Caramel and banana are always a winning combination. This caramel banana cake is the perfect coffee cake for a weekday brunch, afternoon tea parties or just when you have too many bananas to use up. The cake is surprisingly simple and easy to make. Delicious on its own but absolute heaven if you top it with caramel sauce.
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As a professional cake decorator, I make cakes all the time-rich, creamy and decadent. Topped with ganache, buttercream, fondant, and all the works. But my personal favorite cakes to eat are simple afternoon tea cake straight out of the oven!! No frosting. I love fruit in my cakes more than I love chocolate. I know, I often see people roll their eyes when they think of all those chocolate cake I make. Well, I do love a good chocolate cake by my heart is with these simple coffee cakes.
I made this one recently when we were invited as a family over for afternoon tea and it was an absolute hit with the kids and adults.
About this cake
The banana cake is moist, sweet and packed with the flavor of banana thanks to my overripe bananas. Caramel and banana are a match made in heaven similar to chocolate and banana. So while the cake is sweet that bittersweet caramel flavor rather goes beautifully together. I've used my homemade caramel sauce which takes just 5 minutes to prepare but you could use a store-bought just as well.
If I must, then my favorite frosting with banana cake is my no butter cream cheese frosting but when I make for customers I prefer Swiss meringue buttercream as it gives me more working time.
Is banana cake the same as banana bread?
No, and if your banana cake tastes like banana bread then you need to try a different recipe, not this recipe. A cake should be moist, light and fluffy with a rich taste and flavor of banana. It should taste like cake with a banana flavor. A bread uses lots more flour, so it's usually is dense and firm when cut.
Ingredients and substitutes
- Banana - the star of the show. Soft ripe bananas are a great candidate for cakes. They are stronger in flavor and they blend into the cake easily. If you don't have very soft bananas - just put it through a blender to get a nice smooth paste.
- Buttermilk - you can make buttermilk at home - here's how to make Homemade buttermilk in 5 minutes
- Spice mix - Now I wanna say use pumpkin spice! That's what I used here cause its fall. But in summer I use a mix of cinnamon and Nutmeg. I once use garam masala by mistake and it was outta this world. So go ahead and try your own favorite blend. They just blend in with the banana adding so much more warmth to the cake.
- Caramel - Do you have to use it?? Nah! I love the bittersweet taste of caramel and banana together and if you try it - you will love it!
- Whipped cream - works great to hold all the caramel in place but you can, of course, let the caramel flow over the edges.
Step by step instructions
For the cake
- Preheat oven to 160 C/ 320 F.
- Prepare an 8-inch baking pan - grease and line with baking paper.
- Mash bananas and set aside.
- Sift or combine baking powder, baking soda, salt, spices, and flour.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy.
- Add eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla extract.
- Then, add in the mashed banana.
- Lastly, add in the flour and buttermilk in three batches - until well combined.
- Pour into the prepared baking pan.
- Bake for about 35 to 45 minutes until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool completely before decorating.
For the caramel sauce
- Place the sugar, lemon, and water in a deep light-colored pan (so you can see the color).
- With the heat on medium-low cook the sugar.
- Shake the pan as you need but do not use a spoon. It is important to keep the heat on medium-low so the sugar will caramelize not burn.
- Swirl the pan slowly guiding the heat distribution.
- The sugar should now start to color into a golden amber.
One all the sugar is amber, add in the butter and whisk constantly. - Followed by the cream (watch your hands and the mixer will rise when you add the butter and cream).
- Cool for a few minutes in the pan then pours into a glass jar or pot. As the mixture cools, it will get thicker.
For the top
- Brush the cake with simple syrup.
- Put the whipped cream in a piping bag with a large star tip. Pipe a border of whipped cream around the edges.
- Pour caramel on top and spread towards the edges. The whipped cream should hold the caramel in place.
- Place the cake the fridge to chill for a while so the caramel sets.
- Alternatively, skip the damn and let the caramel spill over the edges
Storage
- This banana cake does not need to be refrigerated.
- It can stay at room temperature for 2 to 3 days or in the fridge for 4 to 5 days or up to a week if stored properly.
- Once cut always cover the cut side of the cake with cling/plastic wrap so the cake does not dry out.
Frequently asked questions
If stored properly in a cool dry place a banana cake will keep for 2 to 3 days at room temperature. If wrapped well with cling wrap you can leave it in the fridge for up to 4 or 5 days. You can even freeze it for up to a month.
Butter works perfectly with this recipe. If you need to use oil instead of butter I highly recommend using my Moist Banana Cake Recipe. It uses an oil-based vanilla cake batter. I also make it with chocolate chips to make a chocolate chip banana cake.
This coffee cake can be easily customized to bake in other pans
Use two 6-inch round cake pans and make it a Banana caramel layer cake.
You can double this recipe for a sheet cake (9 x 13-inch) - Moist Banana Caramel Sheet Cake'.
Or pour the batter into a well-greased and dusted bundt pan for a 'Moist Banana Caramel Bundt Cake'.
This recipe can also be baked into 18 beautiful Banana Caramel cupcakes.
This banana cake is delicious on its own. But there is so much more you can add. I have 30 plus buttercream recipes on this blog that you may like to try
To keep it simple you can also make a light sugar glaze if you prefer. try this - 1 tablespoon corn syrup + 3 tablespoon confectioners sugar - bring it all together and drizzle it over.
Make it more indulgent - Use vanilla pastry cream instead of caramel sauce.
Of course, there is a butterscotch sauce if you don't want caramel sauce.
Never over mix the cake batter once you add flour. Over mixing the flour can cause gluten development which can make the cake tough and dense. So rule of thumb once you add the flour mix gently until well incorporated.
Absolutely. A fresh ripe banana works great too. An overripe banana is sweeter, mashes and incorporates well in the banana cake batter. Fresh banana tends to be chunky when mashed but that can easily be taken care of by putting it in a blender. Alternatively, leave it chunky it will still be delicious with little pockets of banana in the cake.
Absolutely. A banana cake is often served with cream cheese frosting. My favorite is either my no butter cream cheese frosting or my whipped cream buttercream. But, there are so many other choices for frosting. I have over 30 plus frosting recipes on this blog. And I highly recommend checking them out.
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Printable Recipe
Caramel Banana Cake
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Conversions Used
1 lb = 453 grams, 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 stick = 113g, 1 tbsp= 15 ml, 1 tsp= 5 ml,
Ingredients
For the cake
- 6 oz (170 g) Butter ((¾ cup, 1 ½ stick) unsalted, room temperature)
- ½ cup (100 g) Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 2 cups (250 g) All-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ tsp Cinnamon powder
- ¼ tsp Nutmeg (fresh grated)
- 2 Bananas (large, ripe)
- 2 tablespoon Buttermilk (homemade recipe here)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
Caramel Sauce
- 1 cup (1 cup) Sugar
- 3 tablespoon Water
- ¼ teaspoon Lemon juice
- 4 tablespoon Butter (unsalted)
- ½ cup (120 ml) Whipping Cream
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Garnish
- ½ cup (120 ml) Whipping cream
- 1 Banana (fresh, sliced)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 160 C/ 320 F
- Prepare an 8-inch baking pan – grease and line with baking paper
- Mash bananas and set aside
- Sift or combine baking powder, baking soda, salt, spices, and flour
- Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy
- Add eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla extract
- Then add in the mashed banana
- Lastly, add in the flour and buttermilk in three batches – until well combined
- Pour into the prepared baking pan
- Bake for about 35 to 45 minutes until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool completely before decorating
Caramel Sauce
- Place the sugar, lemon, and water in a deep light colored pan (so you can see the color)
- With the heat on medium-low cook the sugar.
- Shake the pan as you need but do not use a spoon. It is important to keep the heat on medium-low so the sugar will caramelize not burn
- One all the sugar is amber, add in the butter and whisk constantly.
- Followed by the cream. (watch your hands and the mixer will rise when you add the butter and cream)
- Cool for a few minutes in the pan then pours into a glass jar or pot. As the mixture cools it will get thicker.
FOR THE TOP
- Brush the cake with simple syrup
- Put the whipped cream in a piping bag with a large star tip. Pipe a border of whipped cream around the edges.
- Pour caramel on top and spread towards the edges. The whipped cream should hold the caramel in place.
- Place the cake the fridge to chill for a while so the caramel sets.
- Alternatively, skip the damn and let the caramel spill over the edges
Recipe Notes & Tips
Storage
- This banana cake does not need to be refrigerated.
- It can stay at room temperature for 2 to 3 days or in the fridge for 4 to 5 days or up to a week if stored properly.
- Once cut always cover the cut side of the cake with cling/plastic wrap so the cake does not dry out.
Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
Supriti
Delicious looking cake. I baked this cake today and it came out really good. Taste is too good. Thanks for the recipe Veena
Veena Azmanov
Thank you, Supriti. So happy you enjoyed this cake so much. It is a big hit with my kids too. Thanks for coming back to write this feedback.
Julia
Ha, I also don't like frosting unless it's chocolate or cream cheese frosting but even then it should be very low on butter - I just don't like the taste. My husband and I scrape off the frosting from most cakes.
The caramel and banana combo sounds amazing!!
Veena Azmanov
Thank you Julia.. We usually love frosting but I guess we've just had way too much around us since It's part of my job
Mary Walker
Would I be able to freeze this cake without the cream
Veena Azmanov
Yes, you can freeze the cake before you add any frosting or caramel
Sia | Monsoon Spice
I have love-hate relationship with my oven 🙂 But detailed recipes with easy to follow instructions is what I go for whenever I bake a cake and your detailed recipe of that amazing looking cake is right up my alley 🙂
Veena Azmanov
Thank you so much Sia.. So glad to hear yo say that. I try to make sure I give all information so there is not excuse not to try it. Looking forward to your feedback. Thanks