One Bowl Gluten Free Banana Cake (oil free and vegan!)

Unbelievably moist and soft gluten free banana cake that’s naturally vegan, no eggs, no dairy, and oil free! Topped with a creamy dairy free peanut butter cream cheese frosting, you’ll fall in love with this healthy banana cake recipe!

If you’re a fan of all banana desserts (looking at you, BEST vegan gluten-free banana bread, fluffy vegan banana pancakes, and the ultimate vegan banana cream pie), then you’re going to love this gluten-free banana cake. 

It’s like a snack cake with an unbelievable peanut butter frosting that will leave you speechless (and going for spoon after spoon). 

What’s more, this undetectably vegan banana cake is also oil free as well. That’s right. No eggs, no dairy, and no oil is needed to make this fluffy banana cake. Leave your vegetable and canola oil in the cupboard!

You’re just going to absolutely adore this easy gluten-free banana cake!

What’s the difference between banana bread and banana cake?

Often, banana bread and even banana muffins, such as this fluffy vegan banana bread that’s easily gluten free, is much denser and definitely not as sweet. They’re very comparable, but banana cake I find tends to be lighter in texture, and of course, is topped with a delicious frosting.

Ultimately, I think it’s best you have both recipes in your life 😉

Gluten Free Banana Cake Recipe Ingredients:

What’s really cool about this banana cake is that you can use a gluten free flour blend OR even use all purpose flour if you’d really like! The cake will come out absolutely delicious.

For this banana cake, you’ll need:

• Gluten-free flour: I personally recommend using King Arthur’s Measure for Measure or Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 gluten-free baking flour blend. These two gluten free flour blends are my favorite: both contain xanthan gum, which is necessary for this cake recipe, and both are vegan-friendly (so no dairy). Please DO NOT use the Namaste flour blend. It will not work. 
• Dairy free milk: for this recipe, you’ll need to have your nut or dairy free milk at room temperature. This will help with preventing the gumminess of the cake!
• Apple Cider Vinegar: the apple cider vinegar is needed for creating a vegan “buttermilk” 😉 Just add a few teaspoons to your room temperature dairy free milk before beginning to bake so that your vegan buttermilk is ready in time for your healthy banana cake!
• Bananas: well, of course you need bananas! For this recipe, since there is no oil nor applesauce, the bananas basically replace both, yielding the most moist banana cake you’ll ever taste! Make sure your bananas are extra ripe for added sweetness- if you need to ripen yellow bananas, check out this trick here!
• Maple Syrup: my absolute favorite refined sugar free sweetener! Make sure your maple syrup is at room temperature before baking- we’ll go over why in a second. If you don’t want to use maple syrup, however, you can use brown sugar or granulated sugar. 
• Vegan Peanut Butter Frosting: this is a lovely combination of peanut butter, vegan butter, vegan cream cheese, and powdered sugar. Absolutely delightful!

Overview: How to make a one bowl banana cake:

There’s a reason why this is called an easy gluten free banana cake recipe! It’s so simple and quick to make that you’ll be making it every week, guaranteed (because who doesn’t love eating a banana sheet cake whenever?!).

To start, make sure that your bananas are mashed and that you’ve mixed your dairy free milk with the apple cider vinegar to create the buttermilk reaction.

Now we get to make the cake!

1. Preheat your oven to 350F and grease a 7×11″ or 8×13″ cake pan with some coconut oil or olive oil and line with parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, sugar, dairy free yogurt, vegan buttermilk, and vanilla. Then whisk in the dry ingredients. 
3. Pour the batter into the baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean.

Then let the cake cool before you begin to make your vegan peanut butter frosting!

Optional gluten-free banana cake add ins:

• Chopped walnuts
• Vegan chocolate chips
• Chopped pecans
• Extra cinnamon
• Vegan white chocolate chips
• Ground nutmeg
• Orange zest

Tips for making moist banana cake

Now, from time to time, you might have some issues with vegan baking. It happens! Like with my vegan vanilla cake, you’ll want a nice and light texture, but because this recipe is devoid of any eggs, you need to do some culinary magic (i.e. the tips I’m about to share 😉 ).

• What happens if your cake is gummy? This happens when your ingredients aren’t fully to room temperature. If your ingredients are still cold, it alters the gluten, yielding a gummy texture.
• Why is my cake too dense? Similar to gumminess, a dense banana cake is no good! To prevent this, make sure that you’ve sifted the flour. This helps to capture some air rather than having clumps of flour that you have to beat apart.
• Help! My cake didn’t rise! This may actually be the quality of your leavening agents. Baking powder stops working after a while. Make sure that your baking powder isn’t sitting out open and is fresh (within the past month!).
• What if I want to swap in other ingredients? Please only follow the swaps that I suggest down below in the recipe card. Otherwise, I really can’t guarantee the results, and I don’t want you to be unhappy with your baking experience. Ingredients I’ve personally tested and can say work: you can use any dairy free milk.
• Can I make this nut free? Absolutely! That’s my last swap: swap in sunflower seed butter for the peanut butter and you have a wonderful nut free gluten free vegan banana cake recipe!

I hope these tips help! These are some of the most common errors when experimenting with vegan baking, and I really would love your healthy banana cake to come out the best it can be 🙂 So make sure to check out these tips before you begin!

You’re just going to love this easy vegan gluten-free banana cake recipe! I seriously cannot get over how light it tastes, and that it’s oil free, yet is so sweet and moist! My fork kept finding its way to another bite…and another bite…and another!

I can’t wait to see your beautiful banana sheet cake creations on Instagram and Pinterest!

Happy baking and frosting!

Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!

If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!

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