Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
April 17, 2017 | By Jeremy Scheck | 1 Comment
I was making my Perfect, Easy Banana Bread recipe and I had the idea to make it in round cake tins instead of the usual loaf pans…and this is the result of that idea. The cake is basically made from a double recipe of my Perfect, Easy Banana Bread recipe with the only major change being that the baking soda and some of the spices are not doubled. The link to the cream cheese frosting recipe by itself is here.
Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226g) butter, melted
- 2 cups (400g) brown sugar or a little less to taste
- 4 eggs
- 3 cups (360g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger (optional)
- 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
- 1 heaping cup (≈260g) sour cream or full fat Greek yogurt (this means a little bit more than 1 cup)
- 4 well ripened bananas, mashed
- 8oz full fat cream cheese (1 regular block of Philadelphia style) at room temperature
- 1 stick (113g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 1 lb box (454g) powdered/confectioners'/icing sugar
- ~1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Prepare two 9" round cake pans with butter and flour (I think it's easy to use Pam baking spray) and round of parchment paper at the bottom. (I cut my rounds out myself---it takes two minutes and you can find a quick tutorial on YouTube)
- In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and sugar.
- Add the eggs one at a time. Mix well after each incorporation.
- Combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir into the butter mixture until smooth. (I just measure everything straight into the same bowl.)
- Finally, fold in the yogurt and bananas.
- Divide evenly into the prepared pans.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 32-37 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Cool the cakes in the pans for 10 minutes before unmolding to a wire rack to cool completely.
- When the cakes are completely cool, beat the cream cheese and butter with an electric hand mixer until well combined and creamy.
- Add half of the powdered sugar, beat until very well combined, add the remaining half of the powdered sugar, and beat until very well combined.
- Beat in the vanilla extract.
- Lay the first layer on a cake plate or stand.
- Spread frosting across the top, leaving about an inch of room around the edges (the top layer will compress this and push it out to the ends).
- Top with the second layer, pressing down on the first so that the frosting in between spreads out to the sides.
- Spread frosting on top (you will likely not need all of it) and sprinkle powdered cinnamon on top.
Jeremy Scheck spent high school perfecting his signature cupcakes, making quiches and coffee cake by the dozen at a local bakery, and teaching cooking demonstrations at Williams-Sonoma. As a 10th grader in 2016, he began documenting his favorite recipes on a blog called The After School Bakery. In college, Jeremy learned to make 50 gallons of ice cream in the food science lab, how to prune grape vines in the teaching vineyard, the best way to milk a cow in Northern Italy, and why film photography is an art worth saving. As a sophomore in 2020, he traded blog photos for video and became a TikTok culinary sensation. Jeremy has been featured on the Today show, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, BBC Radio, People, and Access Hollywood, among others. Jeremy is a graduate of Cornell University with a double major in Spanish and Italian, and significant coursework in food science. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about Jeremy.
Ok, so I was diving for your banana bread recipe and came across this beauty! Been watching your Insta stories for a few months and knew you had a passion for food, so no doubts about your recipe… only my own competence lol. I was feeling a bit self indulgent staring at my speckled bananas so I went for it, and omgg it was soooooo goooood!! Cream cheese frosting was the perfect compliment and it made for a great “heading into spring” treat and certainly straightened out my itch for something banana! Totally recommend! Excited to try your chocolate mousse torte next!!!