A Banana Bundt Cake that will Make Your Grandma Proud

Some things are utterly timeless. A bouquet of roses, a good cup of tea, pancakes with syrup, and this banana bundt cake.

For me, bundt cakes conjure up warm, fuzzy memories of baking with my grandparents.

My grandpa was a baker by trade, but my grandma sure knew her way around a kitchen as well. Their house always smelled divine.

When you walked through the door, you immediately started salivating.

This recipe elicits the same reaction from my husband. Entering the house after work and being intoxicated by this enticingly fragrant smell, he immediately makes a beeline for the kitchen.

Do you know anyone who doesn’t love to come home to a house that smells like delicious confections? Yeah, me neither.

Let’s get to the recipe.

The Recipe

Classic Banana Cake

Votes: 3 Rating: 4.67 You: Rate this recipe!

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Let this maple glazed banana bundt cake become the special dish that you're known for. Bake one today to start your own tradition.

Servings	Prep Time
12 servings	15 minutes

Cook Time	Passive Time
30 minutes	60 minutes

Servings Prep Time 12 servings 15 minutes

Cook Time Passive Time 30 minutes 60 minutes

Classic Banana Cake Votes: 3 Rating: 4.67 You: Rate this recipe! Print Recipe Let this maple glazed banana bundt cake become the special dish that you're known for. Bake one today to start your own tradition. Servings Prep Time 12 servings 15 minutes Cook Time Passive Time 30 minutes 60 minutes Servings Prep Time 12 servings 15 minutes Cook Time Passive Time 30 minutes 60 minutes

Ingredients

For the Cake:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
• 4 tablespoons sour cream
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 medium)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Glaze:

• 1 cup Powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Garnish:

• 1/2 cups raw unsalted pecan or walnut pieces (optional)

Servings: servings

Units:MetricUS Imperial

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cream sugar and butter together. Add sour cream and eggs, and stir to combine.
2. In a separate bowl, combine baking soda, salt, and flour. Add this alternately with the mashed bananas to the creamed butter mixture. Add vanilla and stir to combine.
3. Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan, and bake for 40-45 minutes, until the cake's top turns golden brown.
4. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely, about 45-60 minutes. Once cool, invert pan and allow gravity to aid in the release of the cake.
5. To make the glaze, combine powdered sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla. Glaze cake and garnish with nuts if using. Slice and serve.

Nutritional Info*

Nutrition Facts

Classic Banana Cake

Amount Per Serving

Calories 399 Calories from Fat 117

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 13g 20%

Saturated Fat 6g 30%

Polyunsaturated Fat 1g

Monounsaturated Fat 2g

Cholesterol 54mg 18%

Sodium 159mg 7%

Potassium 93mg 3%

Total Carbohydrates 67g 22%

Dietary Fiber 2g 8%

Sugars 42g

Protein 5g 10%

Vitamin A 8%

Vitamin C 3%

Calcium 2%

Iron 8%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

 

Cooking By the Numbers…

Step 1 – Prep Ingredients, Grease the Pan, and Preheat

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Gather all of your ingredients. Go ahead and set out your unsalted butter so it can come to room temperature.

Grease and lightly flour a bundt pan. Then set aside.

Don’t hold back with this step. Conjure your inner southern belle and coat the pan with a good layer of butter or shortening followed by a light coating of flour.

Use your fingers when greasing to get into all the nooks and crannies of this pan. If you don’t, you will have a hard time getting the pan to release the cake properly later on.

Allow the flour to show you what parts of the pan aren’t greased well. If the flour doesn’t stick, grease that section again. Be sure to shake all excess flour out when all sections are coated.

In a large bowl, whisk together the baking soda, salt, and all-purpose flour, and set the bowl aside.

Be sure to use baking soda from your cupboard, not the fridge. When stored in the refrigerator, baking soda is exposed to moisture and absorbs odors. We don’t want foul smelling baked goods, so be sure to designate a separate box for your baking needs.

Measure out the sugar and place in an adequately sized bowl off to the side. For this recipe, I recommend using regular fine white sugar crystals rather than coarser options.

Add the measured amount of sour cream to a small bowl and set aside for later use. If you prefer, you may substitute this with Greek yogurt. Either will lend that rich flavor to the end product. Use whichever you have on hand.

Go ahead and crack two eggs into a small bowl for easy access later. Cracking the eggs separately also makes it easier to remove any unwanted shell fragments.

Mash 3 very ripe bananas in a small bowl. It’s important that they be very ripe. The riper, the sweeter when it comes to this popular fruit.

Even better, go to the markdown section of your grocery store and get the almost brown bananas.

This is also a fun step to let the kids help with. My son loves to mash up ingredients for my recipes. Set the bowl aside.

Last but not least, measure pure vanilla extract into a small pinch bowl.

If you have real vanilla beans on hand, feel free to use those instead. About 1 scraped bean per teaspoon of extract is the equivalent.

Also, a happy medium and an option I use quite frequently is vanilla bean paste. The measurements are the same, but this offers the visual appearance of fresh vanilla beans (those little flecks!) with a longer shelf life. Again, use whichever you prefer or have on hand.

Step 2 – Cream Butter and Sugar

I adore my stand mixer, but for quick jobs like this, I reach for my hand mixer.

With whichever tool you have, cream the room temp butter and sugar together until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Until the mixture is smooth, a bit fluffy, and lighter in color.

Step 3 – Mix in Sour Cream and Eggs

Add the eggs and dairy of choice (sour cream or Greek yogurt) and fold in by hand until the mixture is smooth, without any lumps. Be sure to completely work in the eggs and dairy, as you want them fully incorporated.

If you notice small lumps, you may have not creamed the sugar and butter well, or attempted to cream them while they were still too cold. Work the lumps out now by hand.

Step 4 – Add Dry Ingredients, Banana, and Vanilla

To the smooth mixture, alternate adding from your bowl of dry ingredients and the mashed bananas.

Be sure to incorporate each addition completely before adding the next. That being said, don’t overmix the batter, or your cake can become too dense. As soon as one ingredient is thoroughly mixed, add the other.

Once you’ve added all of the dry ingredient mixture and bananas, add the vanilla and mix well.

Step 5 – Bake

Add the batter to the prepped bundt pan and bake at 350°F for 40-45 minutes. The top will be golden brown, and a toothpick will come out clean when inserted to test.

You can also use a cake tester instead of a toothpick. Either should come out clean when inserted.

Step 6 – Cool

Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Be sure to turn your oven off.

Let the cake rest in the same position it baked in. This will take up to an hour to cool. Do not rush this step!

If you do, you may end up with a cake that resembles a patchwork quilt. When warm, bits of the cake can stick to the pan, leaving it with holes or patches and without a crusted top.

Once cool, with a cooling rack pressed to the top of the pan, invert and set on the counter. Do not shake to get the cake to release. Instead, allow gravity to aid in its descent.

Give the cake another 15-20 minutes to finish cooling, if needed.

Step 7 – Glaze, Garnish, and Serve

While the cake is cooling, mix your confectioner’s sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla extract together with a fork. This should be thick but smooth.

Try to make this right before you plan to glaze your cake, as it will thicken the longer it sits.

If your glaze gets too thick, add 1 teaspoon of milk and stir. This should thin it back out.

Once your cake has cooled completely, pour the glaze around the top of the cake to allow it to drip down either side.

Garnish with whatever nuts (if any) you prefer. A natural choice would be either pecans or walnuts.

Now, it’s time to slice and serve. Enjoy!

Show your Support – With Cake!

Is there someone in your life that you want to impress?

Maybe you have a new boss or neighbor? Acts of goodwill, especially when they are food related, always set you on the right path.

We all want to be helpful and supportive to those around us. Food is a universal love language. It ties us all together, regardless of our many differences.

Food is a gesture that everyone appreciates in times of joy or sadness.

Next time you want to show affection or appreciation (say because your dad came out and fixed your HVAC system in the cold so you’d have heat…) whip up this fantastic banana bundt cake to say thank you!

About Leslie Morrison

Leslie is a food photographer and writer. She enjoys spending time in her kitchen and behind the lens of her camera and working on her food blog, Deliciously Plated (deliciouslyplated.com). When she isn’t working, she is spending time with her son and her husband.

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