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Banana walnut cake with vanilla cream cheese frosting and a milk chocolate ganache drip
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5 from 6 votes

Banana Walnut Layer Cake

A soft and moist banana cake filled with crunchy walnuts, coated with vanilla cream cheese frosting and topped with a chocolate ganache drip - yum!
Prep Time1 hour 45 minutes
Cook Time35 minutes
Chill Time1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time3 hours 50 minutes
Course: Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: Fusion
Diet: Vegetarian
Servings: 14 slices
Calories: 815kcal
Author: Kachina

Equipment

Ingredients

Banana walnut cake:

  • 4 medium bananas (roughly 400g peeled, very ripe)
  • 4 eggs
  • 140 g soft light brown sugar
  • 200 ml oil (canola, sunflower or vegetable)
  • 370 g plain / all-purpose flour (see notes for self-raising flour swap)
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
  • ½ teaspoon ground mixed spice
  • ¼ teaspoon salt (optional)
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 200 g walnuts (chopped)

Cream cheese frosting:

Milk chocolate ganache drip (optional):

Decorations (optional):

  • 15 g walnuts (chopped, for border)
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Banana walnut cakes:

  • Pre-heat oven: 180°C / 160°C (fan) / Gas Mark 4 / 350°F
  • In a mixing bowl, peel and mash your bananas with a fork.
  • Beat in the eggs, sugar and oil until fully combined.
  • Sieve in the baking powder, bicarb of soda and flour, folding in gently until only just combined.
  • Finally, stir in the mixed spice, vanilla, salt and chopped walnuts until spread evenly throughout.
  • Divide your cake batter evenly between the two greased and lined cake pans and bake for 45-50mins until risen, golden on top and a skewer comes out clean.
  • Allow you cakes to cool in the pans for 10mins before transferring out of the pans onto a wire rack to finish cool. While the cakes cool, make the frosting.

Cream cheese frosting:

  • Beat the butter (either by hand, using an electric mixer or stand mixer) until pale, light and fluffy. This could take several minutes.
  • Sieve the icing sugar into the butter and beat until combined.
  • Add the cream cheese and vanilla, beating until you get a smooth frosting.

Assembly:

  • Set aside for later roughly ⅕ of the frosting into a piping bag for the swirls on top if decorating in this style.
  • Once the sponges have cooled completely, cut off any peaks to give smooth flat tops on your layers.
  • Spread a thick layer of the frosting onto one sponge and sandwich a second sponge layer on top. Repeat this for the next layer.
  • Add another thick even layer of frosting on top of the third sponge, and then place the fourth sponge upside-down on top of this.
  • Smooth a thick layer of frosting on top of the cake and around the edges, smoothing and scraping until your cake has a relatively thin and neat outside coating. Refrigerate for 30mins.
  • Add the remaining frosting to the top and outside of the cake, then smooth using a spatula and cake scraper.
  • Add the crushed walnut around the bottom of the cake and press in gently with the back of a spoon or your hands. Put the cake back into the fridge while you make the ganache.

Chocolate ganache and decorations (optional):

  • Heat the cream over a double-boiler or in the microwave (15-30 secs at a time), until hot but not boiling.
  • Break the chocolate up into pieces and pour the hot cream over it. Let it sit for 10mins and then stir until smooth.
  • Allow the ganache to cool at room temperature for 10-20mins, until the ganache is still runny but has cooled and thickened slightly.
  • Remove your cake from the fridge. Dip a teaspoon in your ganache and test a drip at the top edge of your cake. If this creates a thick line and only runs partway down the side, you’re good to go. If it hits the bottom, allow your ganache to cool for another 5mins and try another test drip. Repeat until your test drips are to your liking.
  • Drip ganache from your spoon at the edges of your cake until you have enough drips. Then fill in the top of your cake, smoothing gently with an offset spatula until you get an even layer connecting the top of the drips together at the edges.
  • Using the frosting set aside previously (or another one of your choice), and your 1M tip and piping bag, pipe big swirls onto the top of the cake in a ring.

Notes

Storage: Keep banana walnut cake in an airtight container in the fridge. It should keep for up to 4 days.
Freezing: You can cut your frosted banana walnut cake into pieces and freeze it for up to 3 months. Wrap in cling film and foil first!
Top tips:
  • Your sponges are cooked once they’re risen and springy to the touch. An inserted toothpick or skewer should also come out clean from the middle.
  • For the ganache drip, do a test drip first to see if the temperature and consistency are right. Your test drip should run down the cake sides but not hit the bottom.
    Give your cake a crushed walnut border around the frosted cake base and sprinkle on top for a classy finish.
Substitutions:
  • Swap your plain flour for self-raising flour, exclude the bicarb of soda and reduce the baking powder to only 1½ tsp.
  • You can use any neutral-flavoured oil for the cake batter.

Nutrition

Calories: 815kcal | Carbohydrates: 67g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 59g | Saturated Fat: 22g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 135mg | Sodium: 318mg | Potassium: 326mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 40g | Vitamin A: 1141IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 113mg | Iron: 2mg