This Banana Cake is a delicious, one-bowl vegan recipe made from mashed ripe bananas, walnuts and whole wheat flour. Tasty and a bit healthier than traditional Cakes, this quick and easy eggless Banana Cake recipe is refreshingly light, pillowy soft and incredibly moist.
Table of Contents
More on This Eggless Banana Cake
Everyone in my family enjoys this delicious, moist banana cake – especially my brother-in-law, who compares it to those he had at the well-known Vienna Bakery in Mumbai.
So if you have some ripe bananas laying around at home, then get mashing and make this quick and easy cake.
This banana cake recipe has been adapted from my very popular, tried and tested Banana Bread.
By increasing the amount of oil and bananas in that recipe, I was able to make a light and soft cake. I also reduced the amount of baking soda and added in chopped walnuts for an extra crunch.
Ingredients You Need
- Bananas: The star of the cake, you’ll need approximately 4 ripe or overripe bananas.
- Flour: Though my recipe is made with whole wheat flour, you can use all-purpose flour or pastry flour or whole wheat pastry flour.
- Leavening ingredients: The recipe has both baking powder and baking soda. For best results, I suggest to use both. Make sure that they are fresh and active.
- Oil: A neutral tasting oil works great. But you can use olive oil and coconut oil. You can also use melted butter. I have made the cake with sunflower oil.
- Nuts: While walnuts are traditionally mixed into the batter, any halved or crushed nuts can be used. Feel free to use almonds, pecans or cashews.
- Dry Fruits: Raisins, cherries, or other dried fruits add extra sweetness to the cake.
- Flavorings: My recipes simply has vanilla extract as the key flavoring ingredient. You can add ground spices for warming flavors. Ground cinnamon, cloves, allspice or pumpkin spice make the cake have a lovely aroma.
- Optional Ingredients: Coconut flakes, chocolate and other ingredients can be delicious additions to this cake recipe; however, make sure not to overload your banana bread with too many extras.
How to Make Banana Cake Recipe
Make Banana Puree
1. Mash 4 medium to large ripe or over-ripe bananas with a fork to a smooth consistency. I have used over-ripe bananas for this recipe.
TIP: The consistency should be smooth without any chunks, so if needed you can also use a blender to mash the bananas.
2. Add ½ cup of sugar, ⅔ cup of any neutral flavored oil and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the mashed bananas.
3. Stir well so the oil mixes with the banana puree and the sugar dissolves completely.
Make Batter
4. Sieve 1½ cups of whole wheat flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, ½ teaspoon of baking soda and a pinch of salt directly in the bowl.
TIP: If you do not have a sieve, you can use a fine mesh strainer or whisk.
5. Fold the dry ingredients thoroughly into the wet ingredients. Fold using the cut and fold method.
Check my video above or in the recipe card below to see how to form the batter with the cut and fold method.
TIP: Do not mix! If the batter looks too thick, add some water, almond milk or lite coconut milk.
The amount of water to be added depends on the quality and texture of the whole wheat flour and the consistency of the batter. Only add in the extra liquids if the batter looks very thick.
6. Add 10 halved walnuts that have been finely chopped and fold again. Prep and chop the walnuts before to add to the batter.
Tip: In addition to walnuts, you can also add raisins, pistachios or any nuts and dry fruits of your choice.
Bake Eggless Banana Cake
7. Pour the batter into a greased or lined loaf pan ( 7.5 x 4 x 2.5 inches) or round cake pan (7.5 x 2 inches).
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. The timing varies from oven to oven, so keep a note of this.
Tip: If the top of the cake starts browning too much, cover the top with aluminum foil or parchment paper while baking.
Suggestion: If you do not have an oven, then bake the cake in a stove-top pressure cooker. Follow the method listed in this detailed post of Pressure Cooker Cake to make this banana cake.
Note: The orange-yellowish color in the image is due to incandescent lighting in my kitchen.
9. When warm or cooled, slice and serve Eggless Banana Cake plain with your tea or coffee.
Serving Suggestions
- Delicious all on its own with an evening cup of tea or coffee or as a sweet dessert.
- Top with homemade whipped cream
- Frost the cake with butter or cream icing, or even chocolate icing.
Storage
At room temperature, the cake stays well for 2 to 3 days. Wrap the cake in a cling film or store in an air-tight box and refrigerate. It keeps well for about 2 weeks when refrigerated. The cake also freezes well for a couple of months.
Expert Tips for Best Banana Cake
- Batter: This eggless banana cake batter has a medium-thick consistency. Depending on the quality or texture of whole wheat flour, you may require to add liquids like water or almond milk or lite coconut milk if the batter looks very thick.
- Flour: Though whole wheat flour forms the base of this cake, you can sub it with all-purpose flour in the same proportion as of whole wheat flour. Both atta (that is whole wheat flour used to make roti) as well as the whole wheat flour available in the US, Europe and other countries work well in the recipe.
- Folding: Form the batter using the cut and fold method. Do not use a whisk and mix the ingredients.
- Baking: Depending on the temperature in your oven and the size of your pan, the cake might take less or more time to bake. As the temperature varies from oven to oven so keep a note of this. The benchmark is that a tooth pick or skewer inserted in the vegan banana cake should come out clean.
- Oil: For the oils, a neutral tasting oil works best. So you can add sunflower oil or any neutral tasting oil. You can even make the cake with olive oil or coconut oil.
- Vegetarian option: Instead of oil use butter. Melt butter and use in the same proportion as that of oil.
- Flavorings: Chocolate chips or cocoa powder or cacao nibs can be included. Chopped nuts like pistachios, pecans, pine nuts, almonds and seeds like sunflower seeds, pepitas (pumpkin seeds), flax seeds and sunflower seeds can be added. Lightly toast the seeds in a skillet prior to adding.
- Spices: If you like spiced cakes, then add about ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon or ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg or 1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice mix.
FAQs
Because the ingredients for this vegan banana cake recipe are so easy to customize, you can simply withhold adding in sweeter items, such as sweetened coconut flakes, chocolate, or dried fruits.
Instead of oil you can use butter to make this recipe vegetarian. Simply melt the butter and use in the same proportion as that of the oil.
Your banana cake should last 2 to 3 days if properly stored. Wrap your cake in plastic wrap and leave on the counter. If you plan to store in the fridge, then place it an air-tight box or wrap tightly in a cling film so that the cake does not dry out.
Whisking disturbs the the combined ingredients and causes the batter to lose air that helps it to rise. When using the folding method instead, you preserve more of the volume and will have a fuller vegan banana cake.
More Cake Recipes to Try
Please be sure to rate the recipe in the recipe card or leave a comment below if you have made it. For more vegetarian inspirations, Sign Up for my emails or follow me on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.
Easy Banana Cake Recipe (Eggless, Vegan & Whole Wheat)
Ingredients
- 4 bananas (medium to large ripe or overripe) – 300 grams
- 1.5 cups whole wheat flour or 180 grams whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ cup regular sugar or organic unrefined cane sugar or 100 grams sugar
- ⅔ cup any neutral flavored oil (I used sunflower oil)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 10 halved walnuts – finely chopped or any dry fruits or nuts of your choice (optional)
Instructions
Preparation
- Preheat your oven at 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit). If using a regular oven, heat both the top and bottom elements. For a microwave convection oven, just preheat the oven.
Making cake batter
- Peel and chop the bananas. Add them to a bowl and mash them with a fork. You can also use a blender to mash the bananas.
- Add sugar, oil and vanilla extract.
- Mix thoroughly so that the oil mixes evenly with the banana puree and the sugar dissolves.
- Sieve whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt directly in the bowl. You can also sieve these separately and then add them to the wet ingredients.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients very well.
- Add the chopped walnuts and fold again. Apart from walnuts, you can also add raisins, pistachios or any nuts and dry fruits of your choice.
- Pour the batter in a greased or lined loaf pan ( 7.5 x 4 x 2.5 inches) or round cake pan (7.5 x 2 inches).
Baking banana cake
- Gently tap and shake the pan. Place the pan in the center rack if using a regular oven or otg.
- Bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) for 45 to 50 mins or until a wooden skewer or tooth pick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
- If the top of the cake starts browning then cover the top with an aluminium foil or parchment paper while baking.
- When warm or cooled, gently remove the cake from the pan. Slice and serve banana cake as is with tea or coffee.
Video
Notes
- Batter: This banana cake batter has a medium-thick consistency. Depending on the quality or texture of flour, you may require to add liquids like water or almond milk or lite coconut milk if the batter looks very thick.
- Flour: In place of whole wheat flour, you can easily use all-purpose flour in the same quantity as that of whole wheat flour. Both atta (that is whole wheat flour used to make roti) as well as whole wheat flour available in the US and Europe, work well in the recipe.
- Folding: Use the cut and fold method to make the batter. Do not use a whisk and mix the ingredients.
- Baking: Depending on the temperature in your oven and the size of your pan, the cake might take less or more time to bake. As the temperature varies from oven to oven so keep a note of this. The benchmark is that a tooth pick inserted in the banana cake should come out clean.
- Oil: You can add sunflower oil or any neutral tasting oil. You can even add olive oil or coconut oil.
- Vegetarian option: Instead of oil you can use butter. Melt the butter and use in the same proportion as that of the oil.
- Flavorings: Chocolate chips or cocoa powder or cacao nibs can be added. Chopped nuts like pistachios, pecans, pine nuts, almonds and seeds like sunflower seeds, pepitas (pumpkin seeds), flax seeds and sunflower seeds can also be added. Lightly toast the seeds in a pan before adding them to the batter.
- Spices: If you like spiced cakes, you can add about ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon or ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg or 1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice mix.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Banana Cake recipe post from the archives first published in May 2014 has been republished and updated on 26 January 2022.
Banana Cake is a staple dessert in my house, and it’s great to find this eggless recipe since I became vegan. Luckily the texture comes out good and not too different from the traditional version, thank you!
This is actually one of my favorite recipes – it’s easy to cook and can always use bananas which are going to be bad soon. And the taste is simple and yet so delicious, love it
I tried the recipe exactly as mentioned and it turned out to be wonderful!!The texture is smooth and spongy. The cake tastes amazing. For those who can’t eat sweet can reduce the quantity of sugar( ½ cup mentioned in recipe).
I did not use any nuts and instead used coconut chips.The touch of cinnamon powder enhances the flavour of the banana cake. I am really pleased with the way the cake turned out.
Thank you Dassana Amit!!
Welcome and Thanks Anusha for sharing your positive feedback and suggestions for the recipe.
A little too sweet for our liking but so grateful for the recipe! From our experience, the finished cake was slightly wet and crumbly after we added a bit of almond milk to the batter.
Because we could not establish if the batter was too dry so we added the almond milk for a runnier batter to pour it into the baking pan. We had also substituted half cup of sugar with less than a quarter cup of stevia but it was still a little too sweet for our preference.
For our next attempt, we would probably just pop a quarter or half of a teaspoon of almond milk into the batter and reduce the stevia by 10%. Disclaimer: we added some dried raisins and 4 rather large bananas into the batter so they were already sweet to begin with.
Receipe was very helpful and too detailed. I baked it with exact proportions and it tasted awesome. Thanks much
Wonderful and thanks for sharing this positive feedback and for the rating. Welcome.
Made this cake today and everyone in the house loved it. Super soft and yum.. made it with choco chips for my children.
Great and thank you for sharing your feedback. Thanks for the rating too.
Dassana please tell me which brand sunflower oil to use in the walnut banana cake. Thank you.
Hi Meena, you can use any brand of sunflower oil but it should not have any after taste or aroma. I mostly use organic brands. You can try 24 letter mantra or any organic brand.
Easy to make the cake. Batter was thick and I added milk and some water to right consistency. Very nice and soft. Kids have requested to make again. Ps. I used more bananas and it was nicer. Thanks Dassana. God bless you.
Great and thank you for sharing your experience with the recipe. Thanks for the rating and your kind wishes. Most welcome
Hi Dassana
Thanks for the recipe
Turned out very nice
But the edges burnt
Welcome. Thanks and let me tell you that each oven works differently and the temperatures can be less or more hot inside it. So when baking from any recipe, you can always adjust the time or temperature considering your oven. Next time you can bake for a less time and use good quality pans.
How to bake this in a microwave oven…?
You have to use the convection mode of your microwave oven. Using the convection mode, preheat for 15 minutes and then bake at the same temperature as mentioned in the recipe. Only reduce the baking time as convection ovens bake faster. But the banana cake cannot be baked using the microwave mode.
Excellent cake 👍
Hi, I tried the recipe of this Banana Cake. The taste is perfect with the right amount of sweetness and the flavor of banana. But the only thing that I did not like was that the cake is not crumbly in texture but instead it is soft from the inside although it is cooked. Where did I go wrong?
Hi Mekhala, looks like the batter has been folded or mixed too much and hence this texture. It will be like that of a soft baked pudding texture or a soft doughy texture. When folding the ingredients, fold with a light pressure from the hands. The batter just needs to be evenly folded and not over done. Over mixing will lead to formation of gluten strands in the batter and will make the texture soft and doughy. I hope this helps.
Hi..may I know what’s the difference between banana cake and banana bread? Both looks the same..😁
They both look similar but cake is more softer and more sweeter than bread. Hope this helps.
Does this cake freeze well? How far in advance can it be made?
How many days would it keep at room temperature?
Thank you!
Yes it does. It will stay good in a freezer for a month and at room temperature for 1 to 3 days depending on the temperature in your city. In a cold room temperature it will stay good for 2 to 3 days.
Brilliant cake. Testing it out today for my baby’s first birthday and he has an egg allergy. This eggless cake was moist enough, added half tbsp of milk and half tsp cinnamon as recommended. Thank you