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Banana Nut Cake

Last Updated On: July 19, 2024 | Published: July 17, 2024 by Melissa Diamond | 3 Comments
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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.

Why we Love It

There are so many reasons to love this banana nut cake! Here are just a few.

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.
Banana Nut Cake Batter- Folding in the 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.
Freshly baked Banana Nut Cake cooling in a bundt pan on cooling rack.

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!

Banana Nut Bundt Cake, sliced, on a cake pedestal.

Recipe FAQs

This Banana Nut Cake is fine at room temperature for 1-2 days in an airtight container or under a cake dome. Beyond that, we like to move to the refrigerator for freshness.

However, for the best flavor and texture, if you chill the cake, bring it at least to room temperature before serving. This will allow the cake to warm and soften.

Yes! Just as with most of our cake recipes (from lemon pound cake to carrot cake and more) this cake freezes beautifully.

Once the bundt cake has cooled down to warm (or room temperature), wrap the the cake tightly in plastic wrap followed by foil. For additional support, you can place the cake on a foil-wrapped cake board if you'd like. Freeze for up to three months!

To thaw, we prefer to move the wrapped cake to the refrigerator the day before we need it, as pound cakes and bundt cakes take longer to thaw.

Then, move to the kitchen counter the next morning and continue to thaw to desired amount before glazing.

Buttermilk is a popular ingredient in cake recipes. It gives the batter an added boost of acidity, which acts to soften the strands of gluten in the cake batter. This makes for a softer, more tender cake.

Some of our popular buttermilk cakes include Buttermilk Pound Cake, Vanilla Buttermilk Cake, Lemon Buttermilk Cake, and White Velvet Cake.

Many of our cake recipes call for cake flour (from lemon velvet cake to strawberry cake, five flavor pound cake, and more). Cake flour has a lower protein content than all purpose flour. This means less formation of gluten in the cake batter, which means a softer, more tender crumb.

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!

Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!

Banana Nut Cake, sliced, on a cake pedestal.

Banana Nut Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe
This ultra moist Banana Nut Cake is a homemade bundt cake with amazing flavor from bananas, pecans, cinnamon, vanilla, and a homemade caramel glaze.
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 55 minutes
Course: Dessert
Servings: 15
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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.

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3 Comments

    1. 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.

      Reply