Banana Cake with Brown Butter Frosting
Banana Cake with Brown Butter Icing is easy to make, full of flavor, and perfect for using up ripe bananas. You'll love each slice of moist, sweet cake topped with rich, homemade brown butter frosting.
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If you’ve got ripe bananas sitting on the counter that you haven't used to make some other banana recipes like Double Chocolate Banana Cake or some delicious Banana Fritters, this Banana Cake with Brown Butter Frosting is exactly what you need to bake today. It's incredibly moist thanks to sour cream, full of sweet banana flavor, and topped with a rich, nutty frosting that tops each piece of tasty cake.
Why Make This Simple Banana Cake Recipe
It's a great way to not waste those over-ripe bananas. This has become a favorite banana cake in my house. It's a simple cake that delivers top flavor that's good enough for a special occasion.
It comes out soft, moist, and delicious every time like my Spiced Rum Cake. Make sure to try My Starbucks Copycat Banana Bread the next time you have extra ripe bananas in the house.
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Let's gather The Ingredients
- Dairy: Softened butter, sour cream, and milk.
- Sugar: Granulated sugar and powdered sugar
- Eggs: large eggs
- Bananas: Make sure they are extra ripe.
- Vanilla extract: Adds the perfect extra sweetness.
- Milk: Whole or 2% is fine
- Walnuts: Chopped pecans can also be used.
- Dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, and salt
How To Make This Banana Cake
- Step 1: Add sugar and butter to a large bowl and use an electric mixer or hand mixer to cream together.
- Step 2: Add egg, sour cream and vanilla extract to the mixture and beat until combined.
- Step 3: Add flour, baking soda and salt to the bowl. Beat to combine flour mixture into the wet ingredients.
- Step 4: Fold the mashed banana into the cake batter with a rubber spatula or spoon.
- Step 5: Add chopped walnuts and fold them in.
- Step 6: Spray the bottom of the pan with nonstick baking spray or line with parchment paper. Transfer the cake batter to a pan and bake.
- Step 7: Add butter to a large saucepan and melt.
- Step 8: Simmer butter until it's a light golden brown; don't let it burn. Take off the heat and add powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk.
- Step 9: Whisk to combine to make the most delicious brown butter frosting.
- Step 10: Quickly pour warm frosting over the cake and use a rubber spatula to spread it over the whole cake. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts.
Recipe Tips
- Use overripe bananas: The spottier, the better! They add moisture and natural sweetness.
- The sour cream is the secret ingredient in my opinion. If you don’t have sour cream, plain Greek yogurt works beautifully.
- Don’t skip the brown butter: It gives the frosting a deep, nutty flavor that elevates the whole cake.
- Pecans work great here, too. Or you can leave out the nuts entirely for a nut-free version. You could even add a sprinkle of brown sugar on top of the frosting with the nuts.
Recipe Faq's
Banana cake is made with butter, with the addition of mashed bananas. Banana bread is much denser and perfect to slice warm with a slab of butter.
Yes, just put the bananas in a large freezer bag and freeze them for up to 3 months. The peels will turn black in the freezer. Once the bananas are thawed, they will contain more liquid when they are mashed. Totally fine, they bake up beautifully in this recipe.
You can use two 8-inch round cake pans (adjust baking time to about 18–22 minutes)
More Banana Recipes
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Banana Cake with Brown Butter Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup butter softened
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 4 ripe bananas mashed
- ½ cup walnuts chopped (plus more for topping)
Brown Butter Frosting
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and spray a 9x13 metal pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer, cream together the sugar and butter until combined. Add in the egg, sour cream, and vanilla and mix until combined.
- Add in the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until combined.
- Using a spatula or spoon, fold in the bananas and chopped walnuts.
- Spread batter into the sprayed baking pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (Start the frosting as soon as the cake comes out of the oven)
For The Frosting
- Heat a saucepan on medium heat and add the butter. Simmer until the butter starts to turn light brown. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn. Remove from the heat and whisk in the powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk. You need to move pretty fast, you want the frosting to be hot when you spread it over the warm cake.
- Pour frosting over warm cake and spread with a spatula and sprinkle more chopped walnuts on top.
- Let the cake and frosting cool and come to room temperature before slicing.
All ovens will bake slightly differently that's why it says until toothpicks comes out clean. It would be delicious with a cream cheese frosting also.