Cake Mix Banana Pudding Cake

This is our easy cake mix banana pudding cake recipe, it’s the best ripe banana recipe dessert that is moist and delicious every time baked in a 9×13″ pan so it feeds a crowd and is super cheap to make.

I totally forgot about this Betty Crocker banana pudding cake until I had a bunch of browned fruit. It dawned on me that I hadn’t made this in so long! So long in fact that my little girls had never had it. When I made it again it was even more delicious than I had remembered. Now on the list as one of our favorite easy pudding cake recipes!

If you have noticed that your nanners are beginning to turn brown you are in for a real treat!! You have to make this with a box of cake mix y’all. I added a bit of cinnamon this time which was a great addition. I don’t know what it is about pairing pudding and cake mix together but seriously it is incredible and really quite addicting. 😉

Ok so I do cook and bake things from scratch using my overripe bananas too like my banana bread bundt cake recipe. Those are just amazing BUT when I’m in a hurry a doctored up cake mix like this is just as fabulous.

We make a lot of boxed cake mix recipes around here. When it comes to the flavor used that is up to you. If you are in a large city you may have a store with dozens of choices. I would grab one that has the flavor you’re going for if possible. In this case it is tough to find banana so if you can’t yellow or white are just fine too.

You just combine it all together, you don’t even need 2 bowls to mix the dry and wet ingredients separately this go around!! If you’d rather make 2 8 inch round pans you could for a layer cake, we prefer this one layer cake. You want browned fruit like you see above to add natural sugars.

What Type of Cake Mix to Use

If at all possible try to find banana cake mix (Dolly Parton has one at Walmart) but if you can’t then go with yellow or white would be my 3rd choice on the list to enhance the flavor of the treat.

Should you use regular or instant pudding mix?

To make it really rich and moist you want a box of banana cream instant pudding mix, you could use vanilla pudding if that’s all you can find. It is found in a smaller box and says instant on the box.

How ripe should your bananas be?

You are going to want a few VERY ripe bananas to add into the batter itself to make it moist as well as 1 – 2 very yellow fresh bananas, sliced in addition to texture inside as well as I like to add a few more slices to the top. If yours are ready but you aren’t ready to bake with them yet put them in a bag or bowl and into the fridge so they slow the ripening and firm them up a bit for another few days.

Can you make this into a poke cake?

Yes, if you wanted to poke holes inside like a poke cake you would want to do this warm. Then when you have those holes you can pour a can of condensed milk on to the top to seep it. We typically just top with homemade whipped cream or ice cream though.

How Long to Bake Banana Pudding Cake

The key to baking this banana pudding cake is to NOT over bake it! I leave it in for 35 minutes which makes it beautiful and puffy when you take it out, and with time it will deflate a little to look like this because it is so moist inside.

How do you know when pudding cake is done?

The edges on this banana pudding cake should be semi firm like a “normal cake” to the touch but the center will be much softer. Use a toothpick inserted into the center but you do want moist crumbs attached vs. totally dry in this case.

The middle should not have wet batter but still look a bit underbaked, that is okay. It will continue to bake in the hot pan when cooling. It will continue to bake though in the pan as it is cooling so you don’t want to wait until the whole thing is semi firm or else if you allow it to cool it will lose a lot of that moist texture, and some of the bold banana flavor.

What happens when you add pudding mix to cake mix?

It makes your end result super moist!! I mean think about it. When made by itself this dessert is, well pudding-like. A thick super flavorful smooth treat. If you add the powder itself, the liquids added into your batter will thicken it and you just integrate it within the eggs, boxed mix and water. This isn’t as quick as our 4 ingredient banana bread but so worth the time.

Other overripe banana recipes you’ll love

 like this easy banana bread pudding you see here below, try one of these: And of course you can’t forget to make delicious banana bread for breakfast with your browned fruit too! That is a given of course but you can see here there are so many other possibilities too!

We like our cake mix banana bread muffins because they use just a few ingredients and bake quickly. You’ll want to transfer this too to a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes in the pan to cool before slicing. Below is the step by step to get you started;

You can even make Cool Whip Pudding Frosting for added wow on top!

How to save leftovers

If you have some left allow it to cool completely. Wrap pieces in plastic wrap or in airtight containers and store in the fridge to enjoy the next day.