Oh that banana pudding…a Southern staple and oh so delicious. What could be better? Not much, but this banana pudding cake might rival it. Yep I’ve turned that Southern favorite into, you guessed it…cake!
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Hey there! Before you scroll, there’s lot’s of important stuff in the post!…including the FAQ section, which may answer any questions you might have about this recipe. Enjoy!
This easy banana pudding cake has a moist banana cake as the bottom layer and a creamy banana pudding, cream cheese topping. Then it’s all topped with vanilla wafers. Seriously the best banana pudding cake and it’s the best of both worlds…banana pudding and cake!
Here’s a tip: After you’ve added the vanilla wafers, pop this puppy in the fridge for a couple hours…that way, when you’re ready to eat it, the vanilla wafers will have soaked up some of the topping and they’ll be nice and moist. So yummy!
Let’s Talk About Some of the Ingredients in the Banana Pudding Cake:
Bananas: Ok obviously we’ll be using bananas in this banana cake. 😉 You’ll want to use 3 mashed bananas. Use super ripe bananas.
Lemon Juice: You’ll just be adding in a bit of this. It will bring out the flavor.
Instant Banana Pudding Mix: This will thicken up the topping and give it lots of flavor.
Cream Cheese: Ok, cream cheese makes everything better and adding it to the topping gives it a little tang and makes it creamy.
Confectioner’s Sugar: This is the same thing as powdered sugar and it’ll add sweetness and help firm up the topping.
Vanilla Wafers: These little cookies are a must for banana pudding. They’re especially good after they’ve soaked up the yummy topping a bit.
Mixing Method for this Cake:
The mixing method for this cake is as easy as it gets. You’ll mix up the dry ingredients in one bowl and the liquid ingredients in another bowl. After that, you’ll just add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix together. Easy Peasy.
The topping comes together quickly as well. You’ll mix the pudding an milk together and set aside. Then you’ll mix together the confectioners sugar, butter and cream cheese until smooth, then add in the pudding mixture.
Tips & FAQs for the Banana Pudding Cake:
Just use medium sized bananas. You’ll need about 3 bananas and that should make around 1 ½ cups of mashed bananas.
Use a spoon to spoon the flour into a measuring cup. Don’t dip you measuring cup directly into the flour bag. That will pack down the flour and you’ll end up with too much in the cake batter, which could make your cake dry and dense.
Yes
If you can get the banana flavored instant pudding, then that’s best, but if you can’t, don’t omit it, just use the cheesecake flavor, white chocolate, or vanilla.
Don’t use the type you have to cook.
Don’t microwave them as this will heat them unevenly and may get too warm. Just set them out for about an hour to warm up to room temperature.
Items & Tools Used to Make This Cake:
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Ok, let’s get to the recipe!
Note About Recipe Measurements: I write recipes using volume (cups) measurements because here in the U.S., this is what people are more familiar with and I don’t want anyone to feel intimidated when baking. For metric/weight measurements, click the ‘metric’ button under the ingredients in the recipe card below. The weights are converted by a program, not me, and it’s just a best guess. I can’t guarantee that weighing the ingredients will produce the exact same results, since I test recipes using volume measurements.
Recipe:
Banana Pudding Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 ⅔ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 ½ cups bananas mashed (about 3 very ripe bananas)
- 3 eggs
- 1 ¾ cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
For the icing:
- 1 small package instant banana pudding mix (or banana cream pudding mix)
- ½ cup milk (preferably whole milk)
- 1 8 oz. pkg. softened cream cheese
- 1 cup softened butter (not melted)
- 2 tablespoon milk
- 5 cups confectioners sugar
- 5 oz vanilla wafer cookies (some whole and some crushed) (about ½ a box)
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Instructions
For the cake:
- Grease and flour a 13 x 9 inch glass pan.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon) in a bowl and set aside.
- In another bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, bananas, lemon juice, vanilla extract and oil.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix, just until combined.
- Pour into the pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 min.
- Cool completely before adding the topping.
For the icing:
- In a bowl, mix together the banana pudding mix and the milk.
- Mix until thick and set aside.
- In another bowl, mix the cream cheese until smooth. Add in the room temperature butter and mix well. Add in the confectioners sugar and mix well.
- Add in the pudding mixture and mix well.
- Chill in the fridge until ready to use.
Putting the cake together:
- Spread the icing over the cooled cake. Add whole vanilla wafers around the edge of the cake and sprinkle the remaining area with crushed vanilla wafers.
- Keep chilled in the fridge. It’s best to let the cake and icing set up for a couple hours, so the vanilla wafers have time to soften a bit.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
How to Share
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Margaret White-Andrews
As soon as I try out those cakes, submit my feedback
Jenn
Thank you for this recipe! I love banana pudding- I’m going to try the recipe as cupcakes today!
Kara Jane
Wonderful! I hope you like it!
Lovely Tee
Thank you thank you thank you, my mom is allergic to raw bananas (something about the way it’s grown and Latex (like the gloves she’s allergic to them as well) and I been trying to figure out how I could give her a taste of banana pudding heaven …. tomorrow I’m trying this !!!!!
Kara Jane
Oh I feel her pain. I haven’t been able to eat an actual raw banana in ages. I usually do okay with it baked though, so I hope she’s okay with that as well. I have allergies to other raw fruits and veggies…It’s a weird thing, but I’ve heard it could be a birch or ragweed allergy and I’ve also heard about latex having something to do with it as well. So interesting, but at least I’m not alone! Anyway I hope she enjoys this!
Lydia
Hello. This looks delicious. I’m excited to make it I’m! I’m wondering how much powdered sugar should be used for the icing. The recipe calls for 5 cups, but when I watched your YouTube video included on this recipe, it showed that you used 3 cups of powdered sugar.
Kara
Hi Lydia, it’s 5 cups. The video shows me adding 3 cups and mixing those in, then adding 2 more cups and mixing that in. I generally mix in half at a time, so it doesn’t make a mess. 🙂
Lydia
Thanks so much for the quick response! 🙂
Debbie Espersen
I can find Banana Cream pudding mix but not plain Banana pudding mix. Are they the same thing? Thank you so much for your response!
Kara
Yes, I think it’s the same thing. I was trying to remember if my box said banana or banana cream. I looked at my Walmart online and all they have is banana cream as well, so that must be what it is. I need to go back in and update the recipe so it’s not so confusing. 🙂
Casey
is the frosting freezable? I ended up with alot left and don’t want to waste it
Kara
Hi Casey, I haven’t tried freezing it. It does have cream cheese in it and sometimes that doesn’t freeze well. Sometimes it ends up with a weird texture, but it wouldn’t hurt to try and freeze it. It’s work a shot I think.