If I’m honest, I wasn’t sure banana bread cake was a thing. And I certainly don’t have anything to compare this version to. So instead of a comparison, I’ll just say this rendition of a healthy banana bread cake with sugar free cream cheese frosting is perfectly sweet, moist, and tender. If it’s nothing like a real banana bread cake, sorry not sorry.
Regardless of its title accuracy, this banana bread cake has an amazing nutritional breakdown. Without the frosting, one slice of cake has 109 calories, 7 grams of protein, 12 grams of carbs, and 4 grams of fat. Add the frosting and those macros only go to 124 calories, 9 grams of protein, 21 grams of carbs, and 4 grams of fat.
Is that the definition of having your cake and eating it too or what?
Healthy Banana Bread Cake Ingredients
The batter for this healthy banana bread cake is straightforward enough. The ingredient list may look a bit longer than most of my recipes but have no fear, it’s as simple as adding everything to one big bowl and stirring.
As usual, I’ll briefly run through a few commonly asked about ingredients and talk modifications or substitutions.
Quick Oats and Graham Cracker Crumbs
Quick oats add a great texture to baked goods and add a bit more volume than oat flour (or similar flours). If you wanted to use whole grain oats, they’re likely to absorb more moisture. If you notice your batter is super thick after mixing with whole grain oats, you may want to add a bit more butter or Greek yogurt.
The graham cracker crumbs add both structure and flavor to this healthy banana bread cake. If you don’t have access to graham crackers or crumbs, you could try using crushed cereal or other cookies.
For any non-US readers, you can try digestive biscuits, gingersnaps, or other sweet cookies and crisps.
Bananas for Banana Bread Cake
It’s important you use overripe bananas for this banana bread cake. You can see an example of what the banana peels looked like in my batch in the photo below.
Have a big bunch that you need to use quickly? I would definitely recommend making my protein banana bread. It’s super easy and has 10g of protein per slice. You can even make banana bread protein French toast with it!
And in case your bananas are ripe but could stand a little longer, you can try using the microwave method for 30-second banana ripening I used in my pumpkin banana bread protein muffins recipe.
Protein Powder
I originally used PEScience Select Whey and Casein protein powder for this banana bread cake, but I’ve added notes for a pure whey protein in the recipe card’s notes section below. You can use my affiliate discount code mason for 15% off on PEScience products.
In a recipe like this, protein powder is a bit easier to play around with. So, if you’d like to use a different protein powder, you should be fine to plug and play as long as you’re close in quantity. Pay attention to the weight of your protein powder’s scoop size.
Sugar Free Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients and Alternatives
You’ll only need two ingredients for the frosting—cream cheese and Swerve Confectioners, a powdered sugar substitute. Since the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of Swerve, it’s going to be difficult to substitute. So, I’ve included two alternative frosting ideas below.
But I have to say, Swerve is the bee’s knees and if you’ve never tried it, I’d encourage you to pick some up ASAP.
Here are two frosting substitute ideas:
- Like I mentioned in my protein carrot cake recipe, you could try mixing a bit of protein powder with corn or arrowroot starch and a bit of granulated sugar substitute. You could also try sugar free pudding mix.
- The cream cheese frosting from my pumpkin spice protein pancakes recipe uses protein powder and a granular sweetener (stevia in this case) to make a similar frosting to this recipe.
- The candied walnut streusel from my pumpkin banana bread protein muffins would be great with this banana bread cake. It calls for light butter and quick oats, so you’ll only need chopped walnuts and the optional brown sugar to make it.
How to Easily Get Your Banana Bread Cake out of the Pan
This step is totally optional. On my first run with this healthy banana bread cake, I baked it straight in the dish without any parchment paper without any issues. Adding parchment paper to create handles to lift the cake really speeds up the cooling process and saves you the trouble of handling a hot baking dish.
To add parchment paper to your baking dish, flip the baking dish upside down and cut a long strip of parchment paper just beyond the bottom’s edge.
Don’t worry about being perfect. You can see in the photo above I had a little bunching in the corners.
Be sure to press the parchment paper flat and add the banana bread cake batter to the center of the dish first so you don’t have any batter leak underneath the parchment paper.
And that’s it. Once baked, you can lift the cake right out of the baking dish to cool.
How to Store Your Healthy Banana Bread Cake
If you add the frosting, I’d refrigerate in an airtight container. The cake without frosting should keep fine covered at room temp for a few days. Similar to my Oreo Protein Cake, I think this cake gets even better after chilling.
All right, that’s all ya need to know. If you try this healthy banana bread cake, let me know what you think on Instagram @mason_woodruff.
Healthy Banana Bread Cake
Ingredients
Banana Bread Cake
- 1 C 80g Quick Oats
- 1/2 C 56g Graham Cracker Crumbs
- 3 scoops, 93g Vanilla Protein Powder*
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon, optional
- 3 large, 300g Bananas, peeled
- 1/2 C 113g Vanilla Fat Free Greek Yogurt
- 3/8 C 84g Light Butter
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 1/2 Tbsp 32g Honey
Sugar Free Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 oz Fat Free Cream Cheese, room temp or softened
- 3/4 C 108g Swerve Confectioners
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 350F and spray an 8x8 glass dish with nonstick cooking spray. Or if you'd like an easy way to remove the cake after it's baked, cut a strip of parchment paper the width of the dish with "handles" on each side to lift the baked cake.
- Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Peel the bananas and add to the dry ingredients. Use a masher, fork, whisk, or the edge of a rubber spatula to mash the bananas before gradually adding the Greek yogurt, butter, eggs, and honey. The batter should be thick but pourable, and it's fine to have some tiny chunks of banana remaining.
- Add the cake batter to the prepared baking dish, making sure to level the surface as much as possible.
- Bake the banana bread cake for 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean. Let the cake cool for 5-10 minutes in the baking dish before transferring to a cooling rack or countertop. (If you're not using parchment paper, you may need to wait a bit longer to handle the baking dish. That's fine.)
- Once the cake is cool to the touch, mix the cream cheese and confectioners sugar together in a large bowl. Frost the cake to its edges before serving in 16 2x2 squares.
Notes
- Each serving has 3 Smart Points.
- Macros per slice without frosting: 109 calories, 7 grams of protein, 12 grams of carbs, and 4 grams of fat (multiply by 16 for the entire cake without frosting)
- Cream Cheese Frosting Alternatives:
- Store unfrosted banana bread cake in an airtight container at room temp and refrigerate frosted cake.
- To modify this banana bread cake for my Bowmar Nutrition users, use 4 scoops (112g) protein powder, 1/3 C (74g) light butter, and 2 (200g) bananas. Keep everything else the same.
This is a family favorite recipe, we make it once a week 🙂 Super easy and works well with several different protein powders with out any other changes.
I’d love it omit the butter (or atleast use less) can I do that?
You could try using an extra banana in place of all the butter. No promises, but I bet you’d still end up with a fairly moist and tender cake.
I came across this recipe as I had a surplus of bananas I was looking to use. This cake turned out wonderfully. Perfectly sweet, moist, and cake-y. There wasn’t the slightest protein powder taste. And I didn’t even bother with the icing as the cake was perfect on its own. Highly recommend given this recipe a try!
I made this for this week, and it is so, so good! I didn’t have the Graham crackers, so I left that out and it still came out great. I also didn’t have the cream cheese, but the banana bread cake is still delicious without the icing and you save on some calories! I’ll probably be making this at least every other week for the foreseeable future. 😀
This banana bread cake is AMAZING. Didn’t have Graham cracker crumbs and had to use weetabix instead, but still was delicious and will absolutely be making this again.
THIS!!! Omg! Best tasting macro-friendly banana bread I have made. My friend is an avid baker and whenever I bake macro-friendly stuff she usually says “good but not like the real thing”… But, she had this and was like how does it taste so good. She said the same about your greek yogurt biscuits too. I loveee this recipe!
Is there any other ingredient I can use instead of graham cookies crumbs? I don’t have them and I really don’t like them can I use any other cookies crumbled in my food processor?
Thank you!
If you have digestive biscuits or cookies similar to a graham cracker, they should work fine.
Delicious! Like cut it up and freeze the portions quick so you don’t eat the whole thing delicious. I skipped the frosting and mixed in some chocolate chips instead (more freezable). I have a bad habit of buying too many bananas so this will be in the regular rotation. I would even try this in layer cake form for a special occasion.
I originally used this with Sprouts vanilla whey protein and it turned out great! After my PE Science cake pop came in, I threw that in instead and DANG. Game changer. I make this almost weekly because of how easy and yummy it is. I make this for get togethers with friends and family, for just my husband and I to snack on during the week – any excuse I can find. It’s an absolute favorite around here.
I just saw this recipe a couple of weeks ago and I’ve made this twice already. My family occasionally buys bananas and, almost every time, the last few get REALLY ripe because we forget about them. I first made this cake to use up some over-ripe bananas and not only did I love it, but my wife loved it as well… and she HATES trying out protein powder recipes!
The lead-up to the second cake I made included daily checking on three bananas I set aside for this specific purpose… and the occasional yelling of “HURRY UP!”