This post may contain affiliate links.
Banana Bundt Cake is what happens when spotty counter bananas meet a box of yellow cake mix and decide to become dessert royalty, a moist, cinnamon scented cake studded with chocolate chips and crowned with piped cream cheese frosting and pecans, and the first one I baked on a rainy Saturday vanished before it finished cooling. If ripe bananas haunt your kitchen too, our banana cream cheese muffins are the weekday answer.
A cake mix shortcut, two ripe bananas, and one bundt pan deliver a bakery showpiece.
Banana Bundt Cake Quick Look
- 🕒 Prep Time: 25 minutes
- 🌡️ Cook Time: 50 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- 🍽️ Serving: 16 servings
- ⚡ Calories: 298kcal
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: Sweet banana and cinnamon with chocolate chips and tangy cream cheese
- ✋ Difficulty: Easy, on par with our strawberry earthquake cake
Quick Answer
Prepare a yellow cake mix per the box, then stir in cinnamon and nutmeg. Mash two overly ripe bananas with baking soda and mix them into the batter, fold in chocolate chips, and bake in a greased bundt pan at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 to 50 minutes. Cool completely, then frost with whipped cream cheese frosting and top with chopped pecans.
Jump to:
- Banana Bundt Cake Quick Look
- Quick Answer
- Why This Recipe Works
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Key Ingredients
- Variations and Substitutions
- How to Make Banana Bundt Cake
- Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Serving Ideas and Suggestions
- Banana Bundt Cake FAQs
- Other Recommended Easy Cake Recipes
- Easy Banana Bundt Cake with Cake Mix (Cream Cheese Frosting)
Why This Recipe Works
Click to see the technique science
- Cake mix is the reliable base. The mix guarantees a tender, evenly risen crumb, so the bananas and spices can do the flavor work without any from scratch math.
- Overripe bananas equal maximum flavor. The browner the peel, the sweeter and more aromatic the fruit. Spotty bananas are a feature, not a flaw.
- Baking soda goes into the bananas. Mixing it with the mashed fruit kickstarts the reaction and offsets the extra moisture, keeping the crumb light instead of gummy.
- A fully cooled cake is the only frostable cake. Cream cheese frosting melts on a warm bundt. Patience here is the difference between bakery stripes and a glaze puddle.
- Pecans finish the texture story. Soft cake, creamy frosting, crunchy nuts. Every bite gets all three.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It uses up the bananas everyone swore they would eat this week.
- The cake mix shortcut means showstopper looks with quick bread effort.
- That piped cream cheese frosting gives it the fancy bundt shop look, the same wow factor as our strawberry cheesecake bundt cake.
Key Ingredients
A boxed mix plus a few flavor builders. Here is what earns its spot.
- Yellow Cake Mix: The shortcut backbone. You will also need the eggs, oil, and water the box calls for.
- Overly Ripe Bananas: Two bananas with deeply spotted peels. They mash smooth and pack the biggest banana flavor.
- Chocolate Chips: Semi sweet chips scattered through every slice. Chocolate and banana is a forever pairing.
- Cream Cheese and Butter: The frosting duo, both at room temperature so they whip silky with no lumps.
- Cinnamon and Nutmeg: Warm spices that make the cake taste like banana bread dressed up for a party.
See recipe card for exact quantities.
Variations and Substitutions
This bundt takes swaps like a champ.
- No chocolate chips: Leave them out entirely or swap in chopped walnuts or pecans inside the batter.
- Spice cake base: Use a spice cake mix and skip the added cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Maple frosting: Swap the vanilla in the frosting for a tablespoon of maple syrup.
- Peanut butter banana: Swirl 1/4 cup of warmed peanut butter into the batter before baking.
- Handheld banana cravings: Our banana cupcakes with brown sugar frosting bake the same cozy flavor into lunchbox form.
How to Make Banana Bundt Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a bundt pan with cooking spray. Prepare the cake mix according to the package instructions in a large bowl.
- Stir the cinnamon and nutmeg into the batter until well blended and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mash the bananas until smooth and mix in the baking soda. Add the banana mixture to the batter and stir until well combined.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Transfer the cake to a wire rack and cool completely before frosting.
- Meanwhile, make the frosting: blend the cream cheese and butter until smooth, then add the powdered sugar a few tablespoons at a time.
- Add the vanilla, then the milk a tablespoon at a time, and whip until the frosting is light and airy.
- Spread the frosting over the fully cooled cake with a spatula, or pipe thick stripes with a piping bag or a zip top bag with the tip cut off.
- Sprinkle the chopped pecans across the top, slice, and serve.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Use the ugliest bananas you have. Brown speckled peels mean sweet, fragrant fruit that flavors the whole cake.
- Grease every crevice of the bundt pan. Spray with a flour based baking spray and get into the ridges, then the cake releases clean.
- Toss the chocolate chips in a spoonful of dry cake mix. It keeps them suspended instead of sinking to the bottom.
- Check the cake at 45 minutes. Ovens vary, and a dry banana cake is a sad banana cake.
- Cool the cake completely, no exceptions. Even slightly warm cake melts cream cheese frosting into a glaze.
- Soften the cream cheese and butter fully. Cold dairy equals lumpy frosting that never pipes smooth.
- Chill the frosted cake 20 minutes before slicing. The frosting sets and every slice comes out clean.
Serving Ideas and Suggestions
This cake was born for coffee. Serve slices with hot coffee or a homemade white chocolate mocha frappuccino for the full coffee shop moment.
For brunch spreads, set it next to our sour cream coffee cake and a batch of pumpkin cream cheese muffins and watch the table empty.
A scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of caramel turns a slice into a plated dessert worthy of company. Warm the slice 10 seconds in the microwave first, thank us later.
Banana Bundt Cake FAQs
This recipe is built around the cake mix shortcut, which is what keeps it foolproof and fast. If you want fully from scratch banana cake flavor in an easier format, a banana bread batter baked in a bundt works, but the mix version here stays lighter and fluffier.
The extra mashed banana adds moisture and weight beyond what the cake mix was designed for. Mixing baking soda directly into the fruit gives the batter extra lift right where it is needed, so the cake bakes light instead of dense and gummy.
Grease aggressively with a flour based baking spray, hitting every ridge and the center tube, and cool the baked cake in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning it out. Stuck bundts almost always come from under greasing or turning out too soon or too late.
Yes. The batter works in two 9 inch round pans or a 9×13 baking dish, baked at the same temperature. Start checking around 30 to 35 minutes since shallower pans bake faster than a bundt.
Because of the cream cheese frosting, store the cake covered in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Let slices sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before serving so the crumb softens back up.
Yes. Freeze the unfrosted cake wrapped tightly for up to 3 months and frost after thawing for the best texture. Frosted slices also freeze well wrapped individually, thaw them overnight in the refrigerator.
Dinner before dessert? Our sausage and peppers recipe simmers a cozy one pot Italian dinner while the cake cools.
Ripe bananas to use up? Our easy banana cupcakes turn three of them into a dozen frosted beauties.
Have extra ripe bananas? Fry up a batch of these banana fritters.
For another easy cake with cream cheese frosting, bake our carrot loaf cake.
Craving more cozy bakes? Our spice cupcakes are packed with cinnamon and nutmeg.
Frost this banana bundt cake with a generous swirl of our silky brown sugar frosting for a caramel finish.
Use up ripe summer peaches in our tender peach bread with vanilla glaze.
Add our zebra cake to your celebration table for a striped cake everyone loves to slice into.
For a classic loaf, our banana nut bread is moist, nutty, and perfect with morning coffee.
If you love cream cheese frosting, our carrot cake is piled high with the tangy classic.
Our strawberry cream cheese frosting is a gorgeous, tangy finish for cakes and cupcakes.
Easy Banana Bundt Cake with Cake Mix (Cream Cheese Frosting)
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 box yellow cake mix and ingredients required for prepared cake mix on back of box
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 overly ripe bananas mashed
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup chocolate chips
For the cream cheese frosting:
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened to room temperature
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons whole milk room temperature
- ½ cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a bundt pan with cooking spray.
- Prepare the cake mix according to the package instructions in a large bowl. Stir in the cinnamon and nutmeg until well blended and set aside.1 box yellow cake mix and ingredients required for prepared cake mix, 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- In a medium bowl, mash the bananas until smooth. Mix in the baking soda. Add the banana mixture to the cake mix and stir until well combined.2 overly ripe bananas, 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour the mixture into your bundt pan and place in the oven. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.¾ cup chocolate chips
- Transfer the cooked cake to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Meanwhile, prepare your cream cheese frosting. With an electric or hand mixer, blend together the cream cheese and butter until smooth.8 ounces cream cheese, 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Add the powdered sugar a few tablespoons at a time and continue to mix until well combined.1 cup powdered sugar
- Next, add in the vanilla extract, followed by the milk, a few tablespoons at a time. Continue to whip the frosting until a light and airy texture is achieved.½ teaspoon vanilla, 3 tablespoons whole milk
- Once the cake is fully cooled, spread the frosting across the cake with a spatula, or transfer the frosting to a piping bag (or ziploc with the tip cut off) to pipe thick layers of the frosting onto the cake.
- Sprinkle the chopped pecans across the top of the frosted cake. Slice and serve!½ cup chopped pecans
Notes
- Chocolate chips are optional.
- This is a great recipe to use up your overripe bananas in!
- This can be made in a 9×13-inch baking pan.
- If you are not a fan of cream cheese frosting others can be used, I listed some above.
- If you’re at high altitude, but sure to look up the needed adjustments.
- The pecans on top are optional.
Nutrition
Love This Recipe?
Follow @ThisSillyGirlsKitchen on Instagram and @danadevolk on Pinterest for more!
