Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Ditch making banana bread this time with your quickly browning bananas and, instead, make this Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting to indulge in a sweet treat!

Imagine banana bread but in cake form with a super fluffy chocolate cream cheese frosting. That is this cake.

My husband loves him some banana bread and so does my son. Brown bananas mean Connor will either get banana bread or, when the mood strikes to celebrate, this banana bread cake. Sometimes you just need to have other options, ya know?

Ingredients You'll Need to Make Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting

• bananas (about 4-5) mashed
• lemon juice (this keeps the bananas from getting too brown)
• all purpose flour
• baking soda
• salt
• unsalted butter 
• granulated sugar
• eggs
• pure vanilla extract
• buttermilk (see below for making your own buttermilk at home)
• cream cheese
• cocoa powder
• powdered sugar

I'm guessing you have most of these ingredients already!

Making Homemade Buttermilk

No worries if you’re like me and rarely have buttermilk. To make your own, place 1 Tablespoon of either lemon juice or white vinegar in a measuring cup and then pour enough milk in the measuring cup until you hit exactly 1 cup. Give it a gentle stir and then let it sit for about 5 minutes until the milk curdles. Voila! Homemade buttermilk.

Low and Slow Keeps The Cake Moist

Okay, look. I know this is a very different recipe from my favorite slow roasted salmon, but I've used the same method for baking this cake: low and slow. Cooking the cake at a much lower temperature for longer helps keep this banana cake super moist and avoids the (delicious) crust you enjoy on a traditional banana bread. We want the layers to be consistently soft without biting into any "crust" on this cake.

I promise. Bake the cake at 275˚ for a solid hour and it'll come out delicious!

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

This frosting is one of my all-time favorites. It only requires a few ingredients: cream cheese, unsalted butter, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and vanilla. It also only takes a few minutes of your time to put together.

The secret is to make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature before whipping. It makes the frosting much more spreadable and allows your mixer to beat some air into the frosting to make it light and fluffy.

I mean look at that frosting... <<lovey eyes>>

More Banana Desserts You'll Love

• Semi-homemade Banana Pudding
• Healthy Oatmeal Banana Bread
• Chocolate Chip Banana Bars

xox,

kathryn

As always, if you make anything from the blog, be sure to let me know! I love hearing from you in the comments on this post below or find Worn Slap Out on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!

Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Ditch making banana bread this time with your quickly browning bananas and, instead, make this Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting to indulge a little bit!

5 from 6 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: banana cake, cakes

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Cooling Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 2 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 12 people

1x2x3x

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 1 ½ cups over-ripe bananas (about 4-5) mashed, ripe
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup unsalted butter (1 ½ sticks) softened to room temperature
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups buttermilk

For the chocolate frosting:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
• ¼ tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions

For the cake:

• Preheat oven to 275°. Grease two 9" round cake pans and line with parchment paper. Set aside.
• In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice and combine with fork; set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape sides of bowl to make sure everything is incorporated. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract.
• Beat in the flour mixture and alternative with buttermilk, starting and ending with flour mixture.
• Fold in bananas with a spatula until just incorporated.
• Pour batter evenly into prepared pans and bake for 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when stuck in the middle of the cake. Let sit in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from the pans and place on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting and assembly:

• In a stand mixer with whisk attachment, whip cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add in cocoa powder and vanilla until combined and there are no lumps. Gently add powdered sugar and mix until incorporated.
• Place one cake layer on cake stand. Spread about ¾ cup of frosting onto the center of the first layer and spread into an even layer using an offset spatula. Cover bottom layer with your second layer and place remaining frosting onto top and sides of the cake*.

Notes

*If it's difficult to frost the cake because of crumbs, add a thin layer of frosting (crumb coating) and stick cake in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before frosting the rest of the cake. 

Store cake in the refrigerator.  Bring slices you're going to eat to room temperature.  The cake is much better at room temperature rather than cold in my opinion!