This vegan banana cake is perfectly moist, sweet, and lightly spiced. Easy to make and perfect whether you're looking for a special dessert, or just need to use up some ripe bananas!
This vegan banana cake is one of those recipes that tuned out way better than I'd ever expected. I don't know why, I mean, I LOVE my banana bread, banana muffins, and banana pancakes, so banana cake should be pretty good, right?
Well it was way better than good. This cake blew my mind! It had absolutely the perfect texture and amazing flavor.
It was also so easy! We're talking about a one-bowl deal here. I also made it into a sheet cake for ease of preparation because I figured it might be a good spur of the moment dessert you kind of throw together on a whim, like when you've got a bunch of bananas that are threatening to go bad.
Have I sold you on how amazing this cake is? Great! Let's talk about how it's made!
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Ingredients You'll Need
- Non-dairy milk. Just about any variety that's unsweetened and unflavored will work. Try soy milk, almond milk or cashew milk.
- White vinegar. Apple cider vinegar works as a substitute.
- Overripe bananas. Your bananas absolutely need to be overripe, or the cake will turn out dry, chewy, dense, and not sweet enough. You want LOTS of brown spots on the peel. I shoot for bananas that are brown on almost half of the peel.
- Sugar. Use organic sugar to keep the recipe vegan.
- Brown sugar. This needs to be organic too.
- Vegan butter. You should be able to find this near the regular butter at the supermarket. Look for brands like Miyoko's and Earth Balance.
- Vanilla extract.
- Flour. We're using regular old all-purpose wheat flour. I'm not sure if the recipe will work with anything else.
- Baking soda.
- Cinnamon.
- Salt.
- Frosting. I like to top this cake with my vegan vanilla buttercream frosting. You could also use vegan chocolate frosting, or your favorite variety. The cake would also be delicious without frosting or with just a sprinkle of organic powdered sugar.
- Chopped walnuts. These are optional or can be replaced with another variety of nut, such as pecans.
Tip: I like to keep a stash of peeled overripe bananas in the freezer for recipes like this. Simply thaw them out on the counter before mashing, and be sure to include all of the liquid that seeps out of the banana as it comes to temperature.
How It's Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
- Start by stirring your milk and vinegar together in a small bowl or liquid measuring cup. This is your vegan buttermilk. It might curdle — this is fine!
- In a large mixing bowl, blend together mashed banana, softened butter, the sugars, and vanilla extract until creamy. You can use a hand mixer or stand mixer for this.
Tip: Make sure your butter is at room temperature before getting started. Ideally you'll want to take it out of the fridge a few hours in advance. Try this butter softening trick if you forget.
- Stir in the milk mixture by hand. Don't beat it in with the mixer or you'll risk taking a vegan buttermilk shower.
- Begin beating in the flour, a cup at a time. When you add the last cup, sprinkle the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon on top before beating it in. This trick works for lots of baked good recipes that would otherwise require multiple bowls!
- Spread the batter into a prepared baking pan, then pop it into the oven and bake the cake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let your vegan banana cake cool completely, then frost, top it with chopped walnuts, slice and enjoy!
Leftovers & Storage
The best way to store vegan banana cake is to keep it in the original baking dish and cover it tightly with plastic wrap, or, if you're freezing it, place it in a freezer bag.
The cake will keep for about 2 days at room temperature, about 5 days in the refrigerator, or up to 3 months in the freezer.
Frequently Asked Questions
I haven't tested a gluten-free version of this recipe, so I can't say for sure. I'd recommend substituting an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend if you'd like to give it a try.
Usually this is because your bananas aren't ripe enough. Using bananas with lots of brown spots is essential, as they contain more sugar and less starch, which can dry out your batter.
This is often due to old baking soda. Test yours by sprinkling a bit in a glass of vinegar. If it doesn't fizz, it's time to replace it.
More Vegan Cake Recipes
- Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Spice Cake
- Vegan Coconut Cake
- Vegan Pineapple Upside Down Cake
- Vegan Lemon Cake
- Vegan Carrot Cake
Like this recipe? If so, please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you try it! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes like this one!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Banana Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups unflavored non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 1 ½ cups mashed overripe banana1 (about 3 to 4 medium bananas)
- ¾ cup organic granulated sugar
- ½ cup organic brown sugar, packed
- 10 tablespoons vegan butter, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Vegan buttercream frosting2, or frosting of choice
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and lightly oil the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
- Stir the milk and vinegar together in a small bowl or liquid measuring cup.
- Using an electric mixer at high-speed, beat the mashed banana, sugar, brown sugar, butter, and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl. Beat until creamy, about 1 minute.
- Stir in the milk mixture by hand.
- Begin beating in the flour, 1 cup at a time. After adding the last cup, sprinkle the baking soda, cinnamon and salt on top before beating it it. Beat the ingredients just until combined.
- Transfer the batter to the baking pan and smooth out the top with a spatula.
- Bake the cake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it cool completely before frosting and sprinkling with the walnuts.
- Slice and serve.
Notes
- Simply mash your bananas in your mixing bowl using a fork or potato masher. Get them relatively smooth — a few small chunks are okay though!
- Nutrition information does not include frosting, since it will vary considerably depending on how much and what variety you use.
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I used half almond flour and half flour. I also only used half a cup of butter (8tbsp), I used 1/2 cup monkfruit and 1/2 brown sugar.
I did not add salt as i used salted vegan butter. Lastly, i used apple cider vinegar in place of white vinegar.
It came out beautifully and fluffy, moist and delicious.
Really happy with this recipe!
I wanted to make banana bread with Connoisseur Veg’s banana bread recipe; I looked over the recipe and it seemed good but when I was in the middle of making it and referred back it looked different. It mentioned butter? I was like oh crud, I guess I read it wrong, I don’t have butter. Yeah, it turns out SOMEHOW I had been moved to this banana cake recipe. Instead of figuring that out, I was like well I guess I read it wrong and I’ll have to run with it. So I added oil instead of butter and only half the milk because it was way too runny for bread and then I cooked it in bread pans for 40 min. It’s terrible. I know this isn’t the recipe’s fault but I’m sad, I made two loaves and they’re awful, their texture is like a yeasty roll and they’re not sweet :( and I wasted so many bananas and ingredients and time. Even reading about the frosting didn’t tip me off? Just a word of warning to people with selective reading habits I guess. If the ads for the other recipes could not be in the way so much that would be great too. But maybe I can make it into bread pudding or something.
Have you tried with any gluten free flours ?
I haven't. I'd love to hear how it turns out if you do!