Easy Vegan Banana Cake smothered in decadent vegan cream cheese frosting. It's soft, fluffy, moist, and perfectly spiced!
This Vegan Banana Cake recipe is for those times when you want to use up your ripe bananas but need something a little more refined than simple vegan banana bread.
Notice I stress "a little" ... We aren't getting all fancy here ... This is a really easy vegan cake, that also happens to be soft and fluffy, full of banana flavour, and smothered in vegan cream cheese frosting!
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Ingredients
Let's take a look at the ingredients you need to make Vegan Banana Cake. Some substitution ideas are also included.
- Bananas - These should be really ripe and spotty. This is important both for flavour and the texture of the batter.
- Flour - Use all-purpose flour or plain flour if you are in the UK. Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Flour works great if you are gluten-free.
- Sugar - I like to use golden cane sugar or white sugar. I don't recommend using darker sugars as they will affect the colour and flavour of the cake.
- Oil - Just about any will do here such as melted refined coconut oil, vegetable oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, or light olive oil. Oil is important for moistness in the finished cake. I don't recommend using vegan butter in this cake. For an oil-free option use nut butter (see the FAqs for more details).
- Baking powder, baking soda & apple cider vinegar - Baking powder as usual in a cake but also baking soda and vinegar to make up for the lack of eggs. The combination of the three makes the cake perfectly light and fluffy. The reason many vegan cakes aren't as fluffy as non-vegan cakes is that the egg substitutes used (like flax, aquafaba etc), don't replace the leavening that eggs provide.
- Milk – Any unsweetened non-dairy milk such as cashew milk, soy milk, almond milk, or oat milk.
- Spices - Vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg complement the banana perfectly and add lots of extra flavour.
- Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting - This dairy-free frosting is made with vegan cream cheese, vegan butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, and my magic ingredient arrowroot flour. The arrowroot is optional but recommended if you have some. For more information about why I use it check out my dedicated vegan cream cheese frosting post. Note that I don't recommend using Violife Cream Cheese to make the frosting. For some reason, it has a tendency to become grainy when whipped up.
If you want to make things extra easy though, Pillsbury Cream Cheese Frosting is accidentally vegan!
Feel free to add some chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, or pecans to the cake batter or on top of the cake for decoration. You can even add ⅓ cup of unsweetened cocoa to the frosting to make it chocolate flavoured!
Expert Tip - I highly recommend that you use a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients. Cup measurements are not accurate enough to get the best results. Digital kitchen scales are pretty cheap and are such a great investment. If you do need to use cups make sure you use them correctly. Spoon the flour gently into the cup then level the top with a knife without compacting it or shaking it down. Do not scoop the flour up into the cup as you will end up with much more than intended which will affect the outcome of the recipe.
How To Make Vegan Banana Cake
It's classically delicious in a way that only banana cake can be, easy to whip up, and because it's baked in a 9 x 13-inch dish it's great for transporting and feeding a crowd.
Here's how it's done in a nutshell (for more details instructions see the recipe card and video):
- Mash the bananas then mix with all of the wet ingredients, sugar, and spices.
- Add the dry ingredients and fold them gently together.
- Spoon into a 9 x 13-inch pan then bake.
- Make the cream cheese frosting and spread it over the top of the completely cooled cake.
Expert Tip - Do not over-mix the batter. As with all cakes, the more you mix, the more you activate the gluten in the flour. This really affects the texture and rise of the finished cake.
Alternative Serving Suggestion
Bake the cake and don't frost it. Cut it into squares, warm each one for about 20 seconds in a microwave, and serve for dessert with a drizzle of hot vegan custard, or a dollop of melty vegan butter and a drizzle of maple syrup for brunch!
Storing & Making Ahead
Bake the cake, allow it to cool, then frost, cover tightly, and store in the fridge for up to 6 days. It also freezes really well without the frosting. Bake, allow to cool completely, then wrap the entire thing (dish as well as long as it's freezer-safe) very tightly and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge overnight then frost.
Recipe FAQs
Preheat oven to 300°F (150°c). Line a baking tray with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Separate the underripe bananas and lay them on the tray as they are, skins intact. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. They will have turned completely black and will be perfectly soft and sweet and mushy inside. When you want to use them slice the skin open and scoop or squeeze out the soft banana flesh and use in your recipe.
Yes. Replace the oil with the same amount of nut or seed butter and increase the amount of milk used by a third of a cup (80 ml). You will need to blend the nut butter with the milk before adding it so that it incorporates well. I recommend using cashew butter because it has a mild buttery flavour, but as long as you are ok with the nutty flavour coming through, almond butter or peanut butter will work too.
The frosting however needs the vegan butter to be successful so you will need to enjoy it unfrosted or find an alternative frosting solution.
Please bear in mind that when you make this banana cake oil-free, you will not get the same light, soft and fluffy sponge. It will be darker in colour, slightly heavier, and not as soft and fluffy.
You can use two lined 9-inch cake pans and bake at the same temperature for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick/skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. There should be enough frosting to sandwich it and frost the top and sides.
This recipe will make about 24 cupcakes so you might want to half it. Fill the cupcake cases to about ¾ full and bake at the same temperature for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick/skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Yes. Half the recipe. Bake at the same temperature for about 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick/skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Love Banana?
If you try this recipe, let me know how you like it by leaving a comment and rating below! And be sure to join my mailing list for more deliciousness!
Recipe
Vegan Banana Cake
Author:Ingredients
For the cake
- 3 medium (8 inch) very ripe & spotty bananas * (approx 375 grams or 13 oz with skin removed)
- ¾ cup (150 grams) white or cane sugar
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup (80 mls) plant milk , unsweetened & unflavoured
- ½ cup (120 mls) liquid oil , such as melted refined coconut oil, vegetable oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, or light olive oil.
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 cups (375 grams) all purpose flour , (plain flour in the UK)
- 2½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda , (bicarbonate of soda in the UK)
For the frosting
- 1 cup (227g / 8 oz) vegan cream cheese , straight from the fridge (I like Tofutti for frosting. I don't recommend using Violife)
- ½ cup (110 grams) vegan butter
- 4 teaspoons arrowroot powder , (you can omit but the frosting will be looser)
- ⅛ teaspoon fine salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 to 5 cups (500 to 625 grams) powdered sugar , (icing sugar in the UK)
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
INSTRUCTIONS
For the cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C) and grease a 9 x 13 inch ovenproof dish with some oil or vegan butter.
- Peel the bananas and put them in a large bowl. Mash them up really well until they are a smoothish puree.
- To the bananas add the sugar, vinegar, vanilla, milk, oil, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Whisk it all up until well combined.
- Add the flour, baking powder and baking soda to the wet ingredients and stir them together gently to combine. Don't beat hard or use an electric whisk, and stop as soon as there is no dry flour visible anymore.
- Pour into the prepared pan and bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until golden brown, coming away from the sides slightly and a skewer/toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. The time will vary depending on your oven and the dish/pan you are cooking the cake in. 40 minutes cooking time is based on using a glass dish. If you use metal it will likely be ready a little quicker so check from 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the dish on a wire rack.
For the frosting
- Add the vegan butter to a large bowl and beat it with an electric mixer on a medium high speed until soft and fluffy.
- Add the cream cheese and beat again until combined and smooth but don't over-beat. As soon as it's combined stop.
- Now add the arrowroot powder, salt, vanilla and about 2 cups of the powdered sugar. Beat on the lowest speed for about 20 seconds until the powdered sugar has stopped flying around, then add another 2 cups. Beat again on low until it's mostly combined then turn the speed up to medium high again and beat until smooth and creamy, scraping down the edges with a spatula as needed to get any dry powdered sugar off the sides and into the mix.
- Add the remaining powdered sugar to thicken as needed. Using it all makes the frosting much easier to handle, spread and pipe.
- Do not be tempted to add any more liquid to the frosting at any stage because it will become too runny. Once done, cover the bowl and put in the fridge until needed.
- Slather generously all over the top of the completely cooled banana cake.
Courtney R says
I've been trying to teach my 18 year old some basic life skills and I watched over and guided her as she baked this. It turned out delicious!! We loved the frosting as well.
Melanie McDonald says
This is a life skill I am totally on board with! So pleased you both enjoyed it!
Lidia Rosas says
Delicious
The cake is so fluffy and rich. The frosting makes it a whole new experience. Me and my sister's favorite from now on. She wants to have it on her birthday even
sharon buttress says
Hi! I agree with Julie - so many recipes aren't possible because they don't give UK measurements. 5 Stars for that alone! Also, fab recipes too.
Bernat Pascual says
Just a great recipe, after so many let downs on vegan cake recipes…Thank you so much, it’s just perfect!
Melanie McDonald says
I'm so pleased you enjoyed it. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. It's much appreciated!
Julie says
I think I've made this cake about a dozen times now since finding it last summer. So easy, quick and a big hit with everybody I've made it for. It's my go-to vegan cake recipe and have had lots of requests for it. I really appreciate that you've added the UK equivalents (more recipes need to do this imo because it makes them virtually inaccessible otherwise), and the tick boxes make sure I don't miss anything out. You can tell so much care has been put into writing this recipe. I usually add (vegan) dark choc chips and hold off on the icing, which works really well too. Thank you so much, Mel :)
Melanie McDonald says
Thank you Julie! I'm really pleased you're loving the recipe, and that you find the way it's written helpful. And thank you for coming back to leave a review. It's very much appreciated!
June Estelle says
This is my favorite vegan cake. The recipe is simple and yields great results!
Ella says
The best banana cake recipe ever! I doubled the recipe and made one tray of cupcakes and two 18cm round cakes which I levelled and made into a layer cake. It all worked perfectly and was a hit for baby's first birthday party.
I followed the recipe, and used regular plain flour, raw caster sugar, soy milk, and grapeseed oil. For the frosting, I used nuttlex as the butter as we don't have hard vegan butter available here. It was definitely soft but kept together still (kept it in the fridge until serving.)
Pippa says
Fabulous recipe, the family really enjoyed it. I really appreciate all the tips and information as well as the recipe being straight forward and easy to make. Melanie has clearly taken a lot of time writing this and it is really really informative and good! Thank you very much
Sammy says
I’ve made this 3 times now, third currently in the oven! It smells amazing! Everyone loves it! I’ve used olive oil and this time I’m trying out coconut sugar. Thanks for this recipe :)
A Virtual Vegan says
So pleased you're enjoying it Sammy! Olive oil and coconut sugar should work out fine, although the colour of the sponge will change a bit.
Karen Buckley says
OMG. Such a delicious cake. It was meant to be for my son's birthday tomorrow but we accidentally have eaten it all today. I will have to make another now. Thank you. It's not often vegan cakes turn out so well. I'm so glad I found your website!
Em says
Terrible. The finished "cake batter" was actually REALLY thick. Not batter at all-- more like bread dough. There was no way I was going to bake it like that... I mean, it was so thick it was like play dough... so I added more almond milk until it was a cake batter-like consistency. The finished product is actually more like banana bread and VERY dense. I followed the recipe exactly.
Sandra says
I think i know why they had such a bad result - i just used bananas that were still slightly frozen and my batter looked exactly as described - like playdough or similar. i had to add probably an extra 1.5cups milk to get to 'cake' consistency and its still in the oven but with all the extra overmixing i had to do to mix in the extra milk i'm not holding my breath for a light texture! Oh well - next time i'll microwave the bananas first :P
mck says
Oops! Forgot to leave the star rating in my comment. 5 stars!!
mck says
This was delicious, thank you for this recipe! I didn’t change a thing, but next time I will bake for a shorter amount of time (every oven is different!). Will make this again!
Rose says
Amazing cake. So fluffy and the frosting is incredible!
Sarah says
Second time making this cake today it went down well last week with friends they even asked for a second slice ! Thank you Sarah
Samantha says
Really good vegan banana cake, nice and spongy. I have tried other vegan banana cake recipes and they usually turn out dense but not this one. I used soft light brown sugar. Thank you for sharing.
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm really pleased you enjoyed it Samantha. Thank you for stopping by to leave a review/rating. It's much appreciated!
Frances says
I made mine with spelt flour and replaced the oil with applesauce and it turned out delicious. I didn't use the icing. Definitely a make again recipe!
Mandy says
Loved it. The cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla flavors are lovely. Will be making again for sure. Thank you