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When I made my banana bread mini donuts and loved them so much, I had this idea that I should try making the batter into a cake and frosting it with the cream cheese glaze. So the next time we had two speckled bananas gracing our kitchen counter, I did just that. And it was amazing. Like I can’t even tell you guys how much I love this stuff. This is pretty much the same recipe as the donuts (just one slight change in the leavening ingredient), and they both have such a great flavor and texture. It’s not a tall cake, as you can see from the pictures, but it reminds me of something that would be served at a tea party.
This recipe takes few ingredients, and the only “special” ingredient it takes is the sweetener (but these days you can easily find a low glycemic sweetener at Walmart!). You could probably leave even that out if you don’t have much of a sweet tooth; the bananas add quite a bit of sweetness on their own. No special flours are required to make this recipe (you can make your own oat flour by grinding quick or old-fashioned oats in your blender or coffee grinder), it’s cheap, and it uses up those bananas that are past their prime.
This would definitely be a recipe I would take to a party or potluck. I don’t think anyone would ever know that it’s low-fat and sugar free. Maybe I should try it and see…
If you like, you can bake this recipe in a greased 8×8 inch baking pan and have banana bars. I did this once and skipped the cream cheese frosting (in the picture below I just added a small squirt of fat-free Reddi-Whip). The frosting definitely adds a lot, but the bars were still good without it.
This banana cake is definitely one of my favorite recipes, and it’s an E dessert for you Trim Healthy Mamas (click here to read my quick synopsis of the plan)! I love my E meals, but sometimes it can be difficult to find E desserts to go with them. Here are some other E dessert options if you care to take a look.
Trim Healthy Mamas, if you stick to one-eighth of this recipe, you’re well within your E fat guidelines (less than 5 grams per serving) and still have room for some more carbs with your meal.
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You can find this recipe in my cookbook, Necessary Food.
- 2 ripe medium bananas, mashed
- ½ cup egg whites (carton kind works great)
- ⅓ cup water
- 1 T lemon juice
- 1¼ cups oat flour (ground-up oats; use gluten free if necessary)
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1½ tsp. cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 3 doonks THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder (a doonk is 1/32 tsp.)
- 3 oz. ⅓ less-fat cream cheese, softened
- 2 T unsweetened almond milk (or carton coconut milk for a nut free version)
- 2 doonks THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder
- Dash vanilla
- Beat the wet ingredients together until slightly foamy (20-30 seconds). Add the dry ingredients and beat again until well-mixed.
- Place a square of parchment paper in the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan and spray it and the rest of the pan with nonstick cooking spray (alternately you could bake these as bars in a greased 8x8" pan). Pour the batter into the pan and level it out. Bake at 350 degrees F for 17 minutes or until the top is set and the middle is moist but not soggy (a toothpick will come out mostly clean). Let the cake set for 5 minutes, then turn it out of the pan (peel the parchment off at some point) and let cool. Refrigerate until completely chilled, then drizzle with the cream cheese glaze.
- To make the glaze, simply beat all the glaze ingredients together, put into a sandwich baggie, cut a small hole in the tip, and drizzle over the cake/bars however you choose.
- Keep refrigerated. Yields 8 servings (this will keep you well within THM:E fat guidelines)
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Question about the oat flour…is that something you buy or can I just take oatmeal and grind it into a flour in my blender? Thanks
Yes, you can just grind dry oatmeal in a high-powered blender or coffee grinder to a flour consistency. You can also buy it.
This is in the oven right now as we speak! I have a holiday event tonight that I don’t want to miss out on so I making this tasty banana cake to bring. I hope I enjoy it and others do as well.
My whole family loved this!
This banana cake is delicious. I enjoyed it warm without the drizzle. I splurged and ate over half of it. Made another batch cut into snack bars, wrapped individually and put in freezer.
I have struggled with “E” desserts. We were very pleasantly surprised with this cake! Will definitely make again…thanks for sharing it with us!
I’m so glad to hear that, Cara!
Could you make this in a bundt pan or a pie pan?
The pie pan would work great! A bundt pan would be too big.
Thank you!
Taking them to monthly THM ladies lunch. We all make a recipe and share. Today’s meal is E and I’m bringing this recipe as dessert. I decided to make them into cupcakes to serve easier. FYI : This recipe yields 10 cupcakes. Thanks
Making it tonight. For the glaze, Im using plain Greek yogurt, THM Stevia, and vanilla extract. Hope it turns out well!! I love that this recipe had very easy ingredients. It was nice to pull this together in no time!
Does this cake freeze with good results?
If I make this for my grands I must substitute for eggs. Do you know is a good sub? I’ve tried aquafava, flax meal in other recipes with less than wonderful results. The cakes have been gummy.
I’ve never tried freezing this particular recipe, but I don’t think that would be a problem. 🙂
I’m afraid I’m not very well-versed in egg substitutions, and any attempts I’ve made have been less than stellar. I’m sorry I’m not of more help! Maybe you should check out this blog; Tina posts egg free recipes. 🙂 http://www.anointedwithoilofjoy.com/
Thank you, Briana. This looks delicious.
Thank you so much!! I can’t wait to try this. Just wondering, if I used THM baking blend, how much should I use instead of the oat flour?
Thank you!
I don’t know of a concrete Baking Blend:oat flour ratio, but I’m guessing you’d need less of the Baking Blend than the oat flour called for.
I made this today – followed the recipe with no changes, but only made half. This was a perfect afternoon snack! Very tasty and easy. Thanks for sharing
I have a pile of ripe bananas, but didn’t want to bake my traditional banana cake as I’m trying to get back into THM. This is on the menu for tomorrow! Thank you!
My kids loved this recipe! Your inexpensive, NSI recipes are what make thm doable for my large family. Keep them coming!!
I’m so glad! That’s exactly what I’m here for.
is this still an ‘e’, even with the cream cheese drizzle?
Yes. 🙂 As I said in the post, the fat from the low fat cream cheese stays within E guidelines if you observe the serving sizes in this recipe.