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Banana Sheet Cake with Brown Butter Frosting
Moist banana bars with a brown butter cream cheese buttercream. An easy frosted banana cake recipe!
These banana bars are insanely popular! Whenever I make these frosted banana bars, I have people begging for the recipe. I will be sharing two frosting ideas — a brown butter frosting and a cream cheese frosting — so you get to choose your favorite!
I always end up with overripened bananas and frosted banana cake is my favorite way to use them. I have used my brother Jeff’s BANANA CAKE recipe for years. It is amazing but I wanted to create a sheet cake version. The benefit of making a banana sheet cake is that you can feed so many more people! It creates a thinner banana bar and the ratio of cake to frosting is perfection.
There are some secrets to creating the most perfectly moist banana bars. Buttermilk is always a game-changer in making as it creates a tender texture without the fat of heavy cream. Butter brings in the rich, creamy flavor and is definitely the base of the cake. Ripe bananas are the key ingredient in adding natural sweetness and making the cake extra moist. Make sure your bananas are nice and ripe with black spots on them for the best banana flavor!
I will share two recipes for the frosting. The first one is a browned butter frosting with butter melted in a saucepan until golden and then cooled and whipped with cream cheese, powdered sugar, and cream. The second one is a simple sweet cream cheese frosting made with softened butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla.
The brown butter frosting has a more toffee flavor and the cream cheese frosting is just a classic frosting. You can’t go wrong with either one!
How to make Homemade Banana Bars:
- Start with BUTTER. Butter makes everything better! It brings so much flavor to this banana sheet cake and is the perfect base.
- Use Ripe Bananas. This is an essential ingredient in making the perfect banana sheet cake. You must use over-ripe bananas preferably with black spots. When you see those black spots on the yellow peel, that is all flavor. It brings so much natural sweetness to the cake. If your bananas aren’t quite ripe enough, place in a brown paper bag and place in a dark place and let them ripen.
- Sprinkle fresh lemon juice over mashed bananas. It helps bring some acidity to the cake and keep the bananas from turning brown.
- Use Buttermilk. It is a true miracle worker in the baking world. It helps to create such a tender texture. The beauty of it is that it has the same amount of fat as 1% milk yet is so thick and creamy. I have it on hand at all times!
- A mix of cream cheese and butter in the frosting. This frosting should be illegal. It has the perfect balance of butter, softened cream cheese, and powdered sugar. Spread over the cake and cut it into bars.
My favorite light-colored baking sheets are these Nordicware baking sheets. My KitchenAid mixer is a baking essential.
IF YOU LOVE CAKE, HERE ARE SOME OF THE MOST POPULAR CAKE RECIPES:
- Love at First Sight Chocolate Cake
- Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting
- Orange Cake
- Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Lemon Olive Oil Cake
- Southern Caramel Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting
- Coconut Cake
- Vanilla White Texas Sheet Cake
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Banana Sheet Cake
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Butter (softened)
- 1 3/4 cups Sugar
- 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
- 3 large Eggs
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla
- 3 Ripe Bananas (mashed)
- 2 teaspoons Fresh Lemon Juice
- 1 1/2 cups Buttermilk
- 3 cups Flour (may use cake or all-purpose)
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 3/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1/2 cup Butter (softened)
- (2) 8-ounce pkgs. Cream Cheese (softened)
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Bean Paste
- 2-3 Tablespoons Heavy Cream or Milk
Brown Butter Frosting:
- 1/2 cup Butter
- 12 ounces Cream Cheese (1 1/2 blocks, softened)
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla
- 1-2 Tablespoons Heavy Cream or Milk
Instructions
Banana Bars:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar for 4 minutes or until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Stir in vanilla.
- In a small bowl, mash bananas with fresh lemon juice. Add to the bowl and mix together. Stir in buttermilk.
- Fold in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Pour into lightly greased 18 x 13 baking sheet. I prefer to use light-colored baking sheets. Pour batter into the pan and evenly spread. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Cream butter and cream cheese together for 3-4 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and mix together. Add heavy cream or milk until desired consistency. Spread frosting all over the cake.
Brown Butter Frosting:
- Place butter into a skillet and heat over medium-low. Melt butter in a skillet and watch it become a deep golden color -- about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Let cool in the refrigerator until solid.
- Once butter is solidified, whip butter, softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until creamy -- about 4 minutes. Add heavy cream or milk until desired consistency.
- Spread frosting over cake. Cut bars into squares and serve. May serve cold or at room temperature. These banana bars freeze very well.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Such a yummy recipe!
So yummy! And that frosting is incredible!
I’ve made this recipe twice now and both times it came out perfect. Moist and rich without being too dense. The tips were so helpful. I made sure all ingredients were room temperature and was careful not to over beat. Instead of a sheet cake (which is too much for my husband and I) I divided the batter into 3 individual layers in 6 inch cake pans. That way we can ice and eat 1 and wrap and freeze the other 2 for future impromptu guests This cake unfrosted freezes beautifully. Thank you for a wonderful recipe and tips and tricks.
I absolutely LOVE this cake. It took approximately 32 min in my oven but the smell-mories I get when eating this is banana cream pie or a banana flip. Yummy!!!
Such an easy and yummy cake recipe. Love the subtle banana flavor.
All of the Modern Honey cookie recipes have been awesome but none of Modern Honey’s
recipes specify whether to use salted or unsalted butter.
This recipe wasn’t clear also on type of butter.
It would be helpful if it gave the amount of banana in cups. There is a lot of difference in small, medium and large bananas.
The batter looked curdled or separated.
For me it had to bake 27 minutes
Baking time seems to be off. Currently waiting and watching mine to try and determine when they’re done. I checked at 21 minutes and the entire middle was still jiggle.
What does this say about me: When I just looked at the ingredients and saw 2 frosting ingredient lists, I thought, “Yes! Double frosting!”
Loved this! One of my favourites
Hi I’m in Greer with your daughter. Can’t wait to try your banana sheet cake. For directions on Brown Butter
Frosting “Spread over cake” was left out.