Banana Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Icing

This banana cake takes all the best parts of banana bread and combines it with the fluffiness and lightness of a cake. The banana cake is soft and tender and filled with banana flavor. To top it all off, we use quite possibly our favorite icing of all time – a brown butter cream cheese frosting. It does not get much better than this cake filled with banana, brown butter, and cream cheese flavor in every bite!

Keys to the banana cake:

There are a couple secrets to making this banana cake full of banana flavor while maintaining a light, fluffiness.

• The bananas: The bananas should be very ripe for this cake. The more black speckles, the merrier. The riper the bananas are, the more sugar they have. As bananas ripen, the starches are converted into sugar which makes them super soft, sweet, and flavor full- a win-win-win when it comes to baked goods.

• Buttermilk: Pretty much all of our favorite cakes have buttermilk. Buttermilk is more acidic than milk. That acidity helps break down the gluten in baked goods which creates more tender cakes. 

• Buttermilk substitute: If you can’t find buttermilk, simply add 1 tablespoon lemon juice into a cup minus 1 tablespoon of regular milk (to make 1 cup liquid total). Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes. This will make a great substitute buttermilk.

The brown butter cream cheese icing:

• Brown butter: for the icing start by browning the butter in a saucepan. Browning the butter creates a uniquely delicious icing. It’s really worth the extra step of browning the butter because what doesn’t browned butter make better? 
• Full recipe and outlined in the recipe details are below

Tips for the Best Banana Cake

Banana cake is a delicious and moist cake that is perfect for pretty much any occasion. Here are some tips to ensure that you achieve the best results when making it:

1. Ripe bananas: Make sure to use ripe bananas for your banana cake. Overripe bananas with brown spots are the best as they are sweeter and mash easily, adding natural sweetness and moisture to the cake.
2. Lemon juice: Adding lemon juice to the mashed bananas helps to prevent them from oxidizing and turning brown. It also adds a little acidity that complements the sweetness of the bananas and cake.
3. Creaming the butter and sugar: Creaming the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy is an important step in creating a light and tender cake. Be sure to beat them together for at least 3-5 minutes to fully incorporate air into the batter.
4. Alternate dry and wet ingredients: When adding the dry and wet ingredients to the creamed butter and sugar, alternate between the two, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. This helps to ensure that the batter is well-mixed (but not over-mixed) and results in a uniform texture.
5. Browned butter cream cheese icing: The browned butter cream cheese icing is a delicious addition to the banana cake. Browning the butter adds a nutty and rich flavor to the icing. Make sure to cool the browned butter completely before using it in the icing for the best results.
6. Freezing the cake: If you want an extra moist cake, you can cool the baked cake in the freezer directly after removing it from the oven. This helps to retain the moisture and keeps the cake tender and delicious.

FAQs

Ingredient Notes

1. Butter: Use butter for both the cake and the icing. We find this adds more flavor to both without it being overly salty.
2. All-purpose flour: You can use regular all-purpose flour for this recipe. Sift it before measuring or weight it out to ensure accurate measurements.
3. Buttermilk: If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make a DIY version by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to 1 1/2 cups of milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes before using in the recipe. Although the DIY version works, we prefer fresh buttermilk if you can .
4. Cream cheese: Use softened cream cheese for the icing, as it blends more easily and results in a smoother texture.
5. Powdered sugar: Sift the powdered sugar before adding it to the icing to prevent lumps.

Print

Banana Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Icing

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Cooling 1 hour hour

Total Time 2 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups mashed bananas
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2  cups white sugar
• ¾ cup butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• 1 ½ cups buttermilk
• 1 batch brown butter cream cheese icing – linked below

Browned Butter Cream Cheese Icing

• 1 stick browned butter stick browned butter 113 grams
• 1 stick cream cheese (8 oz)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon optional
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.
• Mash ripe bananas with lemon juice. Set aside
• In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients- flour, baking soda, and salt
• In the base of a kitchen aid or in a large bowl, cream the sugar and butter for 3-5 minutes until pale and fluffy. Add each egg, one at a time and the vanilla.
• Next on low, alternate the dry ingredients with the wet, beginning and ending with the dry. Add in the banana until just evenly combined and pour into a greased 9×13 pan.
• Bake until a toothpick comes out clean (~1 hour to an hour an 20 minutes)
• Remove cake from the oven and cool (it can be put in the freezer directly for an extra moist taste)
• Top with frosting and enjoy! (below)

Browned butter cream cheese icing:

• In a small saucepan, add a stick of butter and place over medium high heat
• Stir and keep a close eye until little bits of golden butter form
• Once the butter gets golden, remove it quickly and move it to a new container to cool and ensure it does not burn. Wait for the butter to become solid again before using in the icing (you can pop it in the freezer to speed up this process)
• In the base of a kitchen aid or large bowl with a hand mixer, add cooled, browned butter and cream cheese
• On medium high speed, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy (around 2 minutes)
• Add salt, cinnamon, and vanilla. Whip until combined
• On low speed, add the powder sugar ½ cup at a time
• Once all the sugar has been added, turn up the mixture and whip on medium high until light and fluffy (around 2 minutes)
• Spread icing over the cooled, sheet cake in an even layer. This is a generous amount of icing, so add as much or little as you like

Notes

Recipe adapted from Cindy Carnes