If you’re looking for a healthier kind of banana cake, better stop reading now. This banana nut cake with salted caramel sauce is all dressed up and ready to party. As far as banana cakes go, this is a pretty glamorous version!
The sponge is everything you would ever want in a banana cake – it’s moist, full flavoured and packed full of chopped nuts for great crunch and texture.
I absolutely love a good banana cake recipe – this banana Bundt cake with cream cheese icing is a firm favourite as is this easy banana bread which seems to be very popular on Pinterest right now.
THIS banana cake is the fanciest of them all! I first published this recipe back in 2015. It originally had browned butter maple buttercream, but I’ve decided to swap this for an much easier caramel buttercream.
how i make this banana nut cake with salted caramel sauce
I sandwich the sponges together and frost the top and sides with a caramel buttercream and just in case that’s not enough, I pour salted caramel sauce all over the top, letting it tantalisingly drip over the sides of the cake. THEN for a final flourish, I sprinkle more chopped nuts all over the top. This cake is not for the faint hearted!
can i leave the nuts out?
Yes, if you don’t eat nuts, you can simply leave them out.
what type of salted caramel sauce should I use?
I absolutely love this salted caramel sauce recipe by Felicity Cloake. It’s my go to recipe – I make it to use in these salted caramel brownies, my no churn salted caramel Rolo ice cream and I turn it into a glaze to drizzle over my salted caramel apple cinnamon scones.
I’ve never felt the need to replicate my own recipe because this one is just perfect to me. Thanks Felicity! Of course, if you have a favourite caramel sauce recipe, do feel free to use it instead.
tips and advice
If you’re making the caramel sauce I’ve linked to above, it’s advisable to make it well ahead of time. You should make it before you even start on the cakes. This will give the sauce time to cool down – it does take a few hours to thicken and reach the right consistency.
Whatever you do, don’t place the sauce in the fridge or it will be too thick to pour over the top of the cake.
use very ripe bananas
Do make sure the bananas you use are very ripe – the riper the better! You know the bananas that you wouldn’t want to eat and look like they are fit for the bin? They make the best banana cake. As long as they haven’t turned mouldy, you’re good to go.
looking for more recipes to use up overripe bananas?
You’ve come to the right place! I also have recipes for refined sugar free banana blueberry pancakes, peanut butter cup banana bread, chocolate sour cream banana cake, chocolate chip banana Nutella muffins, banana fudge loaf, and banana, coconut and passionfruit cake.
banana nut cake with salted caramel sauce
This banana nut cake with salted caramel sauce is a glamorous show stopper!
Ingredients
- 225g self raising flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- A large pinch salt
- 500g very ripe bananas, mashed
- 125ml vegetable oil
- 125g light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 150g mixed nuts, chopped (I used pecans, walnuts and hazelnuts)
- FOR THE CARAMEL ICING
- 150g soft unsalted butter
- 300g icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 or 3 tablespoons salted caramel sauce
- 1 or 2 tablespoons milk
- FOR THE SALTED CARAMEL DRIP
- Approximately 150ml salted caramel sauce
- 75g roughly chopped salted mixed nuts to decorate the top (optional)
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C/150Fan/350F/Gas mark 4. Grease and line two 20cm round cake tins with a depth of 5cm.
- Sift the self raising flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Beat the oil and sugar together and beat in the eggs one at a time until the mixture is well combined. Stir in the vanilla extract and mashed banana. Fold in the flour mixture and chopped mixed nuts until you have a fairly smooth batter (as smooth as a nutty can be!) with no visible streaks of flour.
- Pour the batter into the cake tins and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the sponges are risen, springy and a cake tester emerges clean.
- Leave the cakes to cool in the tins for about 10 minutes before carefully turning the sponges out on to a wire rack. Leave to cool completely.
- For the caramel icing, cream together the soft butter and the icing sugar for about 5 minutes before adding the vanilla extract, the caramel sauce and 1 tablespoon of milk. Beat on high speed for another 5 minutes or until the buttercream is smooth and very fluffy. You might need to add a little extra milk if the buttercream is too thick.
- To decorate the cake, sandwich the sponges together with just under half the caramel buttercream. Frost the top and edges of the cake, then pour the 150ml of salted caramel sauce over the top of the cake, letting it drip down the sides. I used a small spatula to ease it over the sides. Finally, sprinkle over the chopped nuts, if using.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 558Total Fat: 28gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 18gCholesterol: 58mgSodium: 390mgCarbohydrates: 75gFiber: 3gSugar: 52gProtein: 6g
Calories and nutritional information are provided by a third party application and should be viewed as indicative figures only.
OMG! I would bathe in that cake if I could!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lol thank you, That’s quite a compliment! 🙂