Description
This soft and fluffy one bowl vegan banana cake is frosted with a lush and creamy chocolate cream cheese frosting! Easy, moist, rich, and irresistible!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240 mL) vegan buttermilk, room temperature
- 3 1/2 cups (440 g) all purpose flour or gluten-free 1:1 baking flour
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (150 g) brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted vegan butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups (260 g or roughly 3 medium) super ripe banana, mashed
- 1/4 cup (56 g) dairy free yogurt or vegan sour cream, room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1/2 cup (113 g) vegan butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (226 g) vegan cream cheese, room temperature
- 4 cups (480 g) powdered sugar, sifted
- 1/2 cup (50 g) cocoa powder, sifted
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease two 8″ cake pans with cooking oil, and line them with parchment paper. Set aside. See note for different cake pan sizes.
- Prepare the vegan buttermilk. Combine the dairy free milk with the apple cider vinegar, and set aside to sit for 5-6 minutes. You can weigh and measure the remaining ingredients during this time, including mashing the banana.
- Make the batter: In a large bowl with a whisk, whisk together the mashed banana, melted vegan butter, dairy free yogurt, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Add in the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Pour in the vegan buttermilk as you whisk in the dry ingredients just until the flour mixture is integrated into the wet ingredients.
- Bake: Divide the batter between the two cake pans evenly, and bake for 35 minutes in 8″ cake pans, or until the toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool: Remove from the oven and allow the cakes to cool in their pans for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Once cooled completely (there is absolutely no warmth to the touch!), then you can prepare your vegan cream cheese frosting.
- Make the chocolate cream cheese frosting: When ready to frost the cakes, add vegan butter and vegan cream cheese to a large bowl or stand mixer and cream for 2-3 minutes. Add in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time, continuing the beat the mixture until it’s a thick buttercream. Then add in the cocoa powder, and mix together with the vanilla extract and 2-4 tablespoons of coconut/almond milk and continue to beat until desired texture.
- Assemble: Frost cake and enjoy!
Notes
Gluten free: to make this banana cake gluten free, use gluten free 1:1 baking flour, such as King Arthur Measure-for-Measure gluten free flour.
Cake pan sizes: you can make this cake as a three layer 6″ cake instead of two layer 8″ cake. For the bake time, it might vary to ~30 minutes. Keep an eye on the cakes as they near the end of the bake time.
Dairy free milk: you can use any dairy free milk here.
Salt: if your vegan butter is salted, you can omit the salt in the dry ingredients.
Please read the full post above the recipe card for all tips & tricks on how to properly bake this cake!