Banana Cake with Lemon Icing

When I spotted this Banana Cake with Lemon Icing recipe in Nana Ling’s cookbook, I had a hunch that my go-to banana cake recipe was about to be replaced.

My feeling came from the state of the Banana Cake recipe page.

It’s well-worn and quite possibly has some banana cake splatters from 80 years ago!

Nana Ling’s Banana Cake with Lemon Icing recipe

I’m not very good at keeping my cookbooks pristine.

They’re always front and centre of the action and sometimes get too close to the action.

So if a recipe is popular, you can tell by the slightly messy-looking pages – just like this one from the pages of Nana Ling’s handwritten recipe books.

This recipe is quite possibly the perfect banana cake recipe and is now my banana cake recipe of choice.

Note that I’ve updated and tweaked this recipe a little, so keep scrolling for the recipe card at the end of this post.

The cake is moist and a little more dense than the more “cakey” varieties. It’s also less oily than my other recipe.

The banana cake approaches banana bread territory, but once you add the lemon frosting it’s most definitely a cake.

I’m not going to go into the difference between banana bread and banana cake here, but I found this interesting article on the topic.

Ingredients for Banana Cake with Lemon Icing

To make the cake you’ll need:

• caster sugar
• brown sugar
• butter
• egg
• ripe bananas 
• plain flour
• baking powder
• bicarb soda
• milk.

To make the lemon icing for banana cake you’ll need:

• cream cheese
• butter
• lemon
• icing sugar.

How to make the Banana Cake

Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees celsius (fan-forced) and grease a bar tin (approx 24cm x 14cm x 7cm) and line the bottom of the pan with baking paper.

Beat the butter and sugar in a stand mixer on medium-high for 5 minutes.

Add the whisked egg and beat again for a few minutes.

Add mashed bananas and beat again for one minute.

Add sifted flour and baking powder gradually. Mix well.

Dissolve bicarb soda in milk and add to mixture. Mix well.

Pour mixture into the bar tin and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Banana Cake with lemon icing

Nana Ling’s recipe just includes an instruction to add lemon icing.

So, here I’ve used my own lemon frosting recipe. 

It’s sweet, but not too sweet, and has quite a burst of lemon.

To make the lemon icing, cut the cream cheese and butter into small cubes and beat until soft.

Cut the lemon in half and slice off 3 small rounds from the inside of the halves. Juice the remaining lemon and finely grate some zest from the sides of the lemon halves.

Add all of the lemon juice and zest to the mixture and beat well.

Add the icing sugar and continue to beat until soft and fluffy.

Decorating

Slice the top of cake to level if necessary.

Add the lemon frosting and smooth over top. Dab with spatula to create a textured look.

Slice lemon round almost in half. Twist and place along top of cake to create a swirl effect.

Love this recipe?

If you love this recipe, you might also like to check out:

• my entire cake recipe collection
• Nana Ling’s handwritten recipe collection
• more of my banana recipes: Chocolate Banana Cake, Banoffee Pie, Frozen Chocolate Bananas, Banana Choc Chip Muffin, Banana Bread and Curried Sausages (yes, that’s right – there is a whole banana in my old fashioned Curried Sausages Recipe!)