Easy Cake Mix Banana Pudding Cake

We love this easy cake mix banana pudding cake, best dessert you’ll ever make! Best ripe banana recipe with and a touch of cinnamon, this easy cake with fruit turns out moist and delicious every time. One layer made in a 9×13″ pan it feeds a crowd and is super cheap to make.

Easy Banana Pudding Cake Recipe

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.

Ingredients

1. Yellow cake mix, banana if you can find it or white
2. Banana cream instant pudding mix, could use vanilla pudding if that’s all you can find
3. Vegetable oil or applesauce works
4. Water or even 7-up works
5. Cinnamon and sugar mixture (I just mix half and half)
6. VERY ripe bananas
7. 1 – 2 very yellow fresh bananas, sliced in addition are important for texture
8. Eggs are best added at room temperature if possible
9. Vanilla ice cream or cool whip if you want a little on top
   1. vanilla or cream cheese frosting melted and drizzled on top works too
   2. some like crushed nilla wafers on top of the ice cream too
10. 9×13″  baking dish is best sprayed with non stick spray

If you wanted to poke holes inside like a poke cake you would want to do this warm. We typically just top with homemade whipped cream or ice cream though.

How to Make Cake Mix Banana Pudding Cake

• Mash your two very ripe mashed bananas.
• Add them into your large bowl filled with cake mix, instant classic banana pudding mix, oil, eggs, 1 tsp of your cinnamon/sugar mixture, and water. 
• Use a mixer on low to mix until fairly smooth (there will be lumps from the banana.
• Use a knife and slice your yellow (pretty firm) into sliced banana pieces to then add into your batter and gently fold them in with a wooden spoon.
• Spray a 9×13″ pan with non stick spray and pour your cake batter inside.
• Smooth out so it is evenly distributed.
• Put in the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, do NOT overcook.
• Take out and put on a cooling rack until completely cool (will continue to cook and solidify in pan while cooling).
• Serve with ice cream, whipped topping, crushed vanilla wafers or more cinnamon sugar on top of the cake and enjoy.

How Long to Bake a Cake with Pudding

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. 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.

• At the end of the day I kid you not it is such a wonderful flavor. Even serving it as is it has a lot of flavor and sweetness and doesn’t really need anything else.
• Adding a bit of store bought vanilla, or make some yourselves on the top is pretty incredible too. It’s pretty filling though so you don’t need a big slice.

I guarantee if you love bananas and bring this to someone’s house they will rave about it too (and they won’t have any idea just how easy it is to make).

This isn’t as quick as our 4 ingredient banana bread but so worth the time. The edges on this banana pudding cake are semi firm like a “normal cake” to the touch but the center is much softer. Use a toothpick inserted into the center but you do want moist crumbs attached vs. totally dry in this case.

I have a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post you can save if you’d like. I’d rather have you come back instead though because we are forever adding more goodies to the site to share with you. 😉 I have only used this pan, not sure it would work in smaller forms

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.

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 4 ingredient 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;

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.

Banana Cake with Pudding

The recipe card is below for you to follow. You can even make Cool Whip Pudding Frosting for added wow on top! Like I said, do NOT get rid of those brown bananas. There are SO many delicious breakfast and desserts you can make with them. I love using overripe bananas in recipes because they have a natural sweetness to them so you can add less sugar and it’s plenty.

Try this one first and then come back to try another one above. If you aren’t quite ready to bake but yours are turning a bit too brown then throw them into the freezer in a bag. Once you’re ready leave them on the counter for a bit to thaw out or put in the fridge overnight.

It is important to put them into a baggie first though because once they start to thaw out they will ooze a bit of liquid and you don’t want that getting everywhere because it’s a bit sticky.