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Banana Caramel Drip Cake
Have bananas going brown? Caramel is an amazing addition to banana bakes - here's a recipe for a delicious Banana Caramel Drip Cake!
Equipment
- Baker's floured cooking spray (optional, but I prefer this spray to parchment rounds)
- small piping bag (to pipe frosting rims to hold in filling)
- large piping bag + star tip (to decorate)
Ingredients
Banana cake layers
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup butter (melted)
- 6 medium bananas (mashed, best when they’re a bit overripe!)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese (one package; softened)
- 1 cup butter (two sticks, softened)
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 2-4 Tablespoons milk
- 1 Tablespoon clear vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
Filling & Decorations
- 1 cup caramel sauce
- 2 small bananas (sliced thinly)
- 7-8 caramel squares (for decorating)
Instructions
Banana cake layers
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare three 8 inch round pans with baker's floured spray (or grease and line with parchment rounds).
- Beat eggs until light and frothy; stir in sugar and melted butter. Beat well. Blend in mashed bananas and vanilla extract.
- In another bowl, measure and mix remaining ingredients. Stir wet and dry ingredients together until just combined.
- Divide batter evenly between the prepared cake pans (I find a kitchen scale helpful for this part). This guarantees your layers will bake to be the same height.
- Bake 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from cake pans. Cool completely before decorating. You can place the cake layers into the fridge or freezer to accelerate the cooling process. (This is a great time to make your frosting!)
- (Word to the wise - DON'T try to get all fancy adding caramel sauce to your cake batter! I tried this ONCE with another recipe and ended up with three cake layers that dissolved into crumbs when I tried to remove them from the pans. Zero stars; don't recommend.)
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- Beat together softened cream cheese and butter; slowly add in powdered sugar alternating with milk until frosting reaches desired consistency. Add vanilla and salt if needed and beat until well combined.
Filling (optional)
- (I made a mix of ½ cup caramel with ½ cup of frosting for my cake filling for a bit of extra caramel kick between the banana cake layers. Optional but recommended!)
Assembly
- Place a smear of frosting or caramel on your cake circle (to keep the cake from sliding while you decorate it) and center your first cake layer in the center of the circle. (Pipe a small frosting dam if using caramel filling, or) spread the layer with frosting.
- Spread sliced bananas over the filling, add a drizzle of caramel over the cake layer, and center the next cake layer on top. Repeat the process once more, and add your last layer on top!
- Now you're ready to crumb-coat . If you're unfamiliar with crumb-coating, it's just what it sounds like - a thin layer of frosting over the entire outside of the cake to keep crumbs out of your final layer.
- Once your crumb coat has set (this takes about 5-10 minutes in the fridge), add a thin second layer of frosting and smooth with a bench scraper – you’re really not looking for much more thickness for a semi-naked style, you’re just looking to fill in any holes and get the frosting between the cake layers smooth. Once your cake is covered, place it into the fridge or freezer - this will help the caramel drip set!
Okaaaay – now it’s time for the caramel drip!
- (I used a piping bag in the video, but squeeze bottles work well also.) Start with a a test drip - you can warm or chill the caramel slightly if it's too thick or too thin! (I had to put my caramel sauce in the microwave for about 10 seconds before adding the drip in the video.)
- Slowly pipe caramel around the upper edge of the cake, pausing every inch or so to let more caramel fall in a drip down the side of the cake. Return cake to the fridge to set the drips.
- Pipe several large swirls of frosting around the top of your cake – I alternated about 7 large swirls with smaller ones in between. Place a caramel square on top of each of the larger swirls – and you’re done! Refrigerate until ready to serve!
- (Of note, the caramel drip doesn’t set as well as a ganache or candy melt drip. I recommend decorating this one the day of serving, and not storing it in the fridge overnight unless you’re okay with most of the drips running all the way to the base of the cake. Just a heads up!)
Video
Notes
Please note nutrition information is an estimate and may not be exactly accurate.
Nutrition
Serving: 1sliceCalories: 765kcalCarbohydrates: 99gProtein: 9gFat: 39g
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