Fluffy Banana Cake with Banana Filling has a light-as-air banana cake layered with creamy, fresh banana filling all covered in whipped cream frosting.
If you are looking for THE BEST BANANA CAKE RECIPE EVER, you’ve come to the right place!
What Makes This The Best Banana Layer Cake Ever?
Light, fluffy banana cake is hard to achieve because baking with bananas gives a moist, dense crumb. For this cake I wanted an airy, light, fluffy CAKE and not something resembling the texture of banana bread.
Separating the eggs, whipping the whites separately, and folding them in helps achieve a fluffy cake. Sandwich the layers with a fresh banana cream filling and slather it with white or chocolate whipped cream frosting, and you’ve made the best banana cake recipe ever!
What Kind of Frosting Goes Best with Banana Cake?
This is a matter of preference, but I believe a whipped cream frosting doesn’t weigh down the light and fluffy banana cake.
Traditionally I make Fluffy Banana Cake recipe with the white whipped cream frosting included in the recipe card. The frosting is very stable and holds up for several days.
Then I made the “mistake” of pairing the banana cake with a Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting. My kids have never allowed me to look back. I can’t say I blame them.
Traditionally banana cake is topped with a cream cheese frosting. I have no problem with any sort of frosting, and they are all winners in my book!
Can I Freeze Banana Cake?
Yes, and I fully take advantage to save myself from polishing off an entire cake!
Here are a few ways I have frozen banana cake…
- Make the cake, banana filling, frosting, and assemble the cake. Place toothpicks around the frosting and loosely wrap with plastic wrap. Once the cake has frozen, wrap more securely with plastic wrap. Thaw for 48 hours in the refrigerator.
- Wrap individually cut leftover slices in plastic wrap. Freeze until solid and then place slices in a ziplock freezer bag. Thaw slices on counter for 1 hour or in the refrigerator for a few hours.
- Make all the components of the cake and freeze separately. Thaw cake layers on counter. The whipped cream frosting and banana filling should be thawed in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Assemble the cake as directed.
How to Ripen Bananas Quickly for Cakes or Bread
I know you want to eat this cake right now and you don’t want to wait five days for your bananas to get really ripe.
So just throw the ones you do have on a foil-lined baking sheet in a 400ºF oven for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through, until the skins are completely black. Voila! No excuses. Now go make this cake.
HOW TO MAKE FLUFFY BANANA CAKE WITH BANANA FILLING
- First mash the bananas with lemon juice, mix together dry ingredients, and prepare the cake pans.
- Next beat the butter and sugar together until very pale, light, and fluffy. Add egg yolks and extracts.
- Mix in flour alternating with buttermilk into the butter mixture. End by mixing in bananas.
- Beat egg whites separately until stiff. Fold gently into cake batter. Bake as directed.
- Meanwhile, place all the ingredients for the banana filling in a saucepan if using an immersion blender. Otherwise blend ingredients together using a blender or food processor. Transfer to saucepan.
- Heat banana filling ingredients until very thick and the mixture cleanly leaves the sides of pan while being stirred.
- Layer the banana cake layers with fresh banana filling. Cover with whipped cream frosting (recipe below) or Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting (click here for recipe).
Tips for Making Fluffy Banana Cake
- This banana cake recipe calls for three 9″ cake pans. If you do not have three pans, bake the layers in stages. Cover the cake batter with plastic wrap and leave on the counter until ready to use. Make sure cake pans are cool before pouring batter in.
- The recipe card includes a white whipped cream frosting. However, my family always requests Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting, which you can find the recipe here.
- Room temperature ingredients are key when baking cakes. Separate the eggs and have them come to room temperature. Room temperature butter, eggs, and dairy ingredients bind together more uniformly, creating a smoother, lighter, and better incorporated batter. Check out Almond Joy Cake recipe for tips on bringing ingredients to room temperature quickly.
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Fluffy Banana Cake with Banana Filling
Ingredients
Banana Cake:
- 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 3-4 bananas)
- 2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, or all purpose gluten free flour (I highly recommend Cup 4 Cup gluten free flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup butter, room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs, separated and room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon (optional) banana extract
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
Banana Filling:
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. sugar
- 3 ripe bananas
Whipped Cream Frosting: (Recipe for Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting linked in Recipe Notes)
- 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Banana Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray three 9 inch cake pans with cooking spray. Line each bottom with a cut-to-size parchment or wax paper circle. Spray tops of paper and set aside. Tip: If you only have 2 9" cake pans, bake 2 layers, and store remaining batter covered on counter. Bake 3rd layer in COOLED cake pan.
- In a small bowl, mix mashed bananas with lemon juice and set aside. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl cream 3/4 cup butter with sugar until light and fluffy, at least 3 minutes. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then mix in vanilla and (optional) banana extracts. Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture and alternate with about 1/3 buttermilk. Repeat until all the flour and buttermilk has been mixed in. Mix in banana mixture.
- In a separate clean, dry bowl beat the reserved egg whites until stiff. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the banana batter, then gently fold in the remaining 2/3 until no streaks remain. Divide the batter between the prepared pans.
- Bake for 30-33 minutes (about 5 minutes longer if using gluten free flour) or until toothpick inserted at center comes out clean. Turn onto wire racks and cool completely.
Banana Filling:
- Place all the banana filling ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until fully incorporated and smooth. If you have an immersion blender, put everything in medium saucepan and blend it in there.
- Pour mixture into medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir frequently until the mixture becomes very thick and starts to boil, about 10-15 minutes. If the filling starts to boil before it is thick enough, lower the heat more. When the filling starts to cleanly pull away from sides of pan while stirring it is done (see pic in post).
- Remove from heat and cool completely. I recommend chilling the filling until cold so it sticks to the cake layers and doesn't slide around. Makes 2 cups.
Whipped Cream Frosting:
- Place the sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Measure 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream and remove 6 tablespoons, adding it to the saucepan. Place the remaining measured cream in the refrigerator. Heat the sugar, cornstarch, and 6 tablespoons of heavy cream over medium heat, whisking constantly and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla, and let cool completely, about 45 minutes (can refrigerate to speed up process, but stir occasionally).
- After the cornstarch mixture has cooled beat the remaining chilled cream until tracks begin to show, about 2 minutes. Add the cornstarch mixture and continue beating until stiff peaks form, about 1 to 2 minutes more.
Assembly:
- Place cake layer on serving platter and pour 1/2 the banana curd filling in the middle and smooth out until it reaches the edge. Gently place 2nd layer on top and repeat. Place top layer on and smooth whipped cream all over the outside of the cake.
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Notes
You can make the cake layers ahead, cool completely, wrap tightly and freeze until you are ready to assemble the cake. The Banana Filling will stay for a week in the fridge, stored in an airtight container. The regular whipped cream frosting is very stable and can be stored covered in the fridge for a couple days in an airtight container. Banana Filling adapted from iambaker.net
Nutrition
❊SHOP THE RECIPE❊
Items used to make this recipe:
9 inch Cake Pans KitchenAid Stand Mixer Offset Spatula
OTHER RECIPES TO LOVE:
Pineapple Carrot Cake with Pineapple Whipped Cream Frosting
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CJ says
So many banana cakes are dense like a banana bread. This one delivers on taste, but is much lighter. If you are thinking of making it, allow a little time for things to come to room temp before mixing, to cool afterward, etc. It’s not quick, but it’s worth every moment!
Melissa says
Hi CJ! Thanks for the helpful tip. Yes, room temperature makes such a difference! Usually I’m not one for over complicating things, but when it comes to making cakes all the little things help tremendously. Thank you so much for taking a moment out of your day to write!
Best,
Melissa
Diane Rodriguez says
I made this cake using Cup4Cup gf baking mix as it was for my friend’s birthday party and he cannot tolerate gluten. I bake a lot, mostly pastries, but European cakes too. I thought that using the separated eggs and folding in the beaten egg whites, I would end up with a texture somewhat like sponge cake. The cakes were golden brown and the cake tester came out dry after 35 minutes, but they all fell within 5 minutes and were heavy like hockey pucks. It was very disappointing.
Normally for a cake like this I’d use pastry flour or cake flour. I don’t know why the cake failed so miserably.
I used banana liquor instead of vanilla in the whipped cream. That part was good.
Melissa says
Hi Diane,
Thank you so much for writing. The texture of this cake won’t be like sponge cake because of the bananas. Separating and folding the egg whites in helps counterbalance the density of banana cake. Gluten free cakes, in general, tend to be a little denser, so this helps with that as well.
As far as your cakes falling the number one reason would be underbaking. GF cakes take longer and where I usually pull regular cakes right away, I let GF cakes cook longer. They can be deceiving to tell when they are done. If they are underbaked they will be really dense and fall.
Since you said you used a cake tester, it could be the cake rose too much while baking or there were too many changes in temperature, like opening the over door to check a lot.
I’m truly sorry the cake didn’t work out for you. I know how disappointing that can be especially when you are baking for someone else! It’s one thing to eat a subpar cake yourself, but having to serve it is trying!
Best,
Melissa