Coffee Banana Cake

Super moist with a little walnut crunch, topped with a lush, sweet mascarpone frosting. This Coffee Banana Cake is a no-fuss, easy-to-make, SUPER delicious bake! Plus, it's egg-free. 

This cake is the perfect answer to those spotty bananas sitting in your house, that no one wants to eat. That’s always the case behind any of my banana bakes. 

Usually, with overripe bananas, I’ll make a quick banana bread. However, with the change in season, I wanted to share a recipe that was perfectly suited to all the springtime joy and occasions coming our way. This cake is great for everything from Easter to Mother’s Day! Or just to enjoy as a sweet sunny day treat.

 It’s pretty, soft, delightful and made with minimal effort. What’s not to love? It truly is a #TAFEverydayCake.

Making the Coffee Banana Cake

With just a few staple ingredients, the easy coffee banana cake is ready in no time. 

• Start with the dry ingredients: sift both the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
• Stir in the brown sugar.

• In another bowl, mash the bananas using a fork. I used 4 small bananas here, you can also use 3 larger bananas. 
• Add in the oil, yogurt, brewed coffee (I mixed instant coffee w/hot water), and vanilla extract to the mashed banana. Mix well.
• Fold in the mixed dry ingredients, until just combined. Don't overmix - stop when there are no white streaks. 
• Fold in the chopped walnuts or your choice of add-ins.
• Pour the batter into your prepared pan.
• Bake at 180C for 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs attached.

Mascarpone Frosting

While the cake bakes, you can work on the frosting. Though the cake is delicious on its own, I highly recommend you don't skip this. It ties the dessert together perfectly, with complementary flavours and textures. I’d consider the coffee banana cake incomplete without it!

All you need to do is blend mascarpone cheese with icing sugar until it's smooth and creamy.

If you don't have mascarpone cheese on hand, you can also top this cake with cream cheese frosting! There is a recipe for cream cheese frosting on my Carrot Cake blog. 

Once the cake has cooled, top it generously with the frosting. A little sprinkle of walnuts and chopped chocolate covered coffee beans finishes the cake perfectly!

Variations

• Coconut Oil: For moisture in my bakes, I like to use oils over butter. Coconut oil is my favourite, but you can use any neutral-tasting vegetable oil here or melted butter.  

• Yogurt: This serves as our binding agent, allowing the recipe to be eggless. I used well-drained homemade yogurt, but you can also use store-bought yogurt or greek yogurt. If you want to make it with an egg, you can replace the yogurt with two eggs. 

• Flour: I used a mix of amaranth & wholewheat flour here, but you can make it 100% wholewheat or use any other flour in place of amaranth flour. This may affect the texture, I have not personally tried the recipe with another flour combination. 

• Add-Ins: I added chopped walnuts to the batter, but chocolate chips or dried fruits would be a great addition! 

• Make it vegan: All you need to do to make this recipe fully vegan is substitute the yogurt and mascarpone cheese with plant-based alternatives. The rest of the ingredients are already vegan.

I hope you give the recipe a try! A cozy slice of this delicious cake is the perfect accompaniment to your cuppa.

Some more recipes for your overripe bananas: 

• Miso Banana Bread
• Nutella Banana Muffins
• Banana Bread Scones
• Coconut Banana Bread

If you make the coffee banana cake, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I love getting to connect with you guys. You can also follow me on Instagram & Pinterest for more fabulous recipes.

📖 Recipe