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This moist, tender Sour Cream Banana Cake with cream cheese frosting is destined to be your new go-to recipe for ripe bananas! I was served for dessert on an antebellum plantation along the Ohio River. We all licked our plates clean! This scrumptious dessert got rave reviews, so naturally, I had to bake it up at home! 

Who even knew there were plantations in Indiana?! We were lucky enough to spend a lovely autumn afternoon on the grounds, which included a spectacular Southern lunch. Lucky for me, the caterer was generous with her recipes. It was nearly impossible not to eat a second slice of this tender, Easy Banana Cake.

Sour Cream Banana Cake on square ceramic plate.
Table of Contents hide
1 Why You Must Make
2 Expert Tips
3 How to Make
4 Frequently Asked Questions
5 You May Also Like:
6 Sour Cream Banana Cake

Why You Must Make

  • The only difficult part of making this banana cake recipe was waiting for my bananas to ripen.
  • If you always make banana bread with your overripe bananas, this is a tasty alternative.
  • If you don’t have ripe bananas, you can easily make your yellow bananas perfect for banana bread or cake, by simply roasting them in the oven. More on that below.
  • Plus, if you love cream cheese frosting as much as I do, this cake is the perfect excuse to make a batch.
Bite of sour cream banana cake on a fork on a white plate.

Expert Tips

This banana cake with sour cream recipe is pretty straightforward. Check in the recipe card for a link to a 12 x 17-inch jellyroll pan. If yours is smaller (like 10 x 15), you’ll have excess batter, but it will still be tasty. Check for doneness frequently since the baking times vary with different-sized pans.

  • PRO-Tip: The ideal bananas for this cake have gone beyond yellow and have skins with brown speckles and spots, but not completely brown and mushy. The speckled bananas have more sugar than a solid yellow banana and give more banana flavor to your baked goods.
  • If your bananas are still yellow, roasting them can bring out the necessary sugars along with softening the fruit.
  • PRO Tip: How to ripen bananas in the oven is an easy hack. With the skins on, place the bananas on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Let them roast in a 300º oven for 30-40 minutes, flipping at the halfway point, until the skins are dark.
  • Cool and use in your recipe as you would any ripe banana.
  • Feel free to add some roasted chopped walnuts into the batter or top the frosting with chopped nuts or coconut to jazz up this banana cake.
  • PRO-Tip: If you use a pan that’s smaller than 12 x 17-inches, you’ll have extra batter and will need to adjust the baking time.
  • PRO-Tip: If you find yourself with overripe bananas, peel them, then toss them into a freezer-safe Ziploc bag, remove any excess air and store them in the freezer until you want to make banana cake, bread or muffins. Defrost, then use as directed.
  • PRO-Tip: Frozen bananas are good indefinitely if frozen properly!
Sour Cream Banana Cake on a round white plate from above.

How to Make

  1. Preheat the oven and prep the baking pan.
  2. With a hand mixer, beat the wet ingredients except for the bananas, starting with the butter and sugar.
  3. Stir in the dry ingredients, then the bananas. PRO-Tip: Do not use the mixer as you don’t want to over-activate the gluten making a tougher cake and you don’t want to incorporate a lot of air into the batter.
  4. Add batter to the pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula.
  5. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. PRO-Tip: Be careful not to overbake or the cake will be dry.
  6. While the cake is cooling to room temperature, make the frosting, then ice the cake. PRO-Tip: Sifting the powdered sugar will make a smoother frosting.
  7. PRO-Tip: Store the cake in the refrigerator since it has a cream cheese frosting.
  8. PRO-Tip: To serve, let the cake sit out at room temperature for about 30 minutes. The frosting will be creamier and the cake softer and more tender.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the Difference Between Banana Cake and Banana Bread?

Banana Cake is typically mixed like a butter cake, creaming the butter and sugar, then adding in the eggs, etc. Banana Bread is made like other quick bread, and instead of being soft and cakey, it’s firm and dense. This makes banana bread easy to slice and toast.

How Do You Make a Moist Banana Cake?

Adding ingredients like sour cream provides extra fat and adds moisture to the cake. Also, not overbaking will also ensure the cake does not lose too much moisture in the oven.

What Does Adding Sour Cream Do For a Cake?

Besides adding moisture due to the fat content in sour cream, the acidic nature of sour cream breaks down the gluten bonds in the flour, making a tender cake.

You May Also Like:

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Sour Cream Banana Cake on a round white plate with a red handled fork
The Recipe:

Sour Cream Banana Cake

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Yield 24 servings

Tender, moist banana cake iced with a rich cream cheese frosting

Ingredients

Cake:

  • ½ cup butter, at room temperature
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups  flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2-3 ripe bananas, mashed (should measure about 1 cup)

Frosting:

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
  • ½ cup butter, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 3¾ to 4 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°.
  2. Spray a 15 x 10-inch jelly roll pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, with a hand mixer, cream butter, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, sour cream, and vanilla.
  4. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture. Stir in bananas.
  5. Spread into a greased 15 x 10-inch baking pan.
  6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.
  7. Cool completely before frosting.
  8. To make the frosting, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until fluffy. Gradually beat in enough powdered sugar until the frosting reaches a spreadable consistency.
  9. Spread frosting over bars with an offset spatula.
  10. Store in the refrigerator.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Taste of Home.

For the best results, don't overmix the batter after the flour is added. Use overripe bananas for the best flavor.

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Nutrition Information:

Yield:

24

Serving Size:

1 slice
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 512Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 51mgSodium: 176mgCarbohydrates: 98gFiber: 1gSugar: 87gProtein: 3g

Thatskinnychickcanbake.com occasionally offers nutritional information for recipes contained on this site. This information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although thatskinnychickcanbake.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased can change the nutritional information in any given recipe. Also, many recipes on thatskinnychickcanbake.com recommend toppings, which may or may not be listed as optional and nutritional information for these added toppings is not listed. Other factors may change the nutritional information such as when the salt amount is listed “to taste,” it is not calculated into the recipe as the amount will vary. Also, different online calculators can provide different results. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information obtained is accurate.

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© Liz Berg
Cuisine: American, Southern / Category: Cakes