When it comes to happy childhood memories, I think back to this cake! Growing up, I used to see my aunt, uncle, and cousins once or twice a year on the holidays. Those days were always so fun; filled with food, games, and laughter. This cake is an ode to those memories. I have to say, I can’t actually summon any specific memories of my aunt bringing this cake down when she visited, but I have memories of eating what was always referred to as, “Aunt Tracie’s Banana Cake”. Granted, I’ve made some alterations to her original recipe, but my oh my, when I took my first bite of this I felt 10 years old all over again.
This cake is firm and dense and moist and sweet and the frosting is, well, cream cheese frosting, which is objectively one of the best frostings in the entire world. It’s a perfect way to use up and spotty, overly ripe bananas and the zucchini adds a subtle textural intrigue. This recipe makes a 9×13 casserole dish, so perhaps you’ll make this and share it with your community, creating good memories and connections over food like I have, or maybe you’ll store some away in the fridge or freezer since it keeps so well. Either way, you’ve got to try this Banana Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.
Ingredients
- Butter
- Granulated sugar
- Bananas
- Zucchini
- Vanilla
- Flour
- Baking soda
- Cream cheese
- Powdered sugar
. When you bake with bananas, you want to make sure they’re ripe! Well, not just ripe like yellow instead of green, but ripe like yellow with lots of brown spots. These very ripe bananas are not only easy on your mixer or arms to mash, but they’re sweeter too.
. You can use whatever kind of basic cream cheese you’d like. For this recipe, I used regular unflavored cheese. If you want to lower the fat content a bit, use low-fat cream cheese. Just don’t sub in whipped cream cheese as it doesn’t translate the same in texture or ratio.
How to Make this Cake
To make this cake, start by preheating the oven to 350°. As always with baking, the recommendation is to mix the dry and wet ingredients separately and then combine. Under certain circumstances I don’t think that recommendation is worth following, but in this case, having to mash and shred wet ingredients, I would stick to tradition. Mix you dry cake ingredients and set them aside, then mash you bananas in a large bowl. I usually use a fork to do this task, but you can do whatever works best for you. After you’ve made yourself a beautiful banana soup, add your remaining wet ingredients and mix it all up. The gently pour in the flour + soda combo and stir until it’s all incorporated.
Grease the casserole dish however you’d like to (spray, butter, oil) then pour the batter in and try to evenly spread it all out. Pop this in the oven and bake until the middle isn’t wobbly, about 40-50 minutes. Times will vary dependent on if your casserole container is glass or metal and the overall quality of your oven.
How to Make this Frosting
To make the frosting, all you have to do is add all the ingredients to a bowl and use a mixer to whip it into shape. If you like a stiffer, firmer frosting then consider adding in more powdered sugar a little at a time until you’ve got the consistency you want. Store this in the fridge until you cake has baked and cooled almost completely. If you don’t have patience and let it cool, your frosting will melt onto the cake and you’ll have a really yummy mess on your hands.
Banana Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Equipment
- 9x13 casserole dish
- Hand mixed or stand mixed
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup salted butter, lightly melted
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed
- 1 small zucchini, about 2 cups shredded
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Frosting
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened but not melted
- 8 oz low fat cream cheese, softened but not melted
- 3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- In a medium bowl, mix the dry ingredients and set aside.
- In a larger bowl, mash the bananas, then stir in all the remaining wet ingredients. You can also use a mixer for this step, but your bananas should be ripe enough to mash easily.
- Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ones, then mix until homogenous.
- Grease a 9x13 casserole dish, then pour in the batter. Spread evenly across the bottom of the dish, then place in the oven to bake for 40-50 minutes.
- Once the center of the cake is cooked and the edges are golden, remove and let cool at least one hour before topping with frosting.
Frosting
- Add the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla to a medium bowl.
- Mix with a mixer a minute or two until well combined, then taste and explore the texture. If it feels too thin to you, add a 1/4 cup more sugar at a time until you have your desired texture.
Notes
- If you prefer like without an excess of zucchini, sub it with one more ripe banana.
- This cake keeps well but it fairly perishable, so keep it in the fridge.
2 thoughts on “Banana Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting”
When I think it’s done, I turn off the oven and leave the cake in there for another 10 minutes. If I have cut the recipe in half, then 5 minutes. It has been known to fall in the middle as it cools. When this happens, you end up with a crater to fill with cream cheese frosting!
I haven’t experienced this cake falling in the middle yet. Zucchini tends to hold up baked goods pretty well, but that’s a delicious and creative way to adapt the recipe in case it does happen! An extra smear of frosting is great damage control!