My favorite banana layer cake gets a makeover! Four layers of cake, a thin spread of peanut butter, fresh sliced bananas, all held together with brown butter frosting.
You don’t need a completely brand new recipe every time you want to make something new. Some of my favorite cakes come from sifting through my own recipe box: pick a trusted layer cake, pair it with a frosting I’ve made dozens of time, and adding a little something unexpected.
That’s exactly how this one happened! My banana layer cake has been staple on the blog for years. This brown butter frosting has been a family favorite every holiday season. So, this isn’t really a “new recipe” so much as it a remix. I’m all for taking tried and true components and revamping them with different mixing and matching.
Recipe Highlights
- Two proven recipes paired together for a new cake.
- Thin peanut butter layer, but not a peanut butter cake. Swap in your choice of unsweetened nut butter as an accent.
- Fresh sliced bananas inside cake adds pop of vibrancy.
- Brown butter frosting ties everything together with a nutty, caramelized richness.
Ingredient Notes
- Peanut butter matters here. I specifically use the Kirkland Signature natural peanut butter from Costco. It’s made with simple, all-natural ingredients (no added sugar or stabilizers like a lot of homogenized, shelf-stable peanut butters). Plus, it’s perfectly salted. I keep it out at room temperature so it’s easily spreadable straight from the jar, which makes assembly so much easier.
- Skip peanut butters with added sugars. They’ll throw off the balance of the cake and can make the peanut butter layer taste more like candy than a complement to the banana.
- Bananas for the filling layer should be ripe but still firm enough to slice cleanly — think just-ripe-enough-to-eat, not the very speckled, soft ones you’d use for the cake batter itself.
Cake Assembly
Tips for Success
- Slice your bananas just before assembling, not ahead of time, so they don’t brown
- Don’t overfill with peanut butter. You want a thin, even layer to act as an accent.
- Let chilled assembled cake come to room temperature for about 30 minutes before serving. Frosting and cake need time to soften for best texture and flavor.
- Cake layers my be baked up to two days in advance. Wrap tightly.
Brown Butter Banana Cake
A classic banana layer cake stacked with a thin layer of natural peanut butter, fresh sliced banana, and rich brown butter frosting. This "new cake" is built from two of my most trusted recipes.
Servings: 10
Ingredients
Banana Cake:
- 200 g all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 113 g unsalted butter, softened
- 150 g granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temp
- 1 ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract, or vanilla bean paste
- 175 g mashed ripe bananas
- 90 g sour cream
Brown Butter Frosting:
- 226 g salted butter, cut into tablespoons
- 360 g confectioners sugar
- ½ teaspoon instant espresso powder, optional*
- pinch kosher salt
- 2 Tablespoons milk
Other Components:
- 4 Tablespoons natural unsweetened peanut butter, or as needed*
- 2 medium just ripe bananas, or as needed, thinly sliced
Instructions
Banana Cake
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Line two 6-inch round cake pans with parchment paper. Grease well. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
- Mixing on low speed, add eggs one at a time. Add in mashed bananas. Mix on medium speed until well combined.
- Add half of dry flour mixture. Mix on low speed until almost incorporated. Follow with sour cream. Mix. Then add remaining half of dry flour. Mix on low speed until just combined. Finish mixing by hand to ensure there are no longer any dry streaks of flour.
- Divide batter between the two prepared cake pans (about 390 g each). Bake in the center rack of oven for 30 minutes, rotating pans midway through baking.
- Cool cake in pans for 10 minutes. Run mini offset spatula along the perimeter top cake pans to loosen cake. Unmold cake. Cool cakes to room temperature on wire rack.
The batter may look curdled. That's okay!
Brown Butter Frosting:
- In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Swirl pan occasionally to ensure even heating. Mixture will bubble and foam as it cooks. Continue to cook until mixture smells nutty. The milk solids will turn rich brown in color. Remove from heat and pour into a heat-safe bowl. Be sure to scrape out as much of the browned milk solid bits.
- Allow brown butter to cool to room temperature.
- Transfer solidified brown butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or use an electric hand mixer). Beat until smooth. Add confectioners sugar, optional espresso powder, salt, and milk. Mix until frosting is soft and fluffy. Scrape down bowl as needed to ensure thorough mixing.
- Use immediately. Keep covered at room temperature if using within the next few hours. Otherwise, cover and store in the fridge. Soften to room temperature and beat to refreshen before using.
The bubbling will be vigorous at the beginning, but it will slow down and subside when the butter has browned.
Assembly:
- Use a serrated knife to level off cooled cake. Split each cake round in half lengthwise to create a total of 4 cake layers.
- Place one cake layer on serving platter or cake turntable. Use a mini offset spatula to spread a thin layer of peanut butter (about rounded 1 tablespoon) over cake layer.
- Arrange layer of thin sliced bananas over peanut butter. Follow with a small amount of brown butter frosting to cover bananas.
- Place second cake layer over frosted bananas. Repeat adding thin layer of peanut butter, adding banana layer, and brown butter frosting layer until the final fourth cake layer is added on top.
- Spread frosting all over the cake to create a "crumb coat" layer to seal in any crumbs. Chill cake in the fridge for about 20 minutes to set frosting.
- Coat chilled cake with additional frosting. Decorate as desired. Keep cake chilled until ready to serve. Remove cake from the fridge and let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes to soften frosting/cake before serving.
Notes
Cake and frosting will be dense immediately out of the fridge. Let cake and frosting come to room temperature before eating to soften.
Serving Tips:
- Use a sharp knife to slice cake. Wipe knife clean after each slice.
- 6-inch round layer cake can easily serve 10-12 wedge slices or 20+ cater/wedding cuts.
- Store uncut assembled cake in the fridge for up to two days before slicing.
- Once sliced open, cover exposed slice with plastic wrap, wax paper, or parchment to prevent cake from drying out.
- Overtime, the fresh banana slices will oxidize and turn brown. Though still edible, the color is a bit unappealing. As such, it’s not a good idea to make this cake in advance.
Nutrition
Calories: 624kcal, Carbohydrates: 78g, Protein: 6g, Fat: 34g, Saturated Fat: 19g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 10g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 116mg, Sodium: 349mg, Potassium: 246mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 57g, Vitamin A: 989IU, Vitamin C: 4mg, Calcium: 59mg, Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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