Print Options:

Spiced Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This cake tastes like Christmas on a plate covered with creamy goodness! The spices compliment the sweetness of the banana so well and the tangy cream cheese frosting goes perfectly with it.

Spiced Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

Whenever we go grocery shopping, I make sure to get a lot of bananas. I use bananas all the time and in so many recipes. I almost always need at least one for my breakfast (either for my Chocolate Cauliflower Porridge or for one of my many smoothie bowls). And in partiular during the summer when it's hot, I just love making banana ice cream (aka nicecream). Banana contains a lot of magnesium and since I have a chronic deficiency, it's a great choise of food for me in particular.

This week I happened to have a bunch of bananas that were getting those nice brown spots that make them perfect for baking (or smoothie bowls). You don't want them to get too dark though, I find the banana taste too strong then. I was torn between putting the bananas in the freezer for our weekly Acai Berry Power Bowl or turning them into some kind of cake. My son had been asking about making a cake for a while already.

So cake it was! I wanted to make something that was reminiscent of banana bread but also different. And I also added lots of spices – cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. I love using spices in baking, it just adds such lovely extra flavor! These spices in particular make it perfect for the colder fall weather when Christmas isn't all that far away anymore.

Covering it with cream cheese frosting makes it even better! Just make sure to wait until the cake is fully cooled off before slathering it on top – otherwise it will melt right off. This cream cheese frosting isn't one of those overly sweet ones that becomes hard in the fridge. I am really not a fan of that kind of frosting because to me it just tastes sweet! This cream cheese frosting is sweet but you can still taste the slight tartness of cream cheese. It's the perfect combination with the crumbly Spiced Banana Cake!

The recipe contains the usual ingredients – butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder. Every now and then I enjoy making a „normal“ cake, meaning one that isn't vegan and contains regular sugar. While there is great joy in creating something vegan too, a lot of people that follow my blog don't necessarily have the ingredients for vegan baking at home. But no worries, more vegan baked goods are coming soon! I just love both ways of cooking and baking.

Just writing about it makes me want to bake another batch. It was gone so quickly and everyone loved it (including my son and his friend who gobbled it up in what felt like mere seconds)! I guess I'm off to buy a lot more bananas today...

Are you going to bake this yummy cake soon? Or how about my Healthy Cherry Almond Cake?

Cooking Method
Cuisine
Courses
Difficulty Beginner
Time
Prep Time: 15 min Cook Time: 30 min Rest Time: 60 min Total Time: 1 hr 45 mins
Servings 9
Description

This cake tastes like Christmas on a plate covered with creamy goodness! The spices compliment the sweetness of the banana so well and the tangy cream cheese frosting goes perfectly with it.

Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup softenend butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 medium-sized bananas
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 2 cups whole-wheat all purpose flour
  • 1.5 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1/3 cup softened butter
  • 3/4 cups powdered sugar
  • 250 grams COLD cream cheese (see Notes)
  • 1/2 cup crushed walnuts
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (356°F). Put parchment paper into a metal brownie baking tray. 

  2. Add softened butter and sugar to a bowl and cream for 2 to 3 minutes until all is super smooth. 

  3. Add 2 eggs, one at a time and mix in well. 

  4. Peel the bananas and mash well. Add to the mixture together with the vanilla essence. 

  5. In another bowl, whisk together whole-wheat flour, baking powder, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and salt.

  6. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients 1/2 cup at at time. Mix in in between. 

  7. Add the batter to the brownie baking tray. Bake at 180°C (356°F) for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

  8. Let cool off in the tray for 10 minutes, then remove from the tray and let fully cool off on a cooling rack. It's important that it's fully cooled off as otherwise the frosting will melt on top of the cake. 

  9. While the cake is in the oven, make the frosting. Add softened butter to a bowl. Cream with a hand-held mixer for about 1 minute. 

  10. Add sifted powdered sugar and mix for another 2 minutes. 

  11. Add the cold cream cheese. I like to cut mine into little blocks within the package as it mixes in better like that. Mix it in with a silicone spatula. If it's not mixing in properly, use a hand-held mixer but only very briefly until just combined. 

    It should be taken straight out of the fridge, so really cold!  Don't mix the cream cheese mixture for long as German cream cheese tends to get too soft and the frosting won't hold together well anymore.
  12. When the cake is fully cooled off, spread the frosting all over the top. Add the crushed walnuts on top. Enjoy!

Note

Cream Cheese: I'm using German cream cheese which seems to be different to the American one. German cream cheese is always spreadable whereas - from what I found out - Americans use a hard cream cheese that comes in blocks. However, I'm using Philadelphia cream cheese which might be the same in both countries. 

Keywords: cake, banana cake, banana sheet cake, cream cheese frosting, spiced cake, spiced banana cake,
Andrea Epstein in her kitchen
Andrea Epstein

Hi, I'm Andrea, a full-time food blogger, mother of 1 wonderful son, 2 equally wonderful stepsons and wife to a darling husband. I live in Munich, Germany with my family. I loves traveling, sharing new recipes, and spending time with my family.