Best Banana Bundt Cake

Ingredient list

• Bananas: always use overripe bananas when baking bread or cakes. Why? They have much more flavor and the result is way better. They should be soft, with spotted skin.
• Buttermilk: what if you don't have buttermilk? You can buy buttermilk powder and prepare it as you need to. Or make homemade buttermilk that is super easy (how to in the recipe card towards the end of this post). 
• Unsalted butter.
• Vegetable oil: I always use sunflower oil.
• Eggs: fresh, large.
• White granulated sugar.
• Brown sugar: light or dark.
• Vanilla: I use pure vanilla extract or pure vanilla paste when available, but a good vanilla essence (artificially flavored) also works and is infinitely cheaper. 
• All-purpose or cake flour.
• Baking powder: make sure it's not expired.
• Salt: I like to use kosher salt when baking. But regular table salt works just fine.

See the recipe card towards the end of this post for quantities.

Preparing the pan

Bundt pans need extra care because cakes tend to stick more easily due to their intricate patterns. 

For this recipe, since I choose a pan that is fairly simple in its pattern, used it with baking spray and dusted it with fine breadcrumbs. You can also flour it. 

Vintage Kitchen tip: for intricately patterned bundt pans, I recommend you butter it with soft (not melted) butter and then flour it, shaking off excess. Then pop it in the fridge while you make the batter. It will make removing the cake easier.

Cream cheese frosting (or glaze)

I took the idea of a simple powdered sugar glaze, which I use all the time for bundt cakes, and made a cream cheese glaze, which is nothing more than my favorite cream cheese frosting recipe with less powdered sugar. The result is thinner so it runs down the sides of the cake, and it doesn't divert from the banana flavor.

But you can use the thicker version if that's your jam. There's no right or wrong when it comes to how you like your cream cheese frosting, is it?

My formula is simple and foolproof: 1 measure of butter, 2 measures of cream cheese and enough powdered sugar to make it as thick or as thin as you want.

Kitchen notes

• Organization: read the recipe first and ensure you have ingredients at the correct temperature, equipment, and enough workspace. This will make the process so much easier.
• Baking time: keep in mind that all ovens and pans are different, even if they look similar. The baking time in my recipes is as accurate as it can be, but it might take you more or less time. You can use a thermometer(like the OXO oven thermometer) to check that your oven is at the right temperature. I recommend you keep track of how your oven works and what tiny details you might need to adjust.
• Pan: make sure the bundt cake pan is correctly prepared. Find more details in the Notes section of the recipe card.
• Cooling down: always use a wire rack (a.k.a cooling rack) to cool down cakes, especially bundt cakes that are dense like this one. If you don't have one (a wire rack) put the pan on top of something that allows the air to flow below the pan. I sometimes place them on the stovetop (turned off!) because the burners allow that.
• Cooling down: let cool completely before glazing, otherwise it will not be thick as the heat will dissolve most of it. 
• Bananas: use very ripe bananas. They should be soft, with brown spots, and mushy. You know, those you don't want to eat. For this recipe, I like using chunkier mashed bananas because they add texture to the crumb.
• Serving it: I highly recommend room-temperature cakes, unless they have creams. The flavors are somewhat numbed when they are cold.
• Storing it: after a day at room temperature (at the most), cover it well with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several days. Or freeze for up to a month. Though, in my house, it hardly makes it to the next day.
• Chocolate chips: I find this banana cake is great as it is, but I know readers who add a few tablespoons of semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter. Or simply make the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, which is one bowl and amazing too!

But if you only have under-ripe ones, you can roast them to achieve a similar result, something I discovered years ago and that resulted in this roasted banana bread post. 

How to roast bananas:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC.
2. Place unpeeled bananas on a baking tray and roast until the skin turns completely dark and the inside is slightly soft to the touch. about 20 minutes.
3. Let cool and coarsely mash.

Storing

• Room temperature and refrigerator: this banana cake can be left at room temperature for a day. After that, use plastic wrap to cover it well, and refrigerate for several more days. Take into account that the fridge dries up, so it will lose its softness after a few days. It will be denser but with a good flavor.
• Freezing: this bundt cake freezes well. Wrap it in plastic first and then foil. It keeps for a month.

Pan sizes

This is the type of recipe that can be made in different pans:

• Bundt cake - I use a 10-cup bundt cake pan, also known as a large bundt pan. A recipe also makes about 6 individual bundts, like the ones in the Coffee Chocolate Bundt Cakes.
• Sheet cake - bake it in an 8x11-inch cake pan and frost it with cream cheese icing, like the one used for the coconut lemon sheet cake. 
• Loaf cake - this banana bundt cake recipe will yield 2 medium loaf pans. 
• Layer cake - I recommend no more than two 8-inch layers. Fill with cream cheese icing, similar to the sheet cake above. Or with dulce de leche. If you follow my lead and use the latter (you can buy dulce de leche online), you'll unlock a magic flavor combination that you didn't know existed!