Banana Walnut Cake with Caramel Frosting leans into everything you love about banana bread, then takes it further ~ deeper flavor, better texture, with a rich caramel finish.
Banana cakes are some of my most irresistible recipes. They range from the snackable little Banana Poppy Seed Cake with Vanilla Bean Frosting to my celebration worthy Banana Cake with Nutella Frosting. This banana walnut cake with caramel frosting is right up there with the best of them. Not fluffy like layer cake, not dense like banana bread ~ this lands right in the middle. The walnuts add just enough bite, and the sour cream keeps everything tender for days. And there’s something about the combination of caramel and banana ~ they just belongs together. And it’s a beautiful thing.
Can bananas be too ripe for banana walnut cake?
For this cake, you’re looking for bananas that are speckled or mostly brown, but not collapsed or leaking.
- Bright yellow → useable but they won’t give as much flavor.
- Spotted / brown → ideal (sweet, soft, and aromatic.)
- Black + watery → they’ve gone too far and can make the cake heavy and a little dull.
Freeze your ripe bananas
Got perfectly ripe bananas but no time to bake? Freeze them.
- Peel them first, then freeze whole or in chunks.
- Thaw before using.
- Use everything, including the liquid.
- Frozen bananas can actually add more vivid banana flavor to your banana walnut cake.
The caramel frosting that changes everything
We start with a simple stovetop caramel base for this cooked frosting, which gives it a deep, lightly toasty flavor. A generous sprinkle of walnuts adds crunch and sets off the banana cake beautifully.
Be sure to spread your frosting quickly before it starts to set up. I like to pour it onto the still hot banana cake.
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Banana Walnut Cake with Caramel Frosting
Video
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 large egg
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed (I ended up with about a cup after a thorough mashing)
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, make this a heaping 1/2 cup, measured after chopping
caramel frosting
- 5 Tbsp butter
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 8 oz about 1/2 a box confectioner’s sugar
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Set oven to 350F
- Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in the sour cream and the egg.
- Mash the bananas with the back of a fork. Make sure to get the little lumps out. Add the bananas and the vanilla to the butter and sugar and blend well.
- Sift the flour, salt and baking soda and add to the batter. Stir just until combined. Fold in the nuts.
- Spread the batter into an 8×8 or 9×9 square baking pan that’s been sprayed with oil or lined with parchment paper with overlapping ends. The paper will help you remove the cake from the pan for neater cutting.
- Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out without wet batter clinging to it. (It will still be moist)
- Let cool before frosting.
- To make the frosting, heat the butter and sugar in a small saucepan until it comes to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Take off the heat and add the heavy cream, vanilla and salt.
- Beat in the powdered sugar, and continue beating on high until the frosting is thick and glossy. Add a little more cream if it seems too thick, and a little more sugar if it seems too thin.
- Spread thickly on the cooled banana cake.
Nutrition
More baking with bananas
Nutella Banana Bread
Nutella banana bread is moist and chocolatey with ribbons of Nutella swirled right into the batter ~ yum!!
One Banana Banana Bread!
Only got one banana? Make this fabulous one banana banana bread ~ it’s a fan favorite!
Warm Banana Pudding Cake
Warm banana pudding cake is a a riff on Canadian pudding chomeur. Warm cake, toasty pecans, rich maple sauce…the ultimate fall dessert!
Almond Flour Banana Cake
We all have that one banana bread recipe we swear by. This isn’t that. Almond flour banana cake is softer, more tender, and just happens to be gluten and dairy-free. (You’ll be back for seconds.)
Copycat Crumbl Banana Bread Cookies
Copycat Crumbl banana bread cookies are warm and cozy with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting topped with crushed pecans ~ Deeeeeelish!
Bourbon Banana Bread
Bourbon Banana Bread is a rich, moist banana bread made with ripe bananas, sour cream, and a splash of bourbon for deep, warm flavor.
Absolutely amazing and delicious! I doubled the recipe but do not double the frosting recipe! Not sure tho why your frosting is so much lighter than mine??
Excellent recipe. The only thing I changed was adding a few spices to the cake. Cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.
Made this for a ‘men’s dinner’ and my husband and all his friends couldn’t get enough of it!!! Except for that one crazy man who had never eaten a banana in his life … I was speechless too. But he tasted the frosting and thought it was awesome!! Do I highly recommend this recipe. It was moist and nutty and just the right sweetness!!
Can this recipe be made in 8″ rounds?
That should work fine!
Oh YUM!!! I made this tonight, exactly as the recipe said, and it is so good, I am concerned about eating the whole thing myself…tonight, LOL. The frosting is PERFECT, too. Thank you, Sue…..love all your recipes!
This cake is amazing and I followed the recipe exactly as is! I don’t usually post comments but this was wonderful . My only question is my frosting color is brown not white. I did use dark brown sugar – would that be why? It doesn’t matter as frosting is great and I put left over frosting on graham crackers but curious how to get frosting color white.
Thanks again!
Glad you loved this Lisa and yes, dark brown sugar will definitely darken foods a bit more than golden brown sugar, especially in something like frosting. And with caramel, you don’t really want a white color, you want something that will read ‘caramel’. Sometimes in photos the colors of food tend to look a little paler than in real life.
Cake took much longer to bake than expected. It did turn out very moist however. The amounts of from for this cake is way too much. I used maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of the total recipe. Overall very good!
Holy smokes was this good. Moist but not stodgy (as I find sometimes happens with desserts that have sour cream/yogurt). And the frosting is just outstanding — I thought the recipe may have made too much for my 8×8 tray, but I ended up loving the balance. I used plain Greek yogurt Instead of sour cream, and dark brown sugar as that’s what I had. Love it, will make it again!
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Ps Making your banana cake today with my sister visiting f me here in Vail! I KNOW it will be amazing
Any subs for the sour cream?
You might use cream, half and half, or even yogurt.