This perfectly moist and fluffy Banana Cake is truly THE BEST. It is gluten-free, dairy-free, and made with real food ingredients but I promise even those without any dietary allergies/preferences will go crazy over it!
This Best Ever Banana Cake recipe is actually based off of My Mom’s Famous GF Pumpkin Cake (see recipe HERE). My mom’s pumpkin cake is one of my favorite desserts in the entire world and this officially banana cake is right up there with it!
The best part about making this cake (next to eating that first mouth-watering bite) is how AMAZING your house will smell when you make it. The combination of the ooey-gooey caramelized bananas with the brown sugar is just *chef’s kiss*
Another bonus to this recipe is that it is super simple to make— and all you need is ONE large bowl ☺️ hello, easy cleanup!
What you need to make The Best Ever Banana Cake:
- brown sugar— I use organic brown sugar! Feel free to sub coconut sugar for an unrefined sweetener. Psssst. you can also use 1/2 cup sugar for this recipe for an even lower sugar option.
- 1 egg
- bananas— obv! Make sure you are using spotty bananas for the best flavor.
- avocado oil— feel free to sub in melted butter/vegan butter, coconut oil, or any oil you prefer.
- vanilla extract— for that delicious vanilla-y, banana-y, brown sugar-y vibe.
- gluten-free flour— I use Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 baking flour but any 1:1 gluten-free flour sub should work!
- cinnamon— the flavor of the cinnamon with the bananas, vanilla, and brown sugar is unbeatable!
- sea salt— always. Sweet always needs salt.
- baking soda
- Dairy-free cream cheese frosting— my recipe is listed below! So delicous and can also be made regular dairy if you prefer it that way ☺️
The Best Ever Banana Cake with “Cream Cheese” Frosting (gluten-free + dairy-free)
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 3 mashed bananas
- 1/4 cup avocado oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup + 1 tbsp gluten-free 1:1 baking flour
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
For the Dairy-Free Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1/2 cup dairy-free cream cheese, softened (can sub regular cream cheese)
- 2 tbsp butter or vegan butter, softened
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking dish (I used 8×8) with parchment paper.
- Whisk together the brown sugar and the egg.
- Stir in mashed bananas, oil, and vanilla.
- Add in flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. Mix again.
- Pour batter into baking dish and bake for 40-45 minutes.
- Let cake cool and make frosting by mixing together all ingredients.
- Spread frosting over cake and enjoy!
This recipe looks amazing and delicious
I will try it soon
Thanks
Yay! Hope you love it 🙂
One thing I can NOT do is bake, but I gave it a go anyway. Calla, this was the most amazing banana bread I have had!!!! And it baked so perfectly. I could not bring myself to stop eating it (insert crying emoji).
This comment made my day! It’s one of my favorite recipes 🙂 so glad you loved it too!
this was amazing! i left a review on pinterest too, but this was amazing! thanks calla!
Hi Abby! Thank you so much for the comments here and on Pinterest— they mean so much! I am so happy you enjoyed 🙂
Amazing! There wasn’t a soul that didn’t like it! I just have one question, how do you store leftovers (if any left 😅)? Thank you for the wonderful recipe
That makes me so happy to hear! I keep it stored in the refrigerator 🙂 I actually love it cold best!
Unbelievably yummy and moist I put no add ins and it’s fabulous! Making another batch this morning for my friend’s birthday tonight. Thank you so much 😊
Aw yay! That makes me so happy 🙂
I can’t wait to try making this – one question is the vegan butter I should use for the icing salted or not salted? I also haven’t bought dairy-free creme cheese before so I hope I find that- we have nut allergies so can’t have nuts in it. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Wendy, it won’t really matter if you use salted or unsalted— both will be good!! Hope you enjoy!! A good dairy-free / nut-free cream cheese is Miyokos.
moist, sweet and delicious!
I’m so glad you loved!! 🙂
I made this recipe today for my grandson on his 11th birthday. He suffers from eosinphilic oesophagitis (we spell it like the Brits. In Australia). He said it was the best cake he’d ever eaten. I toasted some shredded coconut and put it on top and it was a great finish to a Thai meal. Love it!
This made my day! I am so happy he loved it 🙂
Can you use SR flour and if so are the quantity the same?
Hi there! What is SR flour?
Made this delicious banana cake yesterday and we all LOVED it!!! The cream cheese icing is INCREDIBLE!!!!! I used Kite Hill brand dairy-free cream cheese. It really is “best ever”. I will make this again and again. THANK YOU!!!!!
I am so happy you loved!! 🙂 one of my favorites!
This recipe was absolutely wonderful. I don’t usually bake gluten and dairy free so I had no clue how this would turn out. It was the best banana cake ever. All of my guests raved about it. My only substitution was I used homemade oat flour. You could not tell at all. Great recipe. I will be sure to try others by Calla. Thanks!!!
Aw!! This comment made my day 🙂 I am so glad you and your guests enjoyed! Thank YOU!
Thanks for the recipe it turned out beautifully. I didn’t need it gluten free so I swapped the GF flour for two cups of self raising flour and it was perfect. I bake regularly and know one cup of GF flour is not equivalent to 1 cup ordinary flour, so I adjusted it to 2 regular flour and worked out perfect. This will be my favourite dairy free cake recipe. Thanks! Yum!!
So happy to hear that you loved it! 🙂
Best banana cake ever. I was concerned because my oven is a bit crazy but it turned out perfect!
I am so glad you loved it!!
I used this recipe to make a double-layered cake for my Mom’s birthday. She and the rest of my family LOVED it! I was worried about how much baking soda I was putting in, since I’ve had experiences where it affected the taste haha. But I put in slightly less and it was all good! Cake was gone in minutes 😂
Thank you so much for this – definitely a recipe to save <3
I’m new to GF cooking and went surfing the web for a banana cake recipe and read a lot and came across yours, TY for the easy read and wanted to let you know my family and I loved it, my 21year old son didn’t know it is GF. Thank you❤️
I am so glad you guys enjoyed! This is one of my favorite recipes 🙂
I would like to bake this with all purpose flour. Is the swap 1:1? And do I have to increase or decrease the baking soda? Can’t wait to try it!
I would like to use all purpose flour. Would the substitution be 1:1? Also do I use the same amount of baking soda?
Thank you.
Yes it should be because I used a 1:1 gluten-free flour 🙂 enjoy!
As good as promised! Easy, not too sweet and it only needs 3 bananas. I made the cake and froze it until ready to use. Defrosted, then iced and served. Every scrap was gone with requests to make it again….and soon!
I love to hear that! Such a good idea to make ahead of time and freeze until ready to use. Hopefully you can enjoy it again soon 🥰
I made a banana banana cake with this recipe – I used banana flour. It was fab. The non-dairy free, non-gluten free people hammered it. I’ll do another for my birthday, just needed to trial it first. Very happy.
I love that everyone was able to enjoy this and maybe didn’t know it was healthier, that’s always a win 💁♀️ Thank you for sharing Tracy!