This recipe for banana cake with cream cheese frosting was passed along to me from my friend Peggy; she got it from this site. It’s so light and refreshing and tastes so good that it’s hard to believe that you start with a box cake mix! The site calls it a cheater cake.
Ingredients
- 1 box yellow cake mix (Betty Crocker)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp cinnamon (or more, even 2 tsp if you love cinnamon)
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- Pinch of cloves
- Water, oil and eggs (that are listed on the box cake mix)
- 3 large over-ripe bananas, mashed (about 1½ cups)
Icing
- 1 box (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
- 6 T softened unsalted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1¼ cups powdered sugar
- [optional] ⅓ cup chopped pecans
- icing can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the fridge
note: PB said that she makes extra frosting. I made this cake a few days ago and I wish I had. IMO there wasn’t enough frosting to sufficiently cover the cake (or I used cake pans that were too big, which is likely). Next time I will either double it, or boost it by 50%. It was delicious though. Last night we came back after having a big delicious meal in Boston at Fogo de Chão, dessert too….and when we got home a few of us said “is there any more of that banana cake?“
5/16/21 – I made cupcakes from this recipe. A single box made 26 cupcakes. I did make a double batch of the icing, but I think a single batch would have been plenty; I had a lot left over. Baking time was about 20-22 minutes. The organic raspberry on top added a touch of color and flavor.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Bake in greased & floured round layer cake pan(s) – best to use two 8″ round cake pans.
- In a large bowl, whisk together dry box mix, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
- Add water, oil and eggs as directed on the box
- With mixed on medium speed or beat vigorously by hand for 2 minutes
- Stir in mashed bananas
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool completely.
- In a medium bowl using mixer, cream butter and cream cheese.
- Beat in vanilla extract
- Beat in powdered sugar about ½ cup at a time
- Spread over cooled cake
- If using, top with chopped pecans
- Store cake in refrigerator
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