Mix up a simple batter bursting with banana, whole grains, and flavor for a healthy Banana Cake to celebrate a kids birthday or special event. Bonus: The simple whipped cream cheese frosting seals the deal and the whole thing can be made ahead!
Healthy Banana Cake
It’s always fun to make a cake to celebrate and share with the littles and this cake is one of our favorites for toddler birthdays! It’s easy to make, includes nutritious ingredients, is super moist, and is just sweet enough. And grownups will enjoy it too!
This easy banana cake comes together in a food processor, so it’s super easy to make—even if you have the kids around while you are making it.
You can also make it ahead of time if that’s easier on your schedule.
Ingredients You Need
To make this cake for a kids birthday or any dessert you’ll need the following ingredients:
- Ripe bananas: Very ripe bananas are key for the flavor in this recipe, so be sure that yours have lots of brown spots.
- Rolled oats: We use these in place of flour for extra nutrition and because they are super tender in the final recipe.
- Eggs: These help bind the ingredients together.
- Unsalted butter: I prefer to use unsalted butter so I can control the salt in the cake.
- Baking powder and baking soda: These help ensure that the cake rises and bakes through evenly.
- Cinnamon: This adds that classic banana cake flavor.
- Maple syrup: We use this as the sweetener in this recipe. You can also use honey for kids over age 1.
TIP: For the Cream Cheese Frosting, you simply need cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract and maple syrup or honey. So mostly pantry staples and too-ripe bananas!
Step-by-Step Instructions
Here’s a look at the easy process involved in making this healthy banana cake. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the full recipe.
- Preheat the oven and gather your ingredients.
- Grind the dry ingredients into a coarse flour in a food processor or blender.
- Add the bananas and the remaining ingredients. Process into a uniform batter.
- Divide into the prepared baking pans and bake.
TIP: To make this cake without a food processor, mash the bananas very smooth with a potato masher or fork and use purchased oat flour.
Frequently Asked Questions
To make this cake without gluten, simply opt for certified gluten-free rolled oats when buying them at the store.
To make this cake dairy-free, use melted coconut oil instead of the butter in the cake. And nondairy Greek yogurt instead of the cream cheese in the frosting.
Sure! You can either bake just the cakes a day ahead or you can bake the whole thing and frost it ahead. I find it easier to store it if I just do the cakes ahead of time, so see the Notes section at the bottom of the recipe for details.
Healthy 1st Birthday Cake
This cake is perfect for a first birthday since the sweetness comes mostly from fruit and it’s super moist and easy for little ones to eat. You could even decorate it with fresh fruit or sprinkles if you want to!
How to Store
You can bake the cakes up to a day ahead and after they’re cooled, wrap in plastic wrap and store in the fridge. Let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before serving to allow the cakes to soften a bit.
Store any leftovers in an airtight container or wrapped tightly in the fridge for up to 5 days. We prefer this cake served cold.
Best Tips for Success
- Use very ripe banana with black spots for the best natural sweetness and flavor.
- Gluten-Free: Use certified gluten-free rolled oats.
- Dairy-free: Use melted coconut oil instead of butter and nondairy Greek style yogurt or nondairy cream cheese alternative in the frosting.
Related Recipes
I’d love to hear your feedback if you try this recipe, so please comment below to share!
Healthy Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Banana Cake
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (from about 3 medium)
- 3 eggs (lightly beaten)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter (melted and slightly cooled; or coconut oil)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese (softened at room temperature)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)
- 2 tablespoons honey (or maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 8-inch cake pans with nonstick spray and line with rounds of parchment paper. Grease again with nonstick spray.
- Place the oats, coconut, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon into the bowl of a food processor. Grind about 30 seconds, or until the oats resemble a coarse flour.
- Add the bananas, eggs, vanilla, butter, and maple syrup. Process for an additional 30 seconds or until the batter is smooth.
- Divide the batter between the pans. Bake for 28-30 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out cleanly.
- Place pans onto a wire rack and let cakes cool completely in the pan.
- Make the frosting: Use an electric hand-held mixer to beat together the cream cheese, butter, honey (or maple syrup), and vanilla extract. Beat until very smooth.
- To frost, place one cake onto a plate, top with 1/4-⅓ cup of frosting. Place the second cake on top and spread the remaining frosting over top.
- Slice to serve.
Video
Notes
- Dairy-free: Use melted coconut oil instead of the butter and nondairy Greek yogurt instead of cream cheese in the frosting.
- Gluten-free: Use certified gluten-free rolled oats.
- Let cakes cool in the pans on a wire rack to ensure that they stay together well.
- Discard parchment paper before frosting the cakes.
- To make ahead, you can bake the cakes up to a day ahead. Let cool, cover completely, and store in the fridge. Allow to sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before frosting.
- Store any leftovers covered with plastic wrap in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
This post was first published August 2018.
Hi Amy, thanks for sharing! I will be making this tomorrow for my son’s 2nd birthday on Wednesday but wondered about the texture of the icing (as I normally skip all that and keep baked treats plain). Will it hold and keep shape at room temp or outdoors? I wanted to use small diggers to place on top so wondered if that would hold. Thanks and looking forward to trying this! X
It’s fairly firm (like cream cheese) but I wouldn’t recommend that it sit outside in the heat for very long (it will be fine, but will get soft and I just don’t want it to get too warm). If it’s briefly outside or at room temperature, little diggers should be fine in the frosting. So fun! Happy bday to your boy!
Thank you! X
What size cake tin do you use?
All of the information is at the bottom of the post in the recipe.
Hey, I also didn’t find the pan size in the recipe. Could you please share?
I’m excited to start making this cake ?
two 8-inch cake pans (it’s in Step 1 of the recipe)
Hi, Amy. I tried to bake this cake with 3 x 5″ pan. The cakes were too thin and it built up to be a mini cake. Can I double up the recipe so that it can be higher? Or do you have any recommendations? I bought the 5″ pan to make your oat vanilla cake. It was so delicious. So thought of using it to bake this cake as well.
Hi! I would guess that 1.5 the recipe would be enough for three little pans, but if that math is too hard (it’s not my strong suit!), you could double it but still only fill the pans halfway. You might have a little batter leftover. Let me know how it goes!
This cake was ultra delish and a HUGE hit!! I made one layer cause i dont have 2 cake tins of the same size and baked at 30ish mins and it was super moist. Also didn’t bother icing cause it was made as a snack rather than an occasion.
Keen to let some bananas to over ripen so i can make it and devour it again *drooool*
I’m so glad to hear that and thanks so much for sharing!
I’ve only got baking powder not soda – how can i make this work? And only have one 9″tin, so will have to bake one after the other, but i just split the ingredients – or is it per layer? Sorry, bit of a newbie to baking! Thanks
I’d do 2 tsp baking powder and yes, divide the batter in half and bake them one at a time. Let the pan cool a little between the layers so the second one doesn’t over bake. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Do you have any recommendations for baking this in three 4 in pans? Thanks!
I am guessing the baking time would be in the 14-18 minute range. The edges should be lightly brown and a cake tester inserted into the center should come out cleanly. Let me know if you try it!
Great job! If I could give this cake more than 5 stars I would! I like that it’s super duper easy and includes nutritious ingredients. I’m definitely saving this for later.
Many thanks for the utterly fab recipes! The info you share in this blog is remarkable. I’ll be coming around often. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for sharing this recipe, sounds lovely. I’m inking of making a single layer of it to send into my daughter’s creche to make it easier for cutting and to get more smaller slices for the kids and make it easier for small hands to eat. What size tin would you recommend for this?
I would guess 9×13-inches would be best if you have that!
This cake is delicious!!!
I’m so glad to hear that!
Hello I’m so sorry I have 3 questions because I hardly bake! Firstly is it possible to omit the shredded coconut in the cake recipe ? Would it affect the taste or texture? Would you also have the measurements in metric like
grams rather than cups? Lastly is it possible to cover the cake with fondant if I have iced the exterior of the cake with the cheese frosting?Many thanks in advance!!
Hi! You can use additional rolled oats instead of the coconut and have similar results. I don’t have metric measurements readily available but you could try using an online converter. And while I haven’t added fondant. I think it would work if you refrigerated the frosted cake for a bit first to make sure it was all firm when you pressed the fondant over top. Good luck!
W Griffiths made the cake and it was absolutely deeeeelicious. The fondant worked well as well. Took the cake home and it was even tastier the very next day!!!
I made this recipe for my son’s first birthday and he (and I) loved it! It was easy to make and tasted delicious! It looked lovely too.
If I use oat flour, do I follow the same measurement?
Yes!
Do you think I could make this recipe plus 50% to make 3 tier cake? Wanting something a little taller for my sons first birthday cake
I would think that should work just fine!
At what temperature and for how long would I bake for a 4” 7” 9” tiered cake? And would 1.5x the recipe suffice? Thanks!
If filling each pan about half full, 7″ is likely 2-4 minutes more than the recipe, 9″ is likely 2-4 minutes less the recipe, and I would guess the 4 inch is maybe closer to 18-20? I would set the timer for that little one at 16 minutes and check the middle for doneness with a cake tester and visually it should look cooked. And yes, I think 1.5 times the recipe would be plenty. Let me know how it goes!
I used pumpkin in place of some banana as a thief ate one of my ripe bananas. It still worked great!
Sounds delicious, thank you for sharing!
How would this work as cupcakes?
I haven’t tried this specific recipe as cupcakes but here’s a similar one! https://www.yummytoddlerfood.com/blog/2015/1/5/banana-cupcakes-with-cream-cheese-frosting