Search

Leslie’s Banana Cake Recipe: The Best Recipe 40 cakes later

Banana Cake 1

I shall join all the other bakers on the internet to proclaim that this Banana Cake Recipe is the BEST one ever! Yes, it has to be, since I have tried many of the other “best recipes” on the internet and found them wanting. So after many months of trials and 40+ banana cakes later, here is my version of the BEST banana cake ever!

So why did I take so long? Well, the truth of the matter is that I am not a trained baker, so I do not hold to any particular way of doing things.  So, I was willing to experiment and go against convention to see what happens to my cake. I must say that I have learnt a lot in the last few months!

Deflated
Deflated cake, deflated ego.

First of all, let me clarify that this is the Asian style banana cake and not an American style banana bread.  It is the light and fluffy old-school banana cake that you can find in many of the traditional confectioneries in Singapore.  The American style banana bread is denser and often has chopped walnuts and spices in it.  The batter for this cake is very light, so it won’t be able to hold the nuts and they will all sink to the bottom.

Unfortunately, I haven’t come across what I would consider the perfect Banana cake.  I tried the one from Hiap Joo Bakery which is widely considered to be the best around, but I found it to be a bit too light and not substantial enough.  I also tried a Japanese banana cake which I picked up from Ion Orchard and found that it was too dense and lacked banana flavour.  The perfect Banana Cake, it seems, only exists in my head, but this one is coming close.

Banana slices

The ingredients in a banana cake are pretty standard.  It is the proportions and the sequence in which they are incorporated to the batter which is important.  I have experimented with more flour vs less flour, cake flour vs plain flour, more sugar vs less sugar, brown sugar vs white sugar, more bananas vs less bananas, different types of bananas, bananas in different stages of ripeness, more eggs vs less eggs……  you get the picture.

I also experimented with the best way to combine the ingredients together, whether it is to cream the butter and sugar first or beat the eggs first or butter and flour first etc etc. It wasn’t good enough to come up with a method that works, it has to be the easiest as well. I was also concerned about how the cake looks after baking and how the slices would present themselves on the plate.  So, I had to experiment with different baking pans and different oven temperatures.

Now you see why I took so long to get that balance of texture, flavour, appearance and technique I was looking for!

Cake structure

Is it perfect?  Well, I can’t say it is perfect, yet.  I feel the banana flavour can still be more intense and the cake could be moister, but I think at this stage, the recipe is good enough to share with all of you. I will share more tips on what I have learnt on my baking journey below.  It is my hope that you bake a successful banana cake on the first go.  Just follow my recipe exactly as I have written right down to the size of the cake pan.

Once you have baked your first successful cake based on my recipe, then go and do whatever modification you like.  But, whatever you plan to do, I think I have probably already tried it.  But, if you managed to make a banana cake that is even more “banananer”, I would love to hear about it!

Ingredients

Group A
1.  Cake flour 150g
2.  Castor Sugar 130g (Can reduce to 100g)
3.  Baking powder 1 tsp
4.  Butter 150g (unsalted)

Group B
1.  Banana (Mashed) 150g
2.  Banana essence 1 tsp (Optional)
3.  Salt 1/2 tsp (reduce to 1/4 if using salted butter)
4.  Baking soda 1/2 tsp

Group C
1.  Eggs 2 (120g) Separate whites and yolks
2.  Condensed milk 40g (Optional)

Method
1.  Mix cake flour, castor sugar and baking powder in bowl
2.  Cut butter into cubes and add to the flour.  Allow butter to soften 3.  Mash all the ingredients in Gp B and set aside
4.  Whip egg whites still smooth and foamy
5.  Add yolks and whip till homogenous
6.  Add condensed milk and whip till homogenous
7.  Add Gp B (mashed bananas) and whip till homogenous
8.  Beat the butter and flour until the flour is all incorporated into the butter and most of the butter pea-sized or smaller
9.  Add the 1/3 egg mixture into the flour and beat slowly until smooth.
10 Repeat with the rest of the egg mixture 1/3 at a time
11. Add batter into a lightly oiled 9×4 inch non-stick loaf pan
12. Smooth the top and bake at 160°C for 50mins

(At the end of baking time, the top should be brown and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean.  The baking temperature and times will depend on your oven.

Option
To add banana on top of the cake, thinly slice the banana and leave in the freezer to firm up.  Place the banana on top of the cake once the top starts to brown, around 20mins into the baking time

Kitchen Equipment

z 1- creaming

The KitchenAid 9-Speed Hand Mixer

For this recipe, I used the KitchenAid 9-Speed hand mixer. I find the wide speed range rather convenient as it allows you to go from crumbling the butter and flour at low speed to mixing and whipping up your egg whites really quickly at high speed. A hand mixer can also be rather convenient when you are using a number of mixing bowls so you can go from bowl to bowl without having to wash the mixing bowl on the stand mixer.  You can of course do this recipe by hand but why struggle when you can get some aid around the Kitchen? (pun intended)

KitchenAid Digital Countertop oven

For the baking, I used the KitchenAid Digital Countertop oven. You can of course use an inbuilt oven as well.  This countertop oven is rather convenient if you have limited kitchen space as it is built higher so takes less space on the kitchen counter but does a whole lot more than an oven toaster with higher capacity.  I have made a thin and crispy Japanese-style pizza and Focaccia Bread with it before.

Special Bundle Promotion – KitchenAid Hand Mixer and Digital Countertop oven

KitchenAid is running a promotion with Takashimaya online to offer both the KitchenAid 9-speed Hand Mixer and Digital Countertop Oven at $328/bundle (usual price: $528). Offer is limited to the first 50 sets so check it out while stocks last.

Details and tips

Bananas

Berangan banana

We live in a part of the world where there are so many varieties of bananas, so we should have a leg up with it comes to banana cake!  All the banana cake recipes from the US make use of the Cavendish banana which you commonly find at the supermarkets.  It is ok, but the banana you want for this recipe is either the Pisang Berangan aka Ang Bak Jioh or the Pisang Rajah.  I have used Cavendish and kepok as well, but they don’t give the best flavour.  The Pisang Berangan is the one used by Hiap Joo Bakery and is recommended by most experts.  Rajah is good too but more difficult to buy.

frozen banana
Frozen and thawed bananas

Always use bananas which are super ripe.  You can easily buy them from the fruit stall at a bargain price.  I like to buy a whole bunch and really let them turn brown and then put them in the freezer.  All you need to do is to defrost them in the microwave and then mash them.

Mashed banana
Mashed bananas

I have tried cooking the bananas to try to concentrate the flavour but it doesn’t really do much.  I have tried increasing the amount of bananas but the extra starch causes the cake to become too dense and not fluffy, more like a kueh than a cake.

Another thing I have done is to dehydrate the bananas by putting them on a rack in a 50C oven for 8 hours.  They dry up and become like raisins. Very nice for my banana bread but can’t use for banana cake because they all sink to the bottom.

In the end, the best way to boost banana flavour is to add a teaspoon of banana essence.  It is like baking orange cake and adding orange zest.  That one teaspoon of essence makes a big difference to the flavor of the cake.  I tried several brands.  Bake King is ok and is easily available at the supermarket, but the one prefer to use is from Ailin Bakery Supplies.

EGGS

Banana earthquake
Not enough eggs to bind the cake together

Eggs serve as a binding agent in the cake to hold the flour and oil together.  My original recipe had 3 eggs and for a long time I was struggling with a cake that was rather dense instead of being fluffy and crumbly.  When I finally reduced it to two eggs, the texture improved markedly!  In one of my experiments, I used only one egg and the cake turned out really fluffy!  But it couldn’t hold together and just like the banana, it split!

Egg White

I like to whip my eggs to incorporate more air into the batter.  The traditional way of doing a reverse creaming method is to just add the eggs whole into the flour and butter.

z 2 - whipping the whites and adding yolk
After whipping the whites, add yolk one at the time

I experimented with both ways and prefer whipping the eggs first.  You can whip whole eggs, but it will take a longer time.  Whipping whites first, then adding the yolk cuts down on the whipping time. You want to whip the whites just until you can’t see any more big bubbles, then add the yolks followed by the condensed milk.

Don’t add the condensed milk first or the whites will collapse.  (See why I took so many attempts?)

White and yolk

Technique

The technique I finally employed for the banana cake is a fusion of egg foaming and reverse creaming technique. It took me a while to experiment with the creaming technique where butter is creamed with sugar first, as well as other methods shown on the web.  It’s quite amazing to see how the different sequences in which the same ingredients are put together can result in the different textures of the cake!

Butter

Butter

There are some recipes that call for vegetable oil or shortening instead of butter.  I have tried shortening, margarine, butter flavoured shortening and vegetable oil.  Butter is still the best in terms of flavour.  It is said that shortening and vegetable oil is better for leavening, but in my experience, the difference is minimal. So I stuck with butter.

z 3 - crumbing

The reverse creaming method calls for the butter to be mixed with the flour and sugar before the eggs are added.  The butter should be soft but not room temperature. (Room temperature in temperate countries is quite different from Singapore) Best to be at around 17°C, ie still cool but soft enough that you can easily press it flat.  You want to mix the flour and butter until you are unable to see any more white in the flour and there are no more big pieces of butter.  The butter should still be cool and not have melted.

Batter

Sugar

Sugar gives structure as well as moisture to the cake.  The original recipe has more sugar in it but my friends said the cake was too sweet, so I reduced the sugar.  I think the current level has struck a balance between sweetness and moisture.  I have tried using brown sugar to give the cake more flavor, but I felt the flavour of brown sugar detracted from the banana flavour.  So, I stuck with just plain castor sugar. And the light brown sugar turned out quite nicely too!

Failures
Failed attempts – Left: not enough baking powder Right: too much baking powder

Baking powder and Baking soda

I was struggling with deflated cakes for a while and finally realised that I had been adding too much baking powder to the batter.  The cake on the right has too much baking powder while the one on the left did not have enough leavening.   The cake rises because of the baking powder as well as the air trapped in the beaten eggs, so if you don’t incorporate enough air in the batter, you get a kueh instead of a cake!  The baking soda is added to the bananas because that is what my mum told me to do.  The baking soda also helps in the browning of the cake by increasing its pH level.

z 5 panning

Panning

For this recipe, I use a 9×4 inch non-stick loaf pan. Even though it is non-stick, I still prefer to spray some butter/oil all over to ensure that it comes out nice. Another thing I like to do is to knock the pan a few times before putting it into the oven so as to allow any air bubbles to rise, resulting in an even crumb structure for my banana cake.

z 6 knocking pan
Knock the pan a few times on the table to allow air bubbles to be released

Baking

The temperature and duration of baking really depends on your oven.  On my built-in oven, I use 150°C for 50mins while on the KitchenAid Digital Countertop Oven, I use 170°C for 50mins.

Oven

So, you really need to be familiar with your own oven.  160°C for 50mins should be quite safe and if the cake is not brown enough, you can extend the baking time by another 5-10 mins.

Decorating with Banana Slices

Placing banana on top

If you are planning to add the banana slices on top,  you will need to add them at around the 25 min mark when the top is just slightly golden brown.  By that time the top crust is formed and can hold up the banana slices.  If you try to put the banana slices on top of the batter at the start, they will just sink to the bottom and so will your heart.  Freezing the bananas for a short time will make them easier to handle.

Dried banana

In my attempts to intensify the banana flavour in the cake, I have also tried dehydrating the bananas.  I basically half them and place them on a rack and leave them in a 50°C oven until they become chewy and dry.  They are nice to eat on their own or used to place on top of the banana cake.  I have chopped them up for my banana bread recipe.  Unfortunately, they are still too heavy and will sink to the bottom of the cake pan when used for this recipe.

Conclusion
If you have read everything I have written until here, then I am quite confident that you will be baking a successful banana cake on your first go if not the 2nd.  Good luck!

This post is made possible by KitchenAid.

View KitchenAid store on Lazada here.

Disclosure: Some links above are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, we will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Related Posts

Subscribe
Notify of

132 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Is there a substitute to condensed milk?

Hi may I know of there’s any substitute for condensed milk?

Hi Dr Tay
Your recipe tempted me to try it out. 🙂 Especially since you have spent so much time in your research right. 🙂
Will the cake texture be affected if I reduced the sugar to 60g and use the long del Monte banana instead?

have you experienced the banana cake rising beautifully in the oven and then sinks badly after removing from the oven in your experiments? this was with another banana cake recipe I tried – and somehow succeeded once but most other times would sink badly. have tried many different variations including baking / leaving it in the oven for longer before, or slowly allowing the temperature to change.

thank you! will give it a try soon once i get my hands on ripe bananaaaaa 🙂

I’ve just baked this today, oh my , it’s so moist and soft, love it! I’ve been trying to find banana cake recipes for a while with no success, they are always too crumbly or too dense. This is also my first attempt at reverse creaming method..This recipe is perfect, would definitely keep it in my repertoire.

Wish to have the recipe in 1 page instead of having to take a few screen shot on my hp
Thanks for sharing

Would you be able to change the use of weight to using the common way of measuring like using cups? I would appreciate that very much if you would do that. Thank you.

Thos might be the most delicious banana bread I’ve ever made. I did not have cake flour or condensed milk, so used all purpose flour and cornstarch, and whole milk instead.

I also added some chopped toasted pecans. Wow. THIS is the banana bread that I’ve been looking for. THANK YOU!

Hi Dr. Leslie,
Thanks for sharing the recipe. I have made 2 attempts. The first try I skipped the baking soda because just too lazy to buy. The cake turn out like kueh and only rose a little. So the second attempt I put the baking powder with 130g banana, 160 flour and 90g sugar. I skipped condense milk and the banana essence. It turn out fluffy, moist and taste good.

Hi Dr. Leslie
I tried your recipe today and it turned out well, soft and moist ???? except that I can’t find my 9×4” pan so used the 6” square tin instead ????

I followed the recipe and it turned out “best banana cake” indeed ????????

I assume you meant to say “indeed!!!!” ? 🙂

Oh dear, it’s supposed to be an emoji 🙂

Hi there
Could I substitute the sugar for stevia?

Actually using weight is more common than cups I would think…only Americans use cup measurement?
Most prefer weighing the ingredients as it is most accurate.

Dr Lee, Thanks for sharing the cake recipe. I’ve tried baking it today & it turned out so well with first attempt. B
Fyi, I’ve added some walnuts on top of the cake just beside the banana & all went well !!

Oops I meant Dr Tay 🙂

First time trying reverse creaming.. best banana cake ever! Thanks for sharing the recipe and the technicalities to perfect the Bananananaa cake!

I tried to modify the recipe, to reduce the sugar and butter and I followed all the baking process&techniques and the cake turned out nice,moist,soft.
Choosing the Banana is important, I went to fruit stall to buy ripe Barangan Bananas and I didn’t add Banana artificial flavour, but I still can get nice and strong Banana smell.
Here are my modified receipe :
Ingredients A:
Flour 160gr
Sugar 50gr
Baking powder 1tsp
Butter 80gr

Ingredients B:
Mashed Banana 200gr
Salt 1/2tsp
Baking soda 1/2tsp

Ingredients C:
2 eggs, separate white/yolk.
Beat White eggs with handmixer until foamy then add the yolks.

Thanks Dr Tay & DGM. Baked Dr Tay’s version with 60g sugar and DGM’s (with no changes). Both equally soft and moist but I prefer DGM’s revised recipe as it didn’t leave greasy fingers.

Hi Dr Tay – wow this was truly the fluffiest and most moist banana cake ever! I’ve been in Switzerland for the past year and miss our local food so much that I have started to bake. I couldn’t find banana essence so used my maple essence instead, along with the long del monte type bananas they have here. It came out perfect and super delicious, surprisingly with a strong banana fragrance too. Thanks for the recipe!

What is the purpose of the condensed milk?

Hi. Dr Leslie, may I know the egg n banana mixture need to whisk till can draw a 8

This certainly is a recipe worths waiting for! The best banana cake, ever! I thought Hiap Joo one was good enough; this one surpasses it! I will be making second one tomorrow. I always cut down on sugar, this one to only 90g. No essence added. It turned out really fine. Thank you, Dr. Tay!

Hi Dr Leslie. Can I use unsalted butter instead ?

I have experimented with so many banana cake recipes before and didnt manage to find one that is perfect. This recipe is just perfect! love the texture, the crumb, the sweetness ! thank you for the detailed awesome recipe.

Hi Dr Tay, can I mix in extra canola oil/ use 100 grm butter and 50 grm oil? Will it be extra moist? Thank you

Tried the recipe with first time success! Very fluffy and light, filled with the banana flavour. Excellent recipe! Thanks for sharing!

I baked this today, I didn’t have condensed milk so i opted it out per ur suggestion to the other comments, the rest i followed ur measurements (but i only have super riped delmonte banana). Boy, it’s really good! Not too sweet, soft and moist. I think the next time i might add some cinnamon, it will be christmas-sy :). Thanks for the fab recipe Dr Leslie 🙂

Tried this with 90g sugar and Earl Grey powder in a round 6 inch tin. Overbaked by 10mins so the bottom half was a few shades darker than expected. Taste and texture were excellent but still a tad sweeter than I was hoping for! Would probably try with 60-70g of sugar the next time. Great recipe!

Dr Leslie’s banana cake recipe is good, moist and soft.
Worth trying ,will not regret.
Hope he can post more of other type of cake and bread making also.
Thank you

I am a vegetarian. What can I substitute to the eggs with?

Hi Dr Tay, will the cake turn out differently if self-raising flour was used instead of cake flour?

Thank you! Love your recipe, cake turned out really nice and delish with good reviews 🙂

Thanks for the recipe! I baked it today and it was the best of all the banana cake recipes I’ve tried ???????? The video helped a lot and I really appreciate all the fine learning points you shared. Mine turned out browner than yours though. Should I try reducing temperature (10 degrees?) or reduce time? Thanks again for your sharing!

My grandma wants to eat banana cake but she cannot stand the taste of butter. Can I use all oil with your recipe? Any changes in the steps you shared? Thank you!

Thank you!

hi dr tay, was planning to double up the recipe to for a round bday cake. wondering if u have any advice if i should change the temperature of the oven / duration of the bake time?

Looks like you did just about everything to get the perfect banana cake! It looks great and I can’t wait to try your recipe. Just wondering… Did you try roasting the bananas to intensify their flavour? 🙂 Just a thought. It’s something I sometimes do (when I can be bothered) when I bake banana bread.

Hi Leslie, thanks for your scientific rigour. As a Malaysian I was always looking for a fluffy banana cake recipe that made cakes like back home. The ones I found were always the dense “western” ones. This is the first time I read somone make a clear distinction between the two styles. Thank you! I will try this tonight.

Tried making it today and turned out like kueh. Followed the recipe exactly. Don’t know why. Need to try again. Had tried other recipes twice failed.

Yup, I read the comments. However today I tried again. Juz slight improvement. Perhaps my 3′ baking oven heat is different though I set the same temp and time. Or perhaps my baking pan is slightly big and aluminum type. Will try again

I’ve tried this recipe twice and the cake turned out great – taste and texture wise. But I’m always not able to get the cake out nicely as the base of the cake gets stuck to the tin despite oiling it. Any tips?

This recipe is a keeper! Loved how moist and how banana the cake is! Delicious! Thanks Dr!

My 1st attempt with your Banana cake recipe and it’s a success! I didn’t use condensed milk and banana essence and kept the sugar at 130gm. It’s a little too sweet and will reduce to 100gm the next round. I used some batter to make 9 small round madeleines and they turned out great! The remainder of the batter was used in a half-filled 6.5″x3.5″ loaf pan and it turned out wonderful too! Thank you for your recipe!

To intensify the banana flavour without essence and keeping it natural, I tried the American Test Kitchen method. – microwave banana on high for 3 min. Mash. Then drain the mash over a sieve to remove excess juice..

I just made this cake. Followed the instructions except reduced sugar to 90g and omitted condensed milk (both because of diabetic family member). I was looking through the comments to see if anyone added nuts and if they affected the texture / sunk to the bottom but I couldn’t find any answers; I added a handful of walnuts in the end but chopped them quite small hoping they won’t sink. They didn’t sink 🙂 Thanks Dr Leslie , the recipe is definitely a keeper. The cake was light n moist.

Made the awesome ba -ba-bana cake with reduced sugar (100gm) It turned out soft n moist! ????

Forgot to add.. I skipped the condensed milk but added bah-nana essence.. kitchen n cake smells great!

Thank you Leslie for this beautiful banana cake recipe.
I am lactose intolerant, hence butter is out for me.
I would love to try baking this cake, please advise an alternative to replace butter, veg oil?
Hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you Dr Leslie, I certainly look forward to your vegetable oil banana cake recipe.
My helper has a recipe using olive oil.

Tried baking this morning & first attempt on baking Banana cake, indeed best banana cake ever. It is soft, moist & banana flavor is perfect. I increased the ingredients to 3 times as I used big baking mould but reduced sugar to 230g only & butter 400g. Thanks Dr Leslie for sharing this perfect BANANA CAKE Recipe., had added it to my cake recipe collections.

The egg is it room temperature ? Egg white is it cold then beat ? Beat until soft stage ?

Hi! I tried this recipe and the top of my cake was too brown starting from 30mins, what shld i do?

I just tried this yesterday and my family loves it! Thank you so much for this recipe! I have tried other recipes that were too soft and mushy. Will try your pineapple tart recipe next! Thank you ????????????

I tried the recipe today and it is a keeper. It is really cold in Melbourne right now, cant get the butter to soften, so i just blitz everything (aside from the eggs) in the food processor, whipped the eggs, added it to the rest and blitzed it again.
Cake turned out beautifully!
Easiest and yummiest banana cake ever!

Hi! May I know the brand of your baking tin? Thank you!

Hi Dr Leslie, Thank You for the recipe (The Best i hv seen & learn from). Love to watch your Youtube on Best places to eat in Singapore, Thanks again.
Happy National Day Dr Leslie & Your wife too.

Thanks! Hope you had a nice National Day break. 🙂

Hello Dr Tay, finally found your banana cake recipe and super detailed explanation. 👍🏻 can i check if i can use a 6 inch round baking tin for this recipe? Thank you so much! 😊

Thanks for replying Dr Tay, i will try baking tomorrow with the 6inch round tin cause i only got round tin at home. Wish me success! 😆

Oh my i did it! ✌🏻 so happy with the banana cake! It’s really very soft, fluffy & moist! Almost half the cake was gone when it was only 15mins out from the oven. 😅 Thank you Dr Tay for spending such a long time in perfecting this recipe and sharing it out. 👍🏻 thanks a zillion!

Don’t Miss A Post

iEat Telegram follow us

Knowledge Resource

Classic Recipes
Learn to make classic Singaporean dishes and desserts such as Pandan Chiffon Cake, Kueh Salat, Chendol, Char Siew, Sio Bak and many others!
Prawn Files
Learn about all the prawns in our local wet market!
Sushi Files
Resource about all the sushi fish! Otoro, Chutoro, Akami, Aji, Shirodane……..
Local Fish Files
Resource on local fish found in our wet markets