A simple, but stunning cake is here for you today! My Banana Cake is filled with banana cream filling and slathered in the most gorgeous cream cheese buttercream.

Lots of Banana Cakes

I’m here for you if you love all the banana bakes! Aside from whipping up a batch of banana bread here and there, I love to make banana cake with my browned bananas. So if you have a few browned bananas nearing their death, I have just the thing for you. 🙂

But which cake to choose? I’ve shared quite a few tasty banana cakes over the years, so why the heck would we need another one… I mean, my Banana Split Cake, Caramel Banana Cake, Banana Cream Pie cakes from my Cake Confidence Cookbook are SUPER tasty enough, right?

This time around, I wanted to create something super simple that could be made any day of the week with ease. Going crazy with the fillings, crusts, crumbles, toppings, is always a fun thing to do, but I wanted to make sure there are a few simple, but decadent cakes to choose from here on Baking with Blondie for you.

Which brings us to… my banana cake with cream cheese buttercream. There is a banana cream filling, but it’s entirely optional – the cake stands alone super well. The filling is just for fun, really.

Banana Cake Bliss

If you’ve never tried my banana cake before, you are sure in for a treat! It bakes us beautifully as a bundt, sheet cake, cupcakes, and this time in a layered cake. I love to bake my cakes in three 6″ layers, but you can always make them into 8″ layers, too – you’ll get two layers if you’re doing that size, heads up.

It uses FRESH bananas, but as a little added flavor option, you can use a touch of banana extract (easily found usually in the baking aisle next to your vanilla or almond extract). The trick is to do what you would if you were making banana bread – make sure to use those bananas when they’re mostly brown, or very spotted. Those make the sweetest cakes and bakes.

The recipe is pretty straight forward and makes more of a dense cake (with still a light touch of fluffiness, believe it or not). I used two browned bananas, but you can get away with using more. It all depends on the size, really. I’ll add notes in the recipe to guide you along when you’re prepping your bananas!

Banana PUDDING FILLING DRAMA

I wish I could say that the filling came together perfectly the first time through. If you follow my Instagram stories, you know that this filling was a struggle for me! The filling was tasty all three times I tried it, but because bananas like to turn brownish rather quickly, I ended up with banana filling that changed colors from one day to the next too quickly. It also didn’t turn into a curd or custard-like consistency. It was definitely a puzzle for me. Also, it turned a gross brown color – because, bananas.

mix vs scratch for the pudding?

For my filling for my Banana Cream Pie Cake , I just used box pudding mix and that seemed to work out really well. So if you want to skip any change of this filling acting up on you, haha, I would just stick to the banana pudding mix and call it good.

However, if you want to make a banana pudding from scratch and have a few ripe bananas ready to go, I believe I’ve come up with a really great way to make that happen! This pudding filling was really tasty, and although it doesn’t have that happy yellow-ish hue that the box pudding mix has, it still was a delightful addition in flavor and texture to the banana cake. I also made sure to add in a little lemon juice to hopefully help the color.

Tasty Cream Cheese Buttercream

Cream cheese buttercream tends to have a really hard time staying nice and firm – especially when you’re trying to use it on the side of a cake or in any kind of decorative way on top. The way that I love to remedy this issue, is to use cream cheese AND butter in my buttercream. That way the butter keeps the buttercream nice and stiff, but the cream cheese flavor is still there. You could also skip the cream cheese altogether, add another stick (1/2 cup) of butter, and then use cream cheese emulsion. It’s up to you!

The main thing to remember is to let your cream cheese and butter whip up enough together to combine. It needs to be light and fluffy before you add in any of the other ingredients. If you notice little pockets of cream cheese anywhere at the beginning, don’t add anything else in. Just let the stand mixer whip up for another minute or two on high speed until they disappear.

If you notice your cream cheese buttercream starting to loose it’s shape, just place it back in the fridge to chill for a minute to come back to a workable temperature. Cream cheese buttercream likes to be cold.

That’s it! I hope you love this simple, but classic, banana cream cheese cake with cream cheese buttercream. You could customize it any way you’d like with chopped nuts or banana slices, too. I would wait to add on the banana slices until just before serving to keep their color. Or you could also use dried bananas, too. It’s up to you!

As always, I’d love to see your Baking with Blondie creations! Make sure to tag me @bakingwithblondie or #bakingwithblondie on Instagram so I can join in on the fun.

Happy Baking!

xo,

Mandy

Get the Recipe: Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Buttercream

Soft Tender Banana Cake Layers, filled with banana pudding filling, frosted with cream cheese buttercream and topped with fresh bananas!
Servings: 12 people
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Ingredients
 

Banana Cake Layers

  • 2 medium ripe (brown skinned or very speckled) bananas , about 1 cup mashed
  • 2/3 cup buttermilk, room temperature
  • 2/3 cup sour cream, room temperature
  • 4 egg whites , room temperature
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 Tablespoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon banana extract , *optional
  • 1 15.25oz box White Cake Mix , I used Duncan Hines

Banana Pudding Filling (or easily substitute with a banana pudding mix!)

  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk , divided
  • 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
  • 2 egg yolks
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup mashed ripe bananas
  • 2 teaspoons butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Cream Cheese Buttercream

  • 2 sticks (or 1 cup) unsalted butter , left out at room temperature for about 10 minutes
  • 8oz cream cheese
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream (plus more if needed)
  • 7-8 cups powdered sugar

Extras

Instructions
 

For the Banana Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees convection bake. (If you're doing traditional bake or convention bake, you'll need to leave them in the oven a little bit longer). Prep three 6" cake pans with a swipe of shortening and a dust of flour. Set aside.
  • In a bowl, whisk together the mashed banana, buttermilk, sour cream, egg whites, vegetable oil, and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Sift in the cake mix and stir until just combined (don't overmix!). Split evenly between the prepared cake pans.
  • Bake for 25-27 minutes until the cakes are finished. Let cool in the pan for about 2 minutes, then flip them out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Wrap up in plastic wrap and freeze until you're ready to stack your cake.

For the Banana Pudding Filling (make a day in advance if making from scratch)

  • If using a boxed pudding mix, prepare the mix according to the directions on the package and refrigerate until ready to assembly.
  • If making from scratch, whisk together 1/2 cup of the cornstarch with the milk. Make sure it's thoroughly combined and set aside.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk up the egg yolks, set aside.
  • In a small saucepan, whisk together the milk, salt, and sugar over medium heat until you see little bubbles around the edges. Add about 1/2 cup of the warmed milk into the whisked egg yolks, and then add it back into the saucepan (we don't want to cook the eggs here, just heat them up to a safe temperature).
  • Whisk constantly while adding in the slurry (cornstarch and milk mixture) until it starts to thicken a lot.
  • Add in the mashed bananas, butter, vanilla, and lemon juice. Add to a glass dish, cover with plastic wrap up to the pudding line, and let set up overnight.

For the Cream Cheese Buttercream

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, whip up the butter until it's light and fluffy, then add in the cream cheese. Whip up again until they're uniform and there are no cream cheese lumps. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
  • Add in the salt and vanilla and whip up again.
  • Add in the heavy cream, then slowly add in the powdered sugar with the mixer on low in 1/2 cup increments. Add in more heavy cream if needed, but go easy – cream cheese tends to soften and you don't want it to get soupy or too soft!
  • Whip up the buttercream on high speed for 2-3 minutes until it's lighter in texture and color.

Assembly

  • Stack and fill the cake layers (make sure to pipe dam around the outside edge of each layer so the filling (you only need 1/2 cup per cake round) doesn't sneak out.
  • Crumb coat the cake and freeze for about 3 minutes, and beat out any air bubbles in the buttercream with a spatula or wooden spoon for a smoother buttercream.
  • Spread on a final layer of buttercream and use a decorative cake comb to create the look on the outside of the cake.
  • Right before serving, add on a few slices of fresh banana.