So banana cake. It’s similar to banana bread, but not the same.
This vegan banana cake with lemon frosting (and walnuts, let’s not forget the walnuts!) is so delicious I am struggling to find the words to describe it right now.
I absolutely adore banana bread already, which is why I’ve made vegan banana bread, vegan chocolate chip banana bread and vegan banana bread muffins!
But this was my first go at a vegan banana cake. And it came out incredibly well. Just a few small changes from a banana bread recipe to a banana cake recipe and you get light, fluffy cake rather than the slightly denser banana breads.
I was inspired by Sally’s Baking Addiction (a non-vegan blog, but full of great baking tips) to go with a sheet pan version of the cake.
This is only my second sheet cake, but the first one I made, the chocolate sheet cake with chocolate fudge frosting, was a winner, so I was happy to give the sheet cake idea another go!
It’s very important that you use ripe bananas when you make this. They must be spotty! Don’t go using green bananas or even yellow bananas that don’t have any spots yet! You want the spotty bananas, this is perfectly ripe which means they are at the perfect sweetness for your dessert.
The great thing about this vegan banana cake is I was able to use relatively little oil. Just a quarter cup of coconut oil for the whole recipe. And it was deliciously, perfectly, moist. The moistness comes from those bananas, the coconut oil, some homemade vegan buttermilk and the addition of some applesauce to the recipe.
Other than using them on top for decoration, I didn’t use walnuts in the actual recipe. But this would be a good addition if you fancy it. Just chop up some walnuts (about 1 cup should be fine) and add it to the batter right at the end.
You will love this vegan banana cake, it is:
- Perfectly moist
- Light and fluffy
- Loaded with banana flavor
- Topped with lemon frosting
- Simple
Keep leftovers covered in the fridge where they will stay fresh for up to 5 days.
I’d love to know what you think of this vegan banana cake! And any questions? Post them down below. If you make this delicious cake, snap a pic and tag us #lovingitvegan on instagram!
For more fabulous vegan cakes, check out:
And you definitely should sign up to our email list while you’re here, you’ll get a free recipe ebook (awesome!) and you’ll stay updated with all our latest recipe postings!
Vegan Banana Cake with Lemon Frosting
-
Prep Time: 20 mins - Cook Time: 40 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
-
Yield: 15 -
Category: Dessert -
Cuisine: Vegan
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Perfectly moist, light and fluffy vegan banana cake loaded with banana flavor and topped with a delicious lemon frosting. A simple vegan recipe with a perfect result.
Ingredients
- For the Banana Cake:
- 2 and 3/4 cups (344g) All Purpose Flour
- 1 cup (200g) White Sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 2/3 cup (160ml) Homemade Vegan Buttermilk
- 3 Large Ripe Bananas (~360g)
- 1/4 cup (60ml) Coconut Oil
- 1 Flax Egg
- 2 Tbsp Applesauce
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- For the Lemon Frosting:
- 3 and 1/2 cups (420g) Powdered (Confectioners) Sugar
- 1/3 cup (75g) Vegan Butter or Margarine
- 3 Tbsp Lemon Juice (freshly squeezed)
- For Decoration:
- Crushed Walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray a 9×13 sheet pan with non-stick spray and set aside.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the white and brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix together.
- Prepare the vegan buttermilk by placing 1 Tbsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice into a measuring jug and then adding soy milk up to the 2/3 (160ml) line. Allow to sit for a minute to curdle.
- Add the bananas, buttermilk and coconut oil to a blender jug and blend briefly until combined. Don’t overblend or the bananas will start to oxidize.
- Pour the blended bananas and buttermilk over the dry ingredients and mix in.
- Prepare your flax egg by mixing 1 Tbsp flaxseed meal with 3 Tbsp Hot Water and allowing to sit for a minute to become gloopy.
- Add the flax egg, applesauce and vanilla extract and whisk with a hand whisk to remove any lumps.
- Pour the batter out into the sheet pan and spread out evenly.
- Place into the oven and bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Place the whole sheet pan onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your frosting by adding the powdered sugar, vegan butter and lemon juice to the bowl of an electric mixer and starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed until perfectly thick and smooth. If your frosting turns out too thick, add more lemon juice a drop at a time until you get the right consistency. If it turns out too thin, add more powdered sugar until it reaches the right thickness.
- Frost the cooled cake, and decorate with crushed walnuts.
Notes
*Nutritional information is for 1 slice of 15 including frosting and crushed walnuts.
*Recipe adapted from my Vegan Banana Bread.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice (of 15)
- Calories: 376
- Sugar: 50.8g
- Sodium: 236mg
- Fat: 8.7g
- Saturated Fat: 3.7g
- Carbohydrates: 72.5g
- Fiber: 1.8g
- Protein: 3.5g
Mouthwatering!
How long does it take for the cake to cool? Thank you!!
Not too long generally, but if you’re in a hurry you can put it in the fridge to speed it up!
Is too much sugar bad for you?
Too much of anything can be bad for you. Water is really good for you, but if you drink too much of it, you can get hyponatremia and that’s bad for you! So the goal is to have everything in moderation. At least that’s my goal! 🙂
Can this be made gluten free?
I’m sure! If I was making this cake gluten-free, I would switch out the flour for a gluten-free all purpose flour blend such as the one made by Bob’s Red Mill, and then I would increase the coconut oil and applesauce. I’d probably increase the coconut oil to a half cup and the applesauce to 1/4 cup and see how that goes! Gluten-free flour absorbs more moisture so you have to account for that by using more oil/applesauce so that the cake is still moist. You could increase the banana a bit too, but it might not be needed if you do those other two.
Such a great recipe
I just made this for my sons birthday cake. It was super easy to follow with readily available ingredients and the cake was perfect
Will definitely make it again
Great stuff! Thanks so much for posting! 🙂
hi, in the ingredients, you mentioned 160ml buttermilk but for the method you mentioned 180ml, so how much do i add?
It’s 2/3rds of a cup, which is 160ml, so the method contains a typo, which I will now fix, thanks!
can i use a round cake pan? if so how many inch and what adjustments do i have to make for the ingredients?
This recipe was designed as a sheet cake. So it’s bigger than a round pan, quite a lot. So I don’t know what adjustments you would need to make, you’d have to experiment. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say you’d need a minimum of 2 round cake pans to make it into a layer cake.
ABSOLUTELY LOOOOOOOVE THIS RECIPE!!!!!!!!!!!!
★★★★★
Awesome Lizanne! Love to hear that! Thanks for your review! 🙂
Amazing recipe! i am so glad i came across your page Alison. I added some lemon rind & more juice to the icing to make the flavour stronger but overall it was so appreciated by my folks! Thumbs up
★★★★★
Wonderful to hear Neidi! So glad you found us too! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
This cake is absolutely delicious! I followed everything pretty much exactly, except used almond milk instead of soy milk and I lined my pan with parchment paper. The flavors are perfect together and go great with a cup of tea. Thanks for posting! I can’t wait to try more of your vegan recipes.
★★★★★
Wonderful to hear Laura! Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
Delicious cake recipe, I chose to use a vegan cream cheese frosting in place of the regular frosting and I have to say it was amazing, you should try it! Thanks for the great recipes!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Ebony! 🙂 And as soon as I can get a regular supply of vegan cream cheese – I’ll be on it! 😉
Hi! Where I live coconut oil is quite expensive, can I substitute it for melted vegetable butter or just oil, would that work aswell?
I would substitute for a different oil rather than butter, I think it would work perfectly fine. All the best! 🙂
Thank you, Alison! I made this for my dad’s 89th birthday, and everyone loved it!
★★★★★
Wonderful Deborah! So happy to hear that. Thanks so much for posting! 🙂
Hi Alison,
I just made this cake with a lot of substitutions to make it vegan, gluten free, and nut free. My son is allergic to a lot of stuff, I’m so glad I found this recipe and tried it. I substituted the flour with sweet rice flour and no tree nut. He’s allergic to soy and coconut too, since it was a small amount of soy, I decided to try it to see how he reacts, because I couldn’t think of another type of milk to try, I could have tried rice milk was afraid it wouldn’t cure. As for coconut, one website said coconut oil is OK since it’s been refined. The result: it tastes yummy and very chewy. Taste like chewy banana bread, but not as sweet. The sweet taste is light, it’s delicious, it’s not as puffed up as yours in the picture. The chewy consistency kinda reminds me of a brownie cookie. I think the chewy part might be from using sweet rice flour instead of regular rice flour. Other than that do you know why its chewy? Do you have any other type of gluten free flour that you recommend for this cake?
Hi! I would definitely use a gluten-free all purpose flour blend to replace regular all purpose flour. If you try to use only one kind of flour (not a blend) it is much more difficult to turn out right. Even with a gluten-free all purpose blend, I would usually make other adjustments in a cake to make sure it’s moist enough as gluten-free flours absorb more moisture. You can see my gluten-free chocolate cake where I discuss this. 🙂