Double Banana Layer Cake with Creamy Banana Frosting

I think cake is one of the only things that I like nearly as much as bread.  However, unlike my 14 year-old self, who loved anything sweet and thought nothing of eating directly from a tub of chocolate frosting, these days I prefers that my cake tastes like cake.  While I do enjoy sweet things much more than the Beard does, this banana cake is right at the perfect level of sweetness for my liking.

I’m guilty of being one of those people who sees a bunch of bananas in the produce section and thinks, “oh, I’ll make ________ with them!”  Whether I intend on baking a bread or pie or cake with them, or putting them in my cereal, I almost always eat one or two and the rest go bad.  This time around, I bought a bunch of bananas and made ice cream with them, and between the Beard and I we ate most of it.  I figured the first bunch was so yummy, I’d make some more.  However, you can’t just buy two or three single bananas, you’re almost always going to grab the whole bunch of them.  Not having enough room in freezer to store an entire bunch’s worth of frozen banana goodness, nor enough little containers to put it in, I only used half the bunch.  That left me with three bananas, that I stared at every day as they got darker and darker, before I decided to make this banana cake.

Cake or Death?

Banana bread is good, but I wanted something more substantial.  Honestly, whenever I make a banana bread for us, I always end up reaching for something else when I want a snack.  Banana bread never seems “desserty” enough to have in the evening, but always seems to sweet for me to want in the mornings as breakfast.  Also, I find that most recipes for banana bread are overwhelmingly banana-flavored, to the point where they sometimes taste artificially banana-flavored.  This shouldn’t be surprising, as they always seem to use two or three bananas to make a small loaf.

Unlike the breads, however, this banana cake only uses two bananas.  This means that the banana flavor is much lighter, and has a much more natural flavor.  It’s also lighter in texture than some banana breads, so it doesn’t sit in your belly like a brick if you eat a piece.

Or two.

Double banana, WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

I call it a double banana layer cake for a couple of reasons.  The first, and I hope the most obvious, is that there’s two layers.  Second, it’s frosted with a creamy, sweet, banana frosting.  We’re not talking banana-flavored, this frosting has actual banana in it.  The sweetness of the frosting is the perfect thing to top the banana cake, as well as having a much stronger, more concentrated banana flavor.  Both the cake and the frosting have hints of cinnamon and vanilla, pairing perfectly with one another.  I topped the whole thing off with some coconut, and I imagine that it would probably go well with some crushed pineapple or nuts or chocolate chips or… well, that’s up to you!

Please let me know in the comments below if you’ve given this one a try, I’m sure it’ll be a crowd-pleaser!

5 from 4 votes

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Double Banana Layer Cake

This is a super moist and lightly sweet cake, flavored with an all-natural banana taste!  Topped with coconut or pineapple, it's a perfectly delicious.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword banana, cake, frosting

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 10 slices

Calories 530 kcal

Ingredients

Banana Cake

• 1¾ cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 medium bananas very ripe
• ½ cup Greek yogurt
• ½ cup butter almost melted
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1½ cups sugar

Banana Frosting

• 1 banana very ripe
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ⅛ tsp cinnamon
• 3¾-4 cups powdered sugar
• ¼ cup butter softened
• ½ tsp lemon juice

Instructions

Banana Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease two pans - I used 8" round pans, and if you use different sizes, your cooking times may vary.

2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda.  In another bowl, mash the bananas until they are creamy; don't worry if they have some lumps.  Add the lemon and Greek yogurt to the bananas and continue to mash everything together until well combined.

3. In a large mixing bowl, gradually add the butter to the sugar and cream together thoroughly.  Continue to beat the butter and sugar, while adding the eggs, one at a time, and beating well after each one, then mix in the vanilla.

4. Begin adding your dry ingredients and the banana and yogurt mixture to the large mixing bowl. Add a small amount of the dry ingredients to the egg/sugar/butter bowl, then add some banana mixture, alternating and beating continuously to combine ingredients between additions.

5. Evenly distribute batter between the two pans, and cook on the center rack of your oven for 29-32 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean when removed.  My two cakes took ~31 minutes, but cooking time will vary by oven and pan size.

   Note: be sure to grease your pans very well or use parchment paper, because these cakes seem to like to stick to the bottoms.

Banana Frosting

1. Mash your banana, cinnamon, lemon juice, and vanilla until combined.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until fluffy.  Gradually add the crushed banana to the butter, beating until the mixture is creamy.

3. Continue to beat the mixture, adding the sugar ½ cup at a time, until 3 cups has been incorporated and the frosting is fluffy and stiff.  Slowly bat in the remaining powdered sugar, in smaller amounts, until the frosting is to your liking.  

   Note:  This is more of a "spreading" frosting than a "piping" frosting.  It's quite stiff, especially once it's set a bit.  If it's too difficult to spread by the time you're ready to assemble the layers, microwave it at 10-second intervals until it softens, and stir well before using.

4. Once your cakes have completely cooled, spread half of the frosting on the top of the first layer of cake.  Set the second layer on top of the first, and spread the remaining frosting on the top of the cake.

Recipe Notes

Optional:  Top your cake with coconut, pineapple, or the nuts of your choice.  Or all of the above.  It's your cake.

I prefer my cakes to be "naked", without frosting on their sides, because I don't want my cake to taste overwhelmingly of frosting.  If this isn't your jam, double the frosting recipe!

The Tart

The Tart likes to eat, cook, and bake things.  She eats to work out, and she works out to be able to eat.