My Banana Snack Cake is a fluffy banana cake topped with rich peanut butter honey buttercream. This moist easy banana cake gets an extra flavor boost from sour cream and cinnamon.
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Banana bread had its moment in 2020, but I still love the flavor and am always looking for new baked banana snack ideas. This moist banana cake is great for snacking, dessert, or even as a dish to add to your next brunch table.
If you have 2 bananas browning on your counter, you're ready for this snack cake recipe! And if you have even more, try my Banana Nutella Muffins or Honey Banana Bread!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- It's full of banana and peanut butter flavor - one of my favorite combinations!
- This banana snacking cake recipe is easy and quick to make in less than hour.
- It's rich and moist from sour cream.
- Cinnamon adds a warm spice to this small banana cake.
- This light and fluffy banana cake recipe makes a great breakfast, snack, or dessert!
- It's a cake version of my banana baked donuts recipe!
Ingredients
- You'll need about two overripe bananas. Make sure they are brown and you can smell them through the peel!
- Room temperature butter keeps makes this cake with banana rich. Use unsalted butter to control the amount of salt in this recipe.
- Sour cream keeps the cake fluffy and moist.
- The only spice you'll need is cinnamon.
- Peanut butter and honey flavor the buttercream frosting.
See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Substitutions & Variations
- Make a banana cake with chocolate chips variation. You can use any type of chocolate chips - mini chocolate chips are my favorite to mix into the batter!
- Not a fan of peanut butter and honey with banana? Swap in vanilla buttercream or other frosting flavor you like.
- Add chopped nuts to the batter for extra crunch. Walnuts are a great banana bread addition!
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you replace or add any ingredients, please let us know how it turned out in the comments below!
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1: Mash brown bananas in a bowl using a fork, electric mixer, or potato masher.
Step 2: In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
Step 3: Cream the room temperature butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg, vanilla extract, and sour cream, then add the mashed bananas to combine.
Step 4: Stir the dry ingredients into the banana mixture until just combined, then pour the batter into a parchment-lined 8x8 pan and bake at 350°F until the top is golden and a toothpick comes out of the center clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely once it's cool enough to touch.
Step 5: To make the frosting, mix together the softened butter, peanut butter, honey, and powdered sugar. Add milk or cream if the frosting is too thick.
Step 6: Frost the completely cooled cake. Sprinkle honey roasted peanuts and drizzle honey on top, if desired.
Expert Baking Tips
- If your bananas are yellow but not quite overripe, you can roast them in a 350°F oven in the peel until they are soft and fragrant.
- Make sure all of your wet ingredients are at room temperature so they are easy to cream together.
- I recommend spraying the pan with oil and then lining sheets of parchment paper perpendicular across it (folding over the edges) so that it's easy to pull out of the pan.
Recipe FAQs
It's made in an 8x8 inch pan that cuts into 9-16 little square slices - perfect for snacking! It also has delicious frosting on top! Or you can leave the frosting off and have even more surface area of the soft, moist top (AKA my favorite part of banana bread!) It also takes less time to bake than a loaf!
Frosted cake should be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. If it's unfrosted, it can be stored at room temperature.
It's delicious unfrosted, or I'd recommend trying a cream cheese frosting! Try cutting the recipe in half from my Cowboy Cookie Cake. If you're feeling chocolatey, try the whipped chocolate ganache from my Banoffee Cupcakes!
Storage
Room Temperature
Store unfrosted banana cake in an airtight container on the counter for 3 days.
Refrigerator
You can refrigerate the frosted cake for up to 1 week.
Freezing Instructions
Store cooled, frosted or unfrosted cake in a freezer-safe container for up to 1 month.
Did you try this recipe?
Let us know what you thought by leaving a comment below and sharing it on Instagram, Facebook, & Pinterest!
Thank you!
-Kayla
📖 Recipe
Easy Banana Snack Cake with Frosting
Equipment
- 8x8 inch pan
- Mixing bowls
- Measuring Cups or Scale
- Measuring spoons
- Whisk
- Spatula
Ingredients
Banana Cake
- 1 cup (230 g) mashed brown bananas about 2 medium bananas
- 1 cup (125 g) all-purpose flour weighed in grams or spooned and leveled
- ¾ teaspoon (3 g) baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon (1.5 g) salt
- ½ teaspoon (1 g) ground cinnamon
- 6 tablespoons (84 g) unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar packed
- 1 large (1 large) egg room temperature
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons (36 g) sour cream room temperature
Peanut Butter Honey Frosting
- 4 tablespoons (56 g) unsalted butter softened
- 3 tablespoons (48 g) creamy peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon (21 g) honey
- 1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar
- ½-1 tablespoon (1-2 tablespoons) heavy whipping cream or milk for consistency if needed
Instructions
Banana Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray an 8x8 inch pan with oil and line parchment paper across so that it extends up the sides.
- In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork and measure them.
- In another small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg, vanilla extract and sour cream (one at a time). Then, stir in the mashed bananas. Finally, mix in the dry ingredients just until the flour streaks are gone. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Pour batter into the parchment-lined pan and bake until the top is golden and a toothpick comes out clean (22-28 minutes). Let the cake cool completely before frosting.
Peanut Butter Honey Frosting
- Mix together the butter, peanut butter, honey and powdered sugar until smooth. Add a bit of heavy whipping cream if it's too thick or dry.
- Spread frosting over the cooled cake, slice into 9 or 16 equal squares and enjoy!
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Jeanne says
It was WONDERFUL! The texture is tender and moist, however, I had some cream cheese to use so I made cream cheese frosting💕. I really don’t care for banana bread, but this is the “bomb”! I gave some to my daughter, then we had some. . Hope there is some left for breakfast. Diffidently a double recipe next time! Thank you.
Kayla Burton says
Ooh banana cake with cream cheese frosting is so good too!! Now I'm craving it 😂 thanks for making my recipe and sharing this, Jeanne! I'm so happy you and your daughter love it!
Jenna says
So good! I made a small change and did maple syrup instead of honey, because I knew my baby would want to try some and he is able to have honey yet. But it was delicious!
Stephanie Y says
I made this gluten free for my family and they all absolutely loves it. Made again with chocolate ganache- also LOVED it. Can’t go wrong with this recipe!
Kayla Burton says
Yay thank you for sharing!! I'm so happy it worked well as gluten free and your family enjoyed it! Chocolate ganache with it sounds amazing, I'll have to try it sometime 🙂
Valerie Varhaug says
My mom was a star in the kitchen and made a Banana Cake that I even requested for a birthday, but this Banana Snack Cake really kicks things up a notch! The cake caramelizes on top so it's perfect without the peanut butter frosting, but why do that? Whipped light and oh so spreadable it really is the icing on the cake! Make it once and you'll be making it over and over again!
Kayla says
Such a kind review, thank you Valerie!! I'm very happy to hear that you enjoyed it so much!