Banana coffee cake

First posted on August 31, 2016. Updated on August 12, 2020.

Last weekend, I had company over and took that as a good reason to try out a new recipe. I wanted to make a coffee cake because it’s delicious and perfect for a relaxing brunch.

(If you’re reading this and thinking, you had company over? During this Covid thing? Well, my mom did visit briefly, but that’s not what I was talking about. This was originally posted in 2016. That was pre-pandemic, and pre-baby. I think this was the second and last year I went to FYF, a music festival in Los Angeles. We had Paul’s sister and her boyfriend staying over since we lived closer to it than them. Or maybe it was the year they went and I didn’t feel like it. Any way, back to the recipe.)

I like reading recipes and then combining them to get the outcome I’m looking for, and this banana coffee cake creation is a direct result of that. It’s made from combining three different recipes on three different websites to get exactly what I was picturing in my head when I started searching for recipes.

The base of this cake is adapted from Surprise Banana Cake on allrecipes. I added the crumble topping from the Classic Coffee Cake recipe on thekitchn with a minor change. The glaze is from the tips section of the King Arthur Flour Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake recipe. It’s a thin glaze that seeps into the cake a bit, which I love.

To make things easier on myself, I prepared the cake the night before and put it in the oven first thing in the morning. This cake, served with a side of scrambled eggs, made a nice little breakfast for 4 people. Even better, there was still plenty of leftovers and it made a great snack later on.

This banana coffee cake is easy to make using pantry staples and can turn an ordinary morning extraordinary. The banana sheet cake itself is divine, but made even better with crumble topping and a simple powdered sugar glaze.

Banana coffee cake

Crumble topping
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour

Cake
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas
3/4 cup applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease and flour one 9×13-inch cake pan.

Prepare the crumble topping: Mix together the sugars, cinnamon, and the flour in a medium mixing bowl. Break the butter into small pieces with your fingertips until dime-size crumbs form. Set aside.

For the cake, cream together the butter and the sugar. Stir in eggs, bananas, applesauce, and vanilla extract. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until combined and pour batter into the prepared pan. Evenly distribute the crumble over the top of the batter.

Bake for 30 minutes. Cool completely, then drizzle the glaze over the cake.

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