A light and fluffy banana cake topped with an irresistible brown butter icing. It’s not called best ever banana bundt cake for nothing!
Yes, I’m the crazy lady over here adding yet another banana recipe to my site. I think I have at least 25 recipes that include banana in them, and I don’t plan on stopping. What can I say? I’m bananas for bananas! This cake is one I’ve been wanting to share for weeks now, but I held off until all of my summer recipes were posted. It’s light, fluffy and bursting with banana flavor. And don’t even get me started on that brown butter icing. Absolutely heavenly!!
For this recipe (and really any banana recipe) you want to make sure your bananas are dark and heavily spotted. That’s key in getting a pronounced banana flavor. So if your bananas aren’t quite there yet, give them time. I promise you’ll enjoy this cake so much better a few days later when they’re ripe & ready to go!
Now for a few more tips. Make sure you’re using room temperature ingredients. Your butter should be nice and soft. You’ll want to beat it for 2 minutes, then an additional 4 minutes after adding the sugar and vanilla. We’re going for pale and fluffy. Separate your eggs and beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the batter. This will help create a tall, light cake. We’re not going for dense banana bread after all.
After the cake comes out of the oven and you’ve inverted it onto a wire rack to let it cool, you can start the icing. Brown the butter (if you’re new to this technique you can find helpful tips here), then beat in the remaining ingredients. If you find the icing is too thick, you can always thin it out by adding a teaspoon or two of hot water. Drizzle it over the top of the cake, then immediately add the nuts. Chopped walnuts or pecans work, just toast them in a dry skillet for a few minutes to give them more flavor and crunch. Don’t skip this step, trust me!
Once the icing has set, you can slice it up and serve it. Just make sure to have a tall glass of milk on hand… you’ll need it! I hope you’ll enjoy this cake as much as our family did. It’s practically perfect in every way!
Banana Bread Bundt Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze Recipe
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter - room temperature
- 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs - separated, room temperature
- 1 3/4 cup bananas - very ripe, mashed
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp coarse kosher sea salt
- 1 cup sour cream - room temperature
For the Browned Butter Icing
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp boiling water
- 3 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup chopped pecans - OR walnuts, toasted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Spray a 12-cup bundt pan or 15-cup bundt pan with baking spray or butter and flour it, set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the sugar and vanilla, beat until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the egg yolks and banana, mix until combined.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- With the mixing speed on low, alternate adding the dry ingredients and the sour cream, mixing just until combined.
- In a small mixing bowl with a hand mixer, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Using a spatula, gently fold in the egg whites to the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth out into an even layer. Place in the oven and bake for 45–55 minutes or until a cake tester (or toothpick) inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.
For the Icing
- To prepare the icing, add the butter to a medium saucepan set over medium-low heat. Cook until golden flecks begin to form at the bottom of the pan, then immediately remove from the heat. Stir in the powdered sugar, boiling water, and vanilla. Using a hand mixer, beat until the frosting is easy to spread.
- Drizzle the frosting over the cake, then immediately sprinkle with nuts. Let set for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
I made this cake tonight. The texture and flavor is spectacular – much lighter than banana bread, but the same robust banana flavor. However, I must have done something wrong with the icing, as there was NO way this was going to pour. I added additional boiling water to get it to a frosting consistency and spread it over the bundt ridges, so it doesn’t look nearly as pretty as your cake, but it tasted great. Next time I’ll make a more traditional bundt glaze with browned butter and heated milk to ensure I get a thinner consistency.
I made this cake today, it was amazing light and moist
I found the icing despite having a beautiful butterscotch taste was too sweet for me with only adding 3c icing sugar
Also the cake was cooked at 50mins but I probably could have taken it out a few minutes earlier
Super easy to make and super tasty
Thanks for sharing this recipe
I needed to heat up my house last night (furnace off all day for repairs in the middle of Montana winter) and I had three ripe bananas so I made this cake. I was a little skeptical as the last cake recipe I had found on the internet had failed spectacularly (I had to throw it away). I closely follow the directions and I think both I and my boyfriend think this is the best cake I have ever baked. I have printed the recipe and I definitely plan to use it again. i especially appreciated the directions to how to brown butter as I think that added quite a bit to the frosting.
I made this cake the other day and it is delicious. I followed the recipe exactly except for the addition of a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg to the cake batter. I used 2-3/4 large bananas to make 1-3/4 cup mashed. I carefully folded the egg whites into the cake batter and, while my cake came out tall, I wouldn’t say that it is light. The texture is fairly dense, which is fine with me. I used Trader Joe’s butter for the cake and a European butter for the frosting. I guess because I used European butter, which contains less water than American butter, I had to add much more than 2 tbs. of water to achieve a smooth frosting. Be aware that the cake goes from somewhat wet in the middle to fully cooked fairly quickly, so keep a close eye on it when it is almost done. It only took about 5 minutes to go from somewhat raw in the middle to fully cooked. Thanks for the delicious recipe! Everyone who tried it liked it a lot!
Glad to hear it was a hit 🙂
hey girl- this looks so yummy!