Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: There are a few flavor-boosting ingredients, like brown sugar, sour cream, cinnamon, and walnuts that really help take this easy cake to a new level of deliciousness.
Texture: The cake is moist and tender without being too delicate to frost and serve easily.
Ease: Super quick and easy. Short amount of prep time and no special equipment or skills required.
Pros: Fun combination of banana bread and cake that I think will become a go-to recipe.
Cons: None that I can think of!
Would I make this again? Absolutely.
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This easy, quick Banana Walnut Cake is the perfect use for over-ripe bananas.
Whether it’s in cake, bread, cupcakes, or muffins, I just love baking with bananas. Most of the time, I actually hope my bananas will over-ripen before we can eat them!
As a kid, I didn’t like nuts very much. I would turn my head to brownies or cookies made with nuts.
It wasn’t until I tasted a slice of banana bread made with walnuts that I was truly converted. Now, the combination, plus just a hint of cinnamon, is the epitome of comfort food in my mind.
The cake itself is tall, moist, and sturdy enough to handle the thick cream cheese frosting.
No layers, no assembly, no special equipment. It’s also easy to transport and serve, so this would be perfect for a potluck, party, picnic, or housewarming treat.
Of course, what banana cake would be complete without the crunchy earthy bite of California Walnuts?
I hope you enjoy this simple cake as much as I do!
How to Make Banana Walnut Cake
How Ripe Should Bananas be for Banana Walnut Cake?
- Be sure to use overripe bananas for this Banana Walnut Cake recipe.
- The best bananas for baking should be very well-speckled or even nearly black.
- This is important when baking banana cake, Banana Bread, muffins, or cupcakes!
- Why use overripe bananas? Besides the fact that they’re not good for much else in the kitchen, overripe bananas are actually significantly sweeter and will contribute more banana flavor AND more moisture to the recipe.
- If you use underripe bananas (and when I say ‘underripe,’ I mean for baking specifically), your muffins will be bland and dry.
The Best Way to Mash Bananas
- Place bananas in a bowl and use a fork to mash them into a banana mixture.
- OR, place bananas in a bowl and use an electric mixer to beat the bananas until they’re mashed.
Do I Have to Use Cream Cheese Frosting?
I love this cake with a layer of rich and tangy cream cheese frosting. Feel free to use any frosting you want, or none at all if you want to make this a little less sweet. Personally, I think that chocolate frosting would taste delicious too!
What’s the Best Pan for Banana Walnut Cake?
I highly recommend using a light-colored 9×13-inch metal baking pan for best results. Dark-colored pans will brown the edges and make them dry. Glass or ceramic pans will work in a pinch, but you’ll likely need to increase the baking time and lower the temperature by 25°F.
Check out this article on Glass vs. Metal Pans for more information.
How to Make MOIST Banana Walnut Cake
- Don’t add too much flour! Be sure to measure your flour correctly. Too much flour will create a dense, heavy, dry banana cake. I highly recommend using a digital kitchen scale, but if you don’t have one, use the ‘spoon and level’ method. Learn more about how to correctly measure flour here.
- Do not reduce the sugar. Sugar does much more than simply sweeten your baked goods! Read more about the role sugar plays, and see my experiments with lowering sugar in baking, here.
- Avoid overmixing. Overmixing your batter can result in dry, dense cake instead of light, soft cake with a moist crumb.
- Use overripe bananas. Follow the other tips above for using overripe bananas for the best guarantee of moist cake.
How to Store Banana Walnut Cake
Store Banana Walnut Cake covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. Serve at room temperature.
Can You Freeze Banana Walnut Cake?
Unfrosted Banana Walnut Cake can be wrapped well in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature before frosting and serving.
More Recipes You’ll Love:
- The Best Classic Banana Bread
- Double Chocolate Banana Bread
- Bananas Foster French Toast
- Maple Walnut Coffee Cake
Banana Walnut Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 3 cups (372 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 10 tablespoons (142 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/3 cups (300 grams) mashed bananas, from about 4 medium bananas
- 1 cup (227 grams) sour cream
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 3/4 cup (106 grams) California walnuts, chopped
For the frosting:
- 8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, at cool room temperature
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups (250 grams) powdered sugar, sifted
- Chopped walnuts, for garnish
Instructions
Make the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 9 by 13-inch baking pan.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time. On low speed, beat in half the dry ingredients then the bananas, sour cream, and milk. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients. Gently stir in the walnuts. Do not overmix.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely. Unfrosted cake can be well wrapped and frozen for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature before frosting.
Make the frosting:
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla on medium-high speed until very light, creamy, and smooth. On low speed gradually add in the sugar and beat until fluffy.
- Spread the frosting over the cooled cake. Garnish with chopped walnuts. For cleaner cuts, refrigerate for 30 minutes before slicing and serving. Store in the fridge for up to 3 days. Serve at room temperature.
This post was originally published in 2017 and has been updated with additional recipe tips.
Hello, i only have a 11 by 13 inch pan..should i adjust the baking time? Thank you
Hi Cass! We haven’t used that size pan for this recipe, so depending on its volume vs. the recommended 9×13-inch pan, you’ll either need to scale up the recipe, or lower the bake time. My best guess would be to shave about 10 minutes off the bake time to start, and bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let us know how it goes! Happy baking 🙂
Thanks for your feedback! Unfortunately this recipe didn’t really work on my 13×11 pan the cake ended up too short and kinda mushy. To everyone wanting to try this recipe i suggest to just stick with the recommended pan size!
I’m sorry to hear that it didn’t work out, Cass! Thanks for letting us know and we hope you’ll give this another try sometime!
My husband loves this cake. I think he intentionally buys more bananas than we can eat just so I will make this for him! So yummy.
Haha smart man 😉 So glad you both enjoy this cake so much, Judy 🙂
Can i use the blue bird flour in place of all purpose?
That should work! Enjoy!
I made this cake for my family. They LOVED it. Highly recommend it, especially if you have bananas that have ripened.
YAY!
Was easy to make and wonderful to taste. Thank you
Thanks so much, Arbee!
I made 12 cupcakes and a small loaf cake from this mix. I gave them the topping with walnuts.
These were the best cakes I have ever made! They all rose and had such a light texture. And so moist!!
I will definitely make these again and can give them my highest recommendation! And they are all gone now.
I made this cake and today and yea it is moist but didn’t have much flavor ,kinda blah it needs some other seasoning in there
Can you later this cake
I’m about to make this for the second time. I had people lucky enough to get to try this say it is the best banana cake ever. So moist and tasty and the walnut and cream cheese frosting make it so delicious. This time I’m making a double batch because I need to share with so many friends and family that just loved it last time.
This cake is literally one of my family’s Favorites! They all loved it so much and are always asking for me to make it as it is perfectly moist and flavorful. There is no banana flavoring missing at all and the cream cheese frosting compliments it so well that i honestly didn’t expect it to! I added a bit of cinnamon to the frosting along to give it a kick and MMMM DELICIOUS. I actually made this into a two layer 9 inch round cake and it was PERFECTO!!! Thank you so much Tessa for sharing your recipes!! I have def become more confident in my baking and learned so much!
Absolutely delicious! Making it for the second time in just three weeks. Three of my granddaughters had a piece and wanted me to bake them one. I didn’t have walnuts for the second one so I substituted with chopped pecans. Hope it doesn’t change the taste.