Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Loads of flavor-boosting ingredients, like brown sugar, sour cream, cinnamon, and walnuts take this easy cake to a new level of deliciousness.
Texture: The cake is moist and tender without being too delicate to frost and serve easily.
Ease: Super quick and easy. Short amount of prep time and no special equipment or skills required.
Pros: Fun combination of banana bread and cake that I think will become a go-to recipe.
Cons: None!
Would I make this again? Absolutely.
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
This easy, quick Banana Walnut Cake is the perfect use for over-ripe bananas.
Whether it’s in cake, bread, cupcakes, or muffins, I just love baking with bananas. Most of the time, I actually hope my bananas will over-ripen before we can eat them!
As a kid, I didn’t like nuts very much. I would turn my head to brownies or cookies made with nuts.
Free Buttercream Guide!
Frost your cakes and cupcakes perfectly with our Best Buttercream Guide. Trusted by 50,000+ home bakers.
It wasn’t until I tasted a slice of banana bread made with walnuts that I was truly converted. Now, the combination, plus just a hint of cinnamon, is the epitome of comfort food in my mind.
The cake itself is tall, moist, and sturdy enough to handle the thick cream cheese frosting.
No layers, no assembly, no special equipment. It’s also easy to transport and serve, so this would be perfect for a potluck, party, picnic, or housewarming treat.
Of course, what banana cake would be complete without the crunchy earthy bite of California Walnuts?
I hope you enjoy this simple cake as much as I do!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Banana Walnut Cake
How Ripe Should Bananas be for Baking?
- Be sure to use overripe bananas for this recipe.
- The best bananas for baking should be very well-speckled or even nearly black.
- This is important when baking banana cake, Banana Bread, Banana Muffins, or Banana Cupcakes!
- Why use overripe bananas? Besides the fact that they’re not good for much else in the kitchen, overripe bananas are actually significantly sweeter and will contribute more banana flavor AND more moisture to the recipe.
- If you use underripe bananas (and when I say ‘underripe,’ I mean for baking specifically), your muffins will be bland and dry.
The Best Way to Mash Bananas
- Place bananas in a bowl and use a fork to mash them into a banana mixture.
- OR, place bananas in a bowl and use an electric mixer to beat the bananas until they’re mashed.
Do I Have to Use Cream Cheese Frosting?
I love this cake with a layer of rich and tangy cream cheese frosting. Feel free to use any frosting you want, or none at all if you want to make this a little less sweet. Personally, I think that chocolate frosting would taste delicious too!
What’s the Best Pan for Banana Walnut Cake?
- I highly recommend using a light-colored 9×13-inch metal baking pan for best results.
- Dark-colored pans will brown the edges and make them dry.
- Glass or ceramic pans will work in a pinch, but you’ll likely need to increase the baking time and lower the temperature by 25°F.
- Check out my article on Glass vs. Metal Pans for more information.
How to Make Moist Cake
- Don’t add too much flour! Be sure to measure your flour correctly. Too much flour will create a dense, heavy, dry banana cake. I highly recommend using a digital kitchen scale, but if you don’t have one, use the ‘spoon and level’ method. Learn more about how to correctly measure flour here.
- Do not reduce the sugar. Sugar does much more than simply sweeten your baked goods! Learn more about the role sugar plays in baking here.
- Avoid overmixing. Overmixing your batter can result in dry, dense cake instead of light, soft cake with a moist crumb.
- Use overripe bananas. Follow the other tips above for using overripe bananas for the best guarantee of moist cake.
How to Store Banana Walnut Cake
Store Banana Walnut Cake covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. Serve at room temperature.
Can You Freeze Banana Walnut Cake?
Unfrosted cake can be wrapped well in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature before frosting and serving.
More Recipes You’ll Love:
Banana Walnut Cake
Email This Recipe
Enter your email, and we’ll send it to your inbox.
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 3 cups (372 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 10 tablespoons (142 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/3 cups (300 grams) mashed bananas, from about 4 medium bananas
- 1 cup (227 grams) sour cream
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 3/4 cup (106 grams) California walnuts, chopped
For the frosting:
- 8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, at cool room temperature
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups (250 grams) powdered sugar, sifted
- Chopped walnuts, for garnish
Instructions
Make the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 9 by 13-inch baking pan.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time. On low speed, beat in half the dry ingredients then the bananas, sour cream, and milk. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients. Gently stir in the walnuts. Do not overmix.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely. Unfrosted cake can be well wrapped and frozen for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature before frosting.
Make the frosting:
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla on medium-high speed until very light, creamy, and smooth. On low speed gradually add in the sugar and beat until fluffy.
- Spread the frosting over the cooled cake. Garnish with chopped walnuts. For cleaner cuts, refrigerate for 30 minutes before slicing and serving. Store in the fridge for up to 3 days. Serve at room temperature.
This post was originally published in 2017 and has been updated with additional recipe tips.
Hi
The cake was so fluffy and moist. I browned the butter and it was delicious. Thanks for all the great recipes.
Yummy I love Banana nut bread and I would surly love this cake
Hi Emily – Will this be successful as a layer cake?
We haven’t tried that, so I can’t say for sure! Please let us know how it goes if you give it a try 🙂
Another amazing HTH recipe. This is great if you’re baking for a large crowd or just have some bananas to use up. I substituted chocolate chips for the walnuts to please the younger crowd but can’t wait to make again with walnuts.
We wanted to try some different recipe for our favourite banana walnut cake and this recipe proved to be wonderful. I wanted to share it with my friends but my wife didn’t allow me to 🙂
haha, that’s the ultimate compliment! So happy to hear how much you and your wife loved this recipe 🙂 Thanks for sharing!