03 August 2017

Banana Sheet Cake - Cream Cheese Frosting

Banana Sheet Cake - Cream Cheese Frosting - made in a half-sheet pan, feeds a crowd and freezes beautifully! / www.delightfulrepast.com

Banana Sheet Cake is the perfect cake to make for a picnic, potluck or any kind of feed-a-crowd occasion. Especially during summer, when you really want to get out of the kitchen as soon as possible.

In hot weather, bananas can go from just right to rotten overnight. So when you need to use up those perfectly freckled, overripe bananas, this recipe will get you in and out of the kitchen quickly.

No messing about with layers. No need to get out the piping bag. Just bake it in a half-sheet pan and serve it right from the pan. Of course you can cut it into three or four equal pieces and make a fancy layered creation, but not this time.

Bake it in the pan. Frost it in the pan. Carry your pan to a picnic or potluck. Serve it from the pan. No muss, no fuss. It's summer, people, and I'm keeping it easy but real.

Don't try to make this in a smaller pan, like a 15x10 jelly roll or a 17x11; it would surely overflow and make a total wreck of your oven. Believe me, I'm not in the mood for that!

If you don't have a couple of good half-sheet pans (and quarter-sheet pans), it's time to get some. They are true kitchen workhorses, and I'd hate to be without them. A half-sheet pan with a plastic lid makes taking it on the road super easy.

If you're not a banana fan, you might want to try my Meyer Lemon Sheet Cake or Chocolate Buttermilk Sheet Cake.

For afternoon tea, cut the cake into 1.25- to 1.5-inch squares to stand in for petits fours.

If you like nuts, finely diced walnuts or pecans (toasted, of course) can either be added to the cake batter or sprinkled on top of the frosting. What do you think - nuts or no nuts?


Banana Sheet Cake - Cream Cheese Frosting - made in a half-sheet pan, feeds a crowd and freezes beautifully! / www.delightfulrepast.com

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Banana Sheet Cake - Cream Cheese Frosting


(Makes one 18x13x1-inch half-sheet, 32 servings)

The Cake

2 1/2 dip-and-sweep cups (12.5 ounces/354 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups (about 1.5 pounds/680 grams, unpeeled bananas) mashed very ripe bananas
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar or freshly squeezed lemon juice
Milk to make 1 1/3 cup (10.67 fluid ounces/315 ml), room temperature
1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces/170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (7 ounces/198 grams) sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

The Frosting

3 ounces (85 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
2 ounces (57 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 packed cups (12 ounces/340 grams) unsifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Up to 2 tablespoons milk, as needed for spreadable consistency


1 Preheat oven to 350F/180C/Gas4. Grease, butter or spray an 18x13x1-inch half-sheet pan. In small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Note: If you want to remove it from the pan, line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, overhanging a bit on the ends, and spray the paper as well.

2 In medium bowl, mash bananas and 1 tablespoon lemon juice with large fork or potato masher.

3 In measuring cup, put vinegar or lemon juice, add milk to make 1 1/3 cups; stir gently and let stand for 5 minutes.

4 In large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then vanilla and mashed bananas. Add dry ingredients and soured milk alternately to wet ingredients, and stir just until combined. Scrape into prepared pan; smooth top.

5 Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for an hour in pan on wire rack before frosting. Get out the butter and cream cheese to be softening during that hour.

Note: If you are removing it from the pan, let it cool in pan on wire rack for ten minutes before turning it out onto wire rack and removing the parchment.

6 In bowl of stand mixer or a 2.5-quart bowl and hand mixer, cream together cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar, in three batches, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and enough milk to make the frosting a good spreading consistency. We're not piping this frosting, so the consistency isn't so crucial; it just needs to be easily spreadable. Use an offset spatula to spread the frosting.

Jean

63 comments:

Mrs Shoes said...

I have some walnuts that would go very nicely in this - yummy!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thanks, I do love it with walnuts, Mrs Shoes!

Thomas "Sully" Sullivan said...

Somewhere in this vast world is a person who likes banana sheet cake but hates the frosting. I need to find that person. Do lunch together. Added extraneous information: when I was about four years old, my mother made the mistake of putting a banana cream cake on top of the fridge in anticipation of my sister’s birthday the next day. Sometime in the early a.m. I arose to a sleeping house and, venturing to the kitchen and somehow scaling the heights to the top of the fridge, took a swipe of frosting off the cake. One swipe led to another until – alas – the cake was bare. Horrible. Cuff me. I dream on…naked cakes everywhere.

Louca por porcelana said...

Thanks for the recipe,Jean!I like banana's cake,I usually make one with cinnamon that my sons love!Yours looks delicious.Hugs.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Sully, you and I make the perfect dessert-eating team. I will happily scrape off all the frosting and just eat the cake. Even when I was four, I would have preferred that cake after you'd scaled the heights and left it bare!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you, Maristella. Cinnamon is good, too!

Pom Pom said...

Sounds delicious, Jean. I think I'd sub rice milk for the milk (can't do dairy) and make frosting without the cream cheese, but that'd work, right? Oh, yum, yum, yum. Thanks, friend.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Karen, thanks! And there's no reason the non-dairy wouldn't work just fine. I've used rice milk many times; I add the vinegar to it just as I would the regular milk.

kitty@ Kitty's Kozy Kitchen said...

I can eat baked goods with bananas, Jean, but can't eat them raw! I know, I'm weird, but even the smell of them makes me gag, but not when they're baked! We humans are funny creatures, aren't we? Yes, I'd love a piece of your cake, but no raw bananas on top, please!!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thanks, Kitty! It *is* a hoot all the different little quirks we all have. And usually we all think our *own* make perfectly good sense! :D

Jeanie said...

I'm more of a raw banana person than a cooked one but this looks really delicious for some reason! Especially with cream cheese frosting!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Jeanie, thank you. One thing about it is that with so little sugar in the cake, the true banana flavor comes through loud and clear.

Bernideen said...

Jean:
This looks delicious and perfect for a picnic! Thanks for sharing.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you, Bernideen. And I have several glass dishes, each with four pieces of cake, in the freezer - ready for tea and cake on days too hot to bake!

ellen b said...

Yum and a great size for a gathering!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you, Ellen. Yes, great size and easy to transport!

Pauline Wiles said...

I'm a little wary of bananas in cooking but I do enjoy a basic banana bread. I love your tips for keeping this simple... and I'm off to look at the lemon version now, too.

Margie said...

This dessert is very appealing to this banana lover!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Pauline, if you enjoy banana bread, you should like this cake. But the lemon sheet cake is definitely one of our favorites.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thanks, Margie. Aren't bananas wonderful!

Karen @ Beatrice Euphemie said...

This is the perfect recipe! I always have soft bananas and I love that it serves a crowd and is easy to make. Thanks Jean!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Karen, thank you so much! I hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do.

Angie's Recipes said...

That looks seriously tempting with cream cheese frosting!

Gerlinde de Broekert said...

I need to expand my recipes uses bananas. This is a beautiful cake and I have to try it. Thank you for the recipe.

Unknown said...

Anything with a cream cheese frosting is a winner for me Jean. I'm not generally a huge fan of banana but I definitely fancy the lemon version! Thanks so much for linking to #DreamTeam x

Unknown said...

Looks delicious. And what great way to use bananas!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thanks, Angie. And the amount of frosting is exactly what's needed for the cake, so no leftover frosting to go to waste.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Gerlinde, thanks. I hope you'll try it soon and let me know how you liked it.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Dawn, my husband might have written your comment! :D And yet he loves this cake. Go figure.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you, Cathy. I'm always trying to improve in my efforts to stop kitchen waste.

Miz Helen said...

This cake will be delicious and I can't wait to try it. Hope you have a fantastic weekend and thanks so much for sharing your awesome post with us here at Full Plate Thursday. We hope to see you again real soon.
Miz Helen

Unknown said...

I love sheet pan cakes!n I agree they are so much easier and great for serving a crowd!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Miz Helen, thank you! I served it on a hot evening with iced tea, and it was a good combination.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you, Patrick! Yes, you'd have to make a couple of layer cakes to serve as many people as this.

Tea Baking and Cooking said...

This looks so yummy and a great way to use up bananas!

Thanks for sharing greatly appreciated!

Lea Ann (Cooking on the Ranch) said...

But I just learned how to use a piping bag! :) Love this cake recipe. Pinning.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thanks, Lea Ann. Too funny! I used to do such fancy cakes, long before I started blogging. Now I wonder, Who *was* that woman?!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Whitney, thank you. I love that this big cake takes so little sugar.

Cocoa and Lavender said...

This reminds me so much of family picnics in Vermont when I was a boy. Am sharing it with my colleague Lisa, as she is making "everything banana" these days!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Ohhh, David, a family picnic in Vermont sounds wonderful, especially one in autumn! Thanks for sharing this with your colleague. I hope she likes it.

Fran @ Gday Souffle said...

I read with amusement Thomas Sullivan's comment (above) about the person who ate all of the cream cheese icing off of his mom's banana cake. I believe that person must have been me- his search is now over- I love cream cheese icing!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Fran, you and I would get along well, too! Though I like a tiny bite of good frosting, I'm happy to scrape it off and give it to a true frosting fan. I've always liked just plain unfrosted cake.

Carol @Comfort Spring Station said...

Sweetie, it is so dangerous to come visit you. I watch what I eat, lost 20 pounds in the last year, and every post on your blog makes me hungry. Now I want banana cake with cream cheese icing. Sounds so tasty.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Aw, Carol, thank you so much! And congratulations - good job! Just do what I do - cut the cake into 32 pieces and scrape the frosting off yours, which leaves you with a nice size piece of cake that has only 1.5 teaspoons of sugar! The frosting would add another 2.5 teaspoons to the slice, which is still within my daily sugar allowance of 6 teaspoons.

Val said...

I have a potluck on Wednesday and I think these would be perfect! Thanks for sharing on the #Celebrate365 Blog Party.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Val, that is so cool! Thank *you*!

NEVER IN A MILLION SMEARS said...

This looks sooooooo good!!! will be making this next week! #dreamteam

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thanks, Kerry! Let me know how it turns out for you!

Sandra Lee said...

I like this no fuss no muss recipe and I have some bananas in the freezer ready and waiting.

Kitchen Riffs said...

Sheet pans are SO useful, aren't they? Can imagine a kitchen without two or three. Anyway, super dessert -- love the frosting. Thanks!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thanks, John. Yes, I need to get one more half-sheet and one more quarter-sheet, then I'll feel like I have enough!

Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson said...

I make a very similar cake Jean and it's one of my families favorites. Yours looks delicious as well! Thanks for sharing the recipe with SYC.
hugs,
Jann

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you, Jann. I love that the sweetness of the bananas means I can cut back on the sugar without anyone noticing!

The Lazy Gastronome said...

I love anything banana!! Thanks for sharing at the What's for Dinner link up!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thanks, TLG. Me, too! I especially like just a plain banana.

Carole said...

Hi Jean, love the idea of popping the fresh banana on top - thanks!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you, Carole! I love bananas in or on everything or just by themselves!

Unknown said...

Just popping by again to thank you for linking to #DreamTeam lovely. I still haven't managed to make this yet, but I think about it every time I walk past our banana bowl! x

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Dawn, thank you so much. But hurry up now before those bananas go completely off!

Miz Helen said...

Congratulations!
Your post is featured on Full Plate Thursday this week and thanks so much for sharing it with us. Hope you enjoy your new Red Plate and come back to see us soon!
Miz Helen

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you so much, Miz Helen! You put together some lovely meals with your picks every week.

April J Harris said...

Your Banana Sheet Cake looks delicious, Jean. It's just the kind of cake I love for easy entertaining any time of day! I'll be sharing this round. Thank you so much for sharing, and for being a part of Hearth and Soul. Hope to 'see' you again this week!

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

April, thank you! And thank you for sharing it around. It's such a favorite of ours, and it goes so well with tea!