Banana Cake//Salted Caramel Filling//Brown Butter Cream Cheese Buttercream
If you think banana cake can’t be luxurious, let this one change your mind—moist, flavourful banana cake layers, a luscious brown butter cream cheese buttercream, and rich, silky salted caramel draped between each tier. Every bite is a perfect balance of deep caramelized banana flavour, nutty brown butter, and just the right hit of salt to keep everything from being overly sweet. It’s comforting yet elevated, simple yet decadent.
At the heart of it all are the banana cake layers, made with the same batter as my banana bread recipe—the one I spent countless rounds of testing to get just right. The moisture is unparalleled, the crumb is soft yet structured, and the banana flavour is perfectly balanced with notes of warm cinnamon and caramelized sugar. It’s not too light, not too dense, but lands in that perfect in-between.
Then comes the magic: the brown butter cream cheese buttercream. Browning the butter first brings out a toasted, nutty depth that complements the tang of the cream cheese, making for a frosting that’s both rich and complex. And, of course, the salted caramel—drizzled between the layers—adds a buttery, golden silkiness that ties everything together.
If you love banana bread, this cake is its dressed-up, party-ready sibling. It has the same nostalgic, homey appeal but with layers of extra indulgence. I hope it brings joy to your kitchen and to everyone lucky enough to share a slice!
Recipe:
Makes one 6-inch cake
Notes
If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, and don’t want to buy a whole container of it, a trick is to simply mix in some lemon juice into whole milk (although frankly, whatever percentage of milk you have at home will do). For this recipe, replace 1 of the tablespoons of milk with lemon juice. Therefore, replace the buttermilk with 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice. Just mix it together in a small bowl before mixing with the mashed bananas and vanilla.
The 1/2 tsp of cinnamon called for will yield a delicate cinnamon flavour. If you want a very subtle cinnamon flavour, rather use 1/4 tsp. If you want a strong flavour, rather use 3/4 tsp. Option to omit the cinnamon altogether if that’s how you prefer it.
The bananas must be very ripe, both for their flavour, and sugar contents. If yours aren’t super ripe, you can still make this, but add in an extra 10-20 of brown sugar to compensate.
I specify the type of salt used, as different salts are more or less salty than others. If you don’t have the same kind of salt used, be mindful of this and adjust accordingly. Generally speaking, pink Himalayan salt is less salty than most others.
Top tip for room-temperature eggs: if ever you don’t have the time to take them out of the fridge early enough, or yet if you forget, you can place them in a bowl covered with hot water for 5 minutes, and they will become room-temperature just like that!
Similarly, if your milk is cold from the fridge at the time that you’re ready to bake, just lightly heat it in a saucepan until room-temperature.
If you were wondering, this is indeed the same cake batter as for my banana bread loaf! It’s the moistest, most flavourful banana cake I’ve ever had, with a supremely delicate crumb.
How to make brown butter: Melt over medium heat, stirring every so often. Reduce heat to medium-low if your burner is aggressive; otherwise you may be fine keeping the heat on medium. Cook the butter, stirring often (especially taking care to scrape the sides and bottom), until the butter is a golden caramelized colour, and little dark caramel-coloured flecks have formed. It should smell nutty and delicious. Don’t over cook it—if the flecks are black, it’s burned. Know that the butter will keep cooking even once off the heat, so slightly err on the side of caution. Immediately remove from heat, and pour the brown butter into a bowl. Place this bowl in the fridge until the brown butter resembles the consistency of room-temperature butter, at which point it’s ready to use for the buttercream.
Banana Cake
Ingredients
225 g cake flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 + 1/8 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (pink Himalayan)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
275 g (1 cup + 2 tbsp mashed/3 large) very ripe bananas
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp buttermilk, room temperature
2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
113 g unsalted butter, room temperature
170 g coconut oil (room-temperature—a.k.a. in solid form)
240 g light brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and ensure that oven rack is positioned in the middle.
Butter and flour 3 6-inch baking tins.
Sift flour into a medium bowl. Add in baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix.
Mash bananas. I like to do this on a plate, as opposed to a bowl, using a fork. Add the mashed bananas to a medium bowl, along with the buttermilk, and vanilla extract. Mix.
In a large bowl, add butter, coconut oil, and brown sugar. Beat on high speed with an electric mixer for 1 minute and 30 seconds.
Add eggs to butter-oil-sugar mixture, one at a time. Beat on high for 1 minute after each addition.
Add in dry ingredients and wet ingredients, alternating in additions; do 3 rounds of dry ingredients, and 2 rounds of wet ingredients. Begin and end with dry ingredients. Each addition should be fully combined on low speed. Do not over mix.
Pour batter evenly into the 3 cake tins. If you feel like being very precise, you can use a kitchen scale. This was 545 g per tin for me.
Place cake tins in the oven, and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out cleanly.
Remove cake from oven, and let cool for 10 minutes.
Remove from tins, and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Salted Caramel
Ingredients
100 g heavy cream
185 g sugar
75 g cold butter, cubed
1/2 + 1/8 tsp salt (pink Himalayan)
Instructions
Pour the cream into a small saucepan, set over low heat. You will be using it in about 5 minutes, and you want it to be hot.
Place the sugar in a medium saucepan, set over medium heat. Don’t touch it until the edges are beginning to melt. At this point, stir fairly continuously until all of the sugar has dissolved.
Whisk in the butter, 1-2 cubes at a time.
Slowly pour in the cream, whisking continuously, about 2 tbsp at a time.
Whisk in the salt.
Pour the caramel into a small bowl, and let cool at room temperature. It will thicken as you proceed with the following steps. You can give it a little stir with a spoon every now and then.
Brown Butter Cream Cheese Buttercream
Ingredients
350 g butter, room temperature
230 g cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 tsp salt (pink Himalayan)
545 g powdered sugar
4 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Measure 230 g of the butter into a medium saucepan, and brown it. [See notes for instructions if you don’t know how to make brown butter.] Immediately remove from heat, and pour the brown butter into a bowl. Place this bowl in the fridge until the brown butter resembles the consistency of room-temperature butter, at which point it’s ready to use for the buttercream.
Place the remaining 120 go of butter in a large bowl, and beat on high speed with an electric mixer for minute.
Add in the cream cheese, and beat for another 2 minutes on high speed.
Reduce speed to low, and beat the powdered sugar in a couple of spoonfuls at a time.
Add the salt in, and beat for 1 minute on high speed.
Add the vanilla in, and beat for a final 30 seconds.
Assembly
Instructions
Level off the cake layers.
Put a dollop of the buttercream (about a teaspoon) in the centre of the cake stand, and then place the first cake layer on it.
Top with 125 g of buttercream. Using an offset spatula, disperse icing into an even layer across the cake. Next, pipe a ring around the outside to create a “well” for the salted caramel.
Repeat these steps with your second layer of cake (just keep it on a plate for now).
Carefully fill both wells with salted caramel.
Refrigerate both of these cake layers for 25-30 minutes, to firm up your “wells”.
Remove your two cake layers from the fridge.
Gently place the second cake layer on top of the first, well/caramel side facing up. Top with the third cake layer, flat side up (upside down).
Spread buttercream around the sides and top of the cake. I like to start with an offset spatula, and then take over with an icing smoother (also called a scraper). It’s your choice as to how you want to ice the outside of your cake. I personally like to fill in the gaps of the sides of the cake in this first step, to make it all even, and just do a thin outer layer. I then refrigerate it for about 20 minutes.
After that first layer is hardened, I then do a smooth round of icing the cake. And, I like to get an unfinished line at the top lip of the cake—it looks modern and naturalistic in style, which is what I’m after. Feel free to make it a little textured—I prefer that look. [Since the first layer will have hardened, it will be easy to work with, as the layers wont’t be sliding around.]
Refrigerate cake for at least another 30 minutes to solidify the buttercream before decorating.
Decorate as desired.
Enjoy at room temperature. If it has fully chilled in the fridge, the buttercream will be harder, so take it out of the fridge with enough time for the icing to soften before devouring! It’s very important that the cake be room temperature when consumed so that it’s soft.
Enjoy!
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