will go exceptionally well here.
4
Cream together 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil as the flour mixture cools. Creaming means using an electric mixer or fast-moving whisk to beat the sugar and oil together. For even richer icing, use 1/2 cup room temperature butter, as this leads to a delicious buttercream frosting.
5
Combine the two mixtures and beat until smooth. When flour/milk mixture is cool, mix together at high speed until creamy. At first, the icing may appear curdled. It will clear up as it is beaten.
6
Finished.

Expert Q&A

Question

How do different oils affect the taste of cakes?

Mathew Rice
Professional Baker & Dessert Influencer
Mathew Rice has worked in restaurant pastry kitchens across the country since the late 1990's, and currently owns Pink Door Cookies in Nashville. His creations have been featured in Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, and Martha Stewart Weddings. In 2016, Eater named Mathew one of the top 18 chefs to follow on Instagram. In 2018, he appeared in season 18 of the Food Network's Beat Bobby Flay and won his episode.

Mathew Rice

Professional Baker & Dessert Influencer

Expert Answer

Well, for cakes — unless you're making something like an olive oil cake— you always want to use a really neutral oil. Everybody has vegetable oil on hand, but I always use grapeseed oil. It's a little bit lighter than vegetable oil and just super neutral.
Question

May I use half oil/half butter?

Community Answer

Yes, typically in recipes that call for melted butter, oil can be used as a partial/full substitute. Do note that replacing butter with oil will result in a less rich/fragrant baked good.
Question

Can I add cooking oil instead of vegetable oil?

Community Answer

You could, but depending on the specific type of oil you use, it may alter the taste and consistency slightly.

Warnings

Over mixing will result in the cake not rising.

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Icing the cake while the cake is warm will cause the icing to run or cause the cake to fall apart.

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If the flour and milk mixture aren't stirred constantly, it will get lumpy very quickly.

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