Banana Coffee Cake

Our banana coffee cake recipe comes out super tender and moist. A great overripe bananas recipe you can make for breakfast or dessert when your fruit is turning sweeter and brown. Don’t waste that fruit, use it to make this!

Whether you decide to add some instant coffee or just leave it plain with the crumble on top, this treat is amazing. Make this for your next brunch or potluck and it won’t last long. (affiliate links present)

This is a cross between our banana bread bundt cake and our coffee cake muffins. I mean they are both killer on their own but mixed together and you get a third awesome baked good choice to serve. You can never have too many choices to choose from when you have brown naners on your countertop.

You know how I hate to waste food. Especially when it comes to something that added to a sweet bread can give it more flavor and moisture. It’s almost the same magic that sour cream in cakes makes. Like I can never figure out how many of these babies I should buy week to week. My kids might eat them all and then not touch them a week later.

Ingredients and Notes

You are going to want to add a few eggs. When baking it is best to allow them to come to room temperature first. This will allow them to incorporate better into the batter and become fluffier than if you didn’t.

Melted butter allowed to come to room temperature before adding is needed here. I like salted so you don’t have to add a pinch beyond that.

To sweeten we are going to add both granulated white sugar as well as brown sugar which is a richer sweet with a touch of molasses. Add a pinch of cinnamon if you like that flavor in there.

Then you want a few ripe bananas. The color should be a deep brown, not black. If you aren’t ready but the color is perfect, set them in a bowl or bag and into the fridge which will buy you a few days until you’re ready.

All purpose flour and baking soda are the dry ingredients and should be spooned in, not scooped. Read how to measure flour so it is fluffy and not dense when done.

Sour cream or Greek yogurt are better than oil. If you haven’t made this swap you’ll be amazed at how much more moist the end result will be. Other alternatives would be mashed avocado or even pumpkin puree!

Variations

Adding our muffin crumb topping makes an ordinary slice into something with a few different textures. I love the bits of oatmeal on there, which are great for you too. You could add a dash of banana flavoring, or instant coffee too if you wanted. You can add pie filling instead of fruit like our cherry coffee cake too. All are optional but suggestions.

with Cake Mix

SO if I have tons of choices like adding them into a cake or make a loaf of our 4 ingredient banana bread I feel like I’ve saved myself some $. AND I can make something delicious with them that we can all enjoy together so that makes a huge win win win.

Dairy free option

Yes, I have to do this for my husband and have found ingredients to substitute that taste amazing. There’s lactose free sour cream and plant based butter at the store you can find almost everywhere now. You can’t even tell the difference with this healthy coffee cake.

Tips

This is super easy to throw together. I like to mash the bananas first in the large bowl where I will add the other wet ingredients into. I do not like to use a mixer as I think it creams the fruit too much and I prefer to have some larger chunks here and there inside. I think it makes it overall more moist but just my opinion.

We used a bit lower temperature than many others who set the oven to 350 degrees. This lower and slower will make the insides more moist. I do have a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for you.

A bit lower heat will keep this nice and moist, you don’t want to dry it out y’all. We used this with our banana pudding cake and have never gone back. That is why I say it’s done when there are moist crumbs attached, not dry. Set on a cooling rack when done immediately so the pan can cool off and not continue to heat the bread and dry it out.

Coffee Cake Crumble

You are going to start with some butter that is cold, cubed or shaved on a cheese grater. This 1/2 cup brown sugar will sweeten it with some white sugar too. I add instant oats instead of Old Fashioned just for some texture and crushed nuts.

Any sort of crumb cake just gets my mouth watering. The only one I don’t add this to is our Instant Pot coffee cake. Reason being is that the top of that one doesn’t brown so it ends up getting kinda’ weird.

How to Make Banana bread in 9×13 pan

Most of the time when you make this baked good you spoon it into a 9×5 loaf pan. That is the case with our Bisquick banana bread or “traditional” homemade style. Doubling that isn’t quite right for the larger 9×13 size but you could make it work. This is designed to cook in that size. I like using a porcelain dish so it looks nice right from the get go.

A nice size to bring to a party for sure. The dish I have came with a plastic lid too so once it cools I can pop that on and tote it with me there. Great way to store leftovers too so you don’t have to dirty more than one dish to do so. If you only have a few slices left though I would move it into something smaller. air is the enemy as far as drying it out.

How to Reheat Leftovers

You’re going to want to save it in an airtight container or baggie so maintain as much moisture as you can. Adding a bit of something to the top will help when you’re ready to enjoy it again too though. A pat of butter works great, a drizzle of honey or even maple syrup can work for this. Then heat in the microwave for 45 seconds per slice.

What’s the difference between coffee cake and streusel?

The only real change is the topping on top. Like if you made “regular” muffins they would be your cake choice. If you add the next layer on the top though before you bake them they transition into other like our pumpkin streusel muffins recipe. They are both great but with very different textures and the additional layer adds sweetness too.

Does coffee cake have caffeine in it?

I will say that not all coffee cakes have caffeine in them, a lot don’t. That is an optional element you can choose to include, or not. If you do then you’d need to use already grown instant style out of the jar. You could try it both ways or do half and half in the same dish. If you do this just put a toothpick in the center so you know which half is which.

Use two bowls to mix together batter for coffee cake with bananas. If you just want it super moist and soft like our banana upside down cake just omit the topping all together.