Banana Cake

This Banana Cake is as easy as can be since it starts with a boxed yellow cake mix. It’s a mixture of banana bread and a layered yellow cake. Ripe bananas are usually used in our house for banana bread, but during quarantine I’ve burnt us out on baking banana bread a little too much, so I decided to break out an oldie but a goodie.

I have been making this Banana Cake for years using sour cream, but recently tried plain Greek yogurt with great success. The crumb for this Banana Cake is dense like banana bread and not dry at all. It’s super tasty and kind of reminds me of a Twinkie with the cream filling. I’m adding the directions for using either sour cream or Greek yogurt because in the future it will be made with whichever I happen to have on hand.

For this cake if you want it to be double layered, I would make the Banana Cake in round or square cake pans with parchment paper circles because it’s moist and sometimes sticks to the bottom of the pan. If you plan to leave the Banana Cake as a sheet cake that is only iced on top then no parchment paper is needed.

I made this Banana Cake in a glass 9 x 13 pan and turned it out because after the fact I decided that I wanted a layered cake. After frosting the middle layer, I stacked the other half of the cake on top, and then trimmed the exterior of the layers to make the cake a little more even for frosting. My preferred frosting is homemade Cream Cheese Frosting, but it would also be delicious with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting or even a Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.

This cake is beautiful decorated with chopped walnuts or pecans and a few sliced bananas. If you have an allergy to tree nuts, the cake is just as good without them. For this one I was out of pecans (which I prefer) so I left them off and there were no moans and groans of where were the pecans.

I hope that you’ll try this recipe and leave a comment below. Also, for daily updates please follow @lifeabovethecafe on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of yellow cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
• 1 cup of mashed bananas (about 3)
• 1/4 cup of oil
• 1 tsp. of vanilla flavoring (optional)
• pinch of salt (1/8 tsp.)

Frosting – I used my Cream Cheese Frosting

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease your cake pans and add a piece of parchment paper to help prevent sticking.

In a large mixing bowl mix the cake mix with all of the other cake ingredients on medium for a minute until moistened.  Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix for another 30 seconds.

Pour the cake mix evenly into the pans and bake it for 30 – 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Baking time will depend on your specific oven and the size of the pans that you are using.

Allow the cake to cool and then remove it from the pan.  If necessary trim the sides and top of the cake so the layers are even.  Frost the cake with your favorite frosting (freezing the cake for a bit after frosting the middle will help to keep crumbs out of the frosting).  If desired decorate the sides and top of the cake with chopped walnuts or pecans and slices of bananas.

Store the cake in the refrigerator.

Note – Although I prefer homemade frosting, store bought frosting will make this cake even easier to throw together quickly.