Banana Nut Cake
Our new Banana Nut Cake has fantastic flavor from bananas, brown sugar, pecans, a bit of cinnamon, and a homemade caramel glaze. This delicious scratch bundt cake is sure to please a crowd, and it is simple to make!
![Banana Nut Cake, sliced, on a cake pedestal.](https://www.mycakeschool.com/images/2024/07/banana-nut-cake-recipe-photo.jpg)
Table of Contents
Why we Love It
There are so many reasons to love this banana nut cake! Here are just a few.
- We love moist and flavorful bundt cake recipes- and as an added bonus, little to no decoration is needed!
- Fantastic banana flavor, just as with our other favorite banana cake recipes from banana pudding cake, hummingbird cake, banana cream cake, and more!
- Perfect birthday cake recipe, potluck dessert, and more!
How to Make Banana Nut Cake
You can find the full, printable cake recipe at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!
- First, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a bundt cake pan.
- In a medium bowl, whisk these dry ingredients: cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, and salt for 30 seconds, set aside.
- In another bowl, add these wet ingredients: buttermilk, vanilla extract, vegetable oil, and mashed bananas. Blend and set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth.
- Gradually add the white and brown sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk has blended.
- With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid. Mix just until well blended- be careful not to over-mix.
- Gently fold in the chopped pecans.
- Scoop batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake at 325 degrees F for 55-60 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched or a toothpick can be inserted and removed with no crumbs or just a few crumbs attached. *Baking times may vary depending on size/type of pan, etc. Peek in as the end time approaches and adjust time as needed.
- Cool in pan for 10 minutes on a cooling rack before turning out.
Caramel Glaze
This Banana Nut Cake has amazing flavor all on its own, however we loved the idea of adding a caramel glaze. You can skip this step and still have a fantastic dessert, but if you have the time, we highly recommend this simple caramel sauce!
It is a combination of melted butter, brown sugar, heavy cream, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. You can find the recipe at the bottom of this post.
The mixture is brought to a boil in a saucepan, then cooled to a simmer for about six minutes on the stovetop. The caramel is very thin while hot, but thickens up to a better consistency for glazing as it cools.
We've used this caramel on many of our cakes, including our caramel espresso pound cake, snickerdoodle cake, banana pound cake, and apple bundt cake just to name a few!
Recipe FAQs
More Bundt Cakes
If you love bundt cakes, we have many more to share with you! Some of our favorites are Apple Bundt Cake (cake mix), Sweet Potato Bundt Cake, Easy Pineapple Upside Down Bundt Cake, and Chocolate Bundt Cake.
Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy the recipe. Don't miss our full collection of cake recipes as well as our section of hundreds of free cake decorating tutorials!
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Banana Nut Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, slightly softened (not room temperature) (170g)
- 1½ cups white sugar (300g)
- ½ cup brown sugar (we used light brown) (100g)
- 3 large eggs, room temperature (place in a bowl of warm water for five minutes if you are in a hurry)
- 3 cups cake flour (see Note below if you do not have cake flour) (342g)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (8g)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda (3g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (3g)
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk ( see Note below for buttermilk substitute) (363g)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (8g)
- ¼ cup vegetable oil (54g)
- 1 ¼ cups mashed bananas (approximately 3 medium bananas) (277g)
- ¾ cup crushed/chopped pecans
Caramel Glaze
- ½ stick unsalted butter (57g)
- 1 cup brown sugar (200g) (Either light or dark brown)
- ½ cup heavy cream (126g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (2g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (4g)
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup (18g) (This helps to prevent sugar crystals from forming)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a bundt cake pan. (We used a 10 inch bundt cake pan which has a baking capacity of 12 cups.) This recipe makes about 8 cups of batter.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, and salt for 30 seconds, set aside.
- In another bowl, add the buttermilk, vanilla extract, vegetable oil, and mashed bananas. Blend and set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth.
- Gradually add the white and brown sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk has blended.
- With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid. Mix just until well blended- be careful not to over-mix.
- Gently fold in the chopped pecans.
- Pour/scoop batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake at 325 degrees F for 55-60 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched or a toothpick can be inserted and removed with no crumbs or just a few crumbs attached. *Baking times may vary depending on size/type of pan, etc. Peek in as the end time approaches and adjust time as needed.
- Cool in pan for 10 minutes on a cooling rack before turning out.
Caramel Glaze
- Using a medium size saucepan (deep enough to prevent boil over) melt the butter over medium heat.
- Add the brown sugar and the remaining ingredients and heat on medium high heat.
- Stir to blend, try to keep mixture off the sides of the pan. Once the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat to low.
- Simmer for 6 minutes, checking often to make sure that it is not going to boil over. It should still be bubbling. After 6 minutes, remove from heat.
- Keep in mind that the caramel with thicken up a bit as it cools. You can pour it into a long glass casserole dish if you want it to cool more quickly. We often refrigerate to cool it off as well.
- Apply the thickened glaze to the cooled cake either with a spoon, or for more control, spoon it into a disposable piping bag (or ziplock bag) with the tip snipped away.
- Makes about 1 cup caramel sauce. It can be kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.
- Cake is fine to sit at room temperature in a cool place in your house for 1-2 days in an airtight container or under a cake dome. To extend freshness, after 1-2 days, you can move it to the refrigerator. However, for best flavor and texture, warm the chilled slices to at least room temperature before serving.
Notes
- Substitute for Buttermilk: To a measuring cup, add 1 Tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons vinegar or lemon juice. Add milk to the 1 ½ mark, stir. Wait 5 minutes and it is ready to use.
Looks and sounds fantastic! :-)
I'm looking for the notes for buttermilk substitution, am I blind? I don't see it
Hi Kaila! I've just added it, thanks! ;0)
Substitute for 1 1/2 cupsButtermilk: To a measuring cup, add 1 Tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons vinegar or lemon juice. Add milk to the 1 ½ mark, stir. Wait 5 minutes and it is ready to use.