The Best MOIST Banana Cake with Oil
This Banana Cake recipe is made with oil (no butter needed!) and a great way to use over ripe bananas! With these easy step-by-step instructions, you’ll bake an incredibly moist and indulgently sweet banana cake from scratch. Finished with a luscious layer of classic or whipped cream cheese frosting, ( a reader favorite!) this cake is one you’ll come back to over and over!
This is literally the best banana sheet cake. Wanna know why?
Because people stop me in the street to tell me how good it is. One of my friends moms came over to me a while ago while I was out with my kids and said she had to tell me how amazing this cake was, and that her grandchildren love that every time she comes over they know that she is gonna make this cake.
Cue the tears, its fine. 😭😭😭😭
So this is your sign to stop what you’re doing, grab those over-ripe bananas that I KNOW you have sitting on your counter and make this super easy banana cake. Your grandchildren will thank you.
The cake is super moist because its made with oil, which also created a super a light and fluffy texture with delightfully sweet and creamy banana flavor.
As a rule of thumb, the riper the bananas are ( that means they are dark, spotty, and super mushy) the sweeter your cake will be! These are the kinds of bananas I am always baking with.
As a trained pastry chef, I’m used to making banana cakes with butter, but for this banana cake, I opted for all-oil, and it made a DELICIOUS difference. Now with over 60, 5 star reviews for this recipe, I’m so glad I did!
I use the same technique for this banana bread made with oil. And because everything is better with frosting, you can’t skip this cream cheese frosting to slather all over the cake!
I’m obsessed with baking with bananas. I always seem to have some past their prime on my counter so I like to make these 5 star rated banana chocolate chip muffins,or fresh banana cupcakes!
Baking with oil instead of butter
I use oil here instead of butter for a few reasons. Using oil keeps a cake moist for longer (like days longer) than a cake with butter. It also creates a more tender crumb. Sometimes butter can weigh a cake down and I definitely didn’t want that for this recipe.
Not using butter also allows the cake to stay dairy free, just choose a different frosting, like this dairy free frosting to top instead!
Frosting
The frosting I like the best for this cake is cream cheese frosting! The super sweet and soft cake pairs perfectly with the complex, tangy tastes in cream cheese frosting. It’s a great frost onto your cake with a spoon or knife. You could also try it with a ganache frosting, yum!
Cake size
I make this cake in a 9×13″ pan but you can divide the batter into two round 9″ cake pans and bake like that to make a layer cake. Make sure to check on the cakes at the 30 minutes mark. If they are still jiggly in the middle give it another 5-10 minutes.
You can also make this recipe into cupcakes. Line a muffin tin with cake liners and bake for 18 minutes.
The secret to keeping this cake moist
- Using oil instead of butter in this recipe keeps it light and moist with a fluffy crumb.
- Only mix until combined! Do not over mix the batter as it can create a tough batter.
- Measure your dry ingredients correctly. The best way to do this is with a kitchen scale. If you don’t have a scale then spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off.
The Best MOIST Banana Cake with Oil
Ingredients
- 1 cup (225 g) banana , ripe, mashed, About 2 medium-large or 3 small bananas
- 3 (3) large eggs
- 1 cup (218 g) vegetable oil
- 2 tsp (2 tsp) vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups (300 g) granulated sugar
- 2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour
- 1 tsp (1 tsp) baking powder
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) baking soda
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) kosher salt
- 1 batch (1 batch) Cream Cheese Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and generously grease a 9×13” pan with baking spray. You can make this recipe by hand or by using a hand or stand mixer on medium speed.
- In a large bowl mash the 1 cup bananas. It’s ok if there are little lumps. Add the 3 eggs, 1 cup vegetable oil, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and stir to combine. Add the 1 1/2 cups of sugar to combine.
- In another bowl or over a large piece of parchment paper combine the 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt. Add the mixture to the bowl and mix lightly until combined.
- Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. The cake is done when the edges start to pull away from the sides and the top feels firm when touched.
- Allow cake to cool at least 10 minutes in the pan and then invert into a wired rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Frost with my homemade whipped cream cheese frosting and enjoy!
Hi. I came across your recipe yesterday(6/27/26) and I happened to have some ripe bananas that needed to be used… I used the base of your recipe as a guide and then I made it my own with a few different ingredients using: Grapeseed oil, 4 large bananas(which made 1 cup and about 5-6 TBSP’s added to that cup for the bananas) cinnamon, mexican vanilla, dried honey granules and a light sprinkle of cinnamon sugar on top before baking.
The crumb on this bread is tender, and because I had an overflow of bananas that flavor shines through Very Well(how me & my family likes it) and it Moist as well!
Thanks for sharing your recipe! Will be making again.
Side note: too bad we can’t post photos of the end results– I would love to show my work
Hey Annie!! Thanks so much for making this, Im so glad it all worked out as a base! I actually started a bake club on facebook this year for exactly this reason- I love to see people’s bakes! You can join it here if you’d like!