Easy Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting

This easy banana cake with chocolate frosting is light, airy, and loaded with fresh bananas. Easy chocolate buttercream comes together in minutes. This cake bakes in an 8″ x 8″ pan, cutting down on the baking time and making frosting much easier! Make and frost this banana cake in the pan for easy storing and transporting. Banana cake is everyone’s favorite banana bread, but better!

This is a great recipe if you have lots of brown bananas!

Highlights of this banana cake recipe:

• Moist cake
• Light & airy
• Full of banana flavor
• Simple chocolate frosting
• Easy cake recipe
• Bakes quickly in an 8″ x 8″ pan
• Oil based

Tools I used for this easy banana cake with chocolate frosting recipe:

• KitchenAid 6 Qt. Stand Mixer – I always recommend a stand mixer as it saves time and helps to keep baked goods consistent.
• Rubber Spatula – a must for any home baker! Perfect for scrapping batter out of the mixing bowl.
• USA Pan 8″ Square Pan – another USA Pan product I love! The corners of my bars and cakes never stick and I love the squared of edges this pan creates.

Grocery store list for this easy cake:

• All-purpose flour
• Kosher Salt
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Vegetable oil (canola oil)
• Whole large eggs
• Vanilla extract
• Mashed bananas
• Milk (can substitute a non-dairy milk like almond milk or oat milk)
• Granulated white sugar
• Heavy whipping cream
• Confectioners or icing sugar
• Unsweetened cocoa powder

If you like this chocolate banana cake, you’ll love these other easy recipes….

Chocolate Snacking Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream

Easy Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Chocolate Banana Bread

Cinnamon Cake with Maple Buttercream

8 Ingredient Banana Bread

This chocolate frosting recipe is super simple, rich, and creamy!

What is the difference between banana bread and banana cake?

Banana bread is firmer and more dense, great for slicing. Banana cake is lighter and more airy, banana bread is typically butter based while this banana cake is oil based.

What can I add to make my cake moist?

Adding bananas to this cake ensures it stays light and moist, while still staying airy and not too dense. The bananas not only add moisture but add a nice sweetness.

Instructions:

For the Banana Cake:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line a 8″x8″ square pan with parchment paper, set aside.
• In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, combine and set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl whisk together the oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract until smooth. Gently whisk in the milk. Fold in the mashed banana. Add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, mix gently until smooth. Careful not to overmix. Transfer the batter into the prepared baking pan.
• Bake in a preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

For the Simple Chocolate Frosting:

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with a electric hand mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy, 4-5 minutes.
• Add about half of the powdered sugar and the cocoa powder, beat on low until fully incorporated. Add in the remaining powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and salt. Beat on low speed again just until the powdered sugar is incorporated.
• Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add in the heavy cream and mix on low again until smooth. If the frosting is to thick, thin with extra cream, if it is to thin, add extra powdered sugar. Spread the buttercream over the cooled banana cake.

Variations & notes:

• Overripe bananas work best
• If desired, fold chocolate chips into the cake
• Slice the cake in half and frost as a layered banana cake
• Frost with chocolate cream cheese frosting instead of buttercream
• Could bake in a 8″ round cake pan instead of square
• If making this cake ahead of time, allow to cool completely, cover in plastic wrap until ready to frost

Did you make this recipe?

I would love to see it! Take a picture and post to Instagram with the tag @theheartylife and the hashtag #theheartylife – You can also leave me a question or comment below! If you’ve tried this recipe, feel free to give it a star rating on the recipe above.