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Soft, cinnamon cake layers with a bananas foster flavored filling and caramel rum frosting. This Bananas Foster Cake will take your dessert game to a new level!

Hi!

Hello! I’ve missed you! The last few months have been so crazy. They’ve been so crazy for all of us, right? First, my office was closed for a couple of months. You would think that I’d be blogging away a storm … but no. Cooking away a storm? Yes, that’s fun to do with my kids. Well, mostly. Sitting at my computer? No way.

But why not? For starters, I don’t know when during the day I would’ve fit it in. Being home with my 3 and 5 year olds was a little time consuming …. I would literally lock myself in the bathroom for a minute just to read a text – but it wasn’t even all that helpful. Both of my lovely offspring would beat on the door and yell about how they were mad the door was locked and something incredibly important like, “…there’s a bird outside.”

So maybe I had time after the kids go to bed, right? Nope. I was too tired. I needed a full hour to tell my husband about how tired I was before falling asleep during a rerun of ‘Beat Bobby Flay’.

Then my office reopened. Hip hip hooray! I missed my job. I love what I do. So I’d have energy at night, right? Zero chance. I’m pretty sure wearing a mask for 8 hours straight zaps my energy. Not saying I’m anti-masks, but I’m pretty sure wearing it is the equivalent of a sleeping pill.

All that to say, I’ve missed you. So, hi!

Cake for Friends

No one is here to read about what I’ve been up to. Everyone is here to look at food so they can get inspired or make a recipe. I’m with you … so let’s get back to that.

Last year my parents came up to visit and I decided to make my dad a special cake for his 70th birthday. He likes bananas and caramel, so Bananas Foster turned into a cake seemed like the right move. And it was.

I made a cinnamon cake with a bananas foster filling, and it was delish. I took photos, and decided I didn’t like them so would need to make the cake (and take pictures) again.

I revisited this cake twice in the last few weeks to tweak it and make it even more delicious. First, I made it for my friend Erin, to say “you’re great.” And then I made it for my friend Mark’s birthday. This cake is hands down one of my new favorites.

Bananas Foster Cake

This cake is a little time consuming, but totally worth it. I have a few tips for success:

Caramel Rum Sauce

The first time I made this cake I used rum flavoring instead of rum. Don’t do that. It takes fake and is too strong.

Use real rum. You’re cooking it, so the alcohol will not be a factor.

And use spiced rum. I played around with multiple rums and spiced is by far my favorite for this sauce. If you don’t have any, most dark rums will be a fine substitute.

Frosting

You need to make this frosting your own. That’s why I have gaven ranges for the ingredients.

I played and played with it, deciding that it needed to change just a little but each time, depending on the person I was making it for. Example 1: My husband doesn’t like overly sweet things, so I cut back the powdered sugar, added a couple tablespoons of cornstarch, and added a pinch more salt. Example 2: My Dad is a huge sugar fan, no cornstarch and I added more powdered sugar. Win for both.

Decor

Bananas are fabulous for decor when you’re serving the cake that day. After that, they get a little ugly. So, here is some decor advice:

• If you want to decorate with bananas, wait to decorate until the day you are going to serve the cake.
• Want to save leftovers? Freeze the cake or pull the banana pieces off.
• Don’t care what a banana looks like when it’s leftover? Just leave it. Live on the edge.

Bottom line, this cake is special. Every once in a while you find a magical, unicorn-like dessert. This Bananas Foster Cake is that extra special dessert you’ll want to make over and over again.

Bananas Foster Cake

Soft, cinnamon cake layers with a bananas foster filling and a caramel rum frosting. This Bananas Foster Cake will take your cake game to a new level!

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Course: Dessert

Prep Time: 50 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Servings: 1 8″, 3 layer cake

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Ingredients

Cake

• 1 cup unsalted butter softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 cup buttermilk

Filling

• 3 large bananas cut into ~1/3″ slices
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
• 1 tablespoon spiced rum
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tteaspoon cinnamon

Caramel Sauce

• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon spiced rum
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Frosting

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup cooled caramel sauce recipe below
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4-5 cups powdered sugar

Decoration

• 1 large banana
• Cinnamon

Instructions

Cake

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 3, 8″ round baking pans with parchment paper. Butter and flour sides of pans (I use Baking PAM for this).
• In a large bowl or base of stand mixer, beat butter, sugar and brown sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
• On medium speed, beat in eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated. Scraped down sides as needed. Then, beat in vanilla extract.
• In a medium sized bowl, stir together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
• Alternate beating flour mixture and buttermilk into butter/sugar mixture, in about 3 to 4 additions. Start and end with flour mixture.
• Divide batter evenly among prepared pans and cook until toothpick in center of pan comes out with just a few crumbs. About 27-30 minutes. NOTE: Tops are a dark golden brown when done.
• Let cool at least 5 minutes before removing from pans.

Filling

• In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Then, add brown sugar, rum, vanilla, and cinnamon. Stir until mixture starts to bubble, about 2-3 minutes.
• Add bananas and walnuts. Stir for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Caramel Sauce

• In a medium sized sauce pan over medium-high heat, add sugar and water. Stir continuously until sugar melts (the mixture will turn grainy, turn to a salt looking substance, harden, and then melt). This will take about 10 minutes. Once sugar melts, stop stirring, turn heat to high and boil until mixture turns an amber color and has a nutty smell (watch closely to ensure you do not burn the sugar). Remove from heat.
• Cut butter into small cubes and gently place in sugar. Whisk until smooth. Slowly pour in whipping cream, continuously whisking. NOTE: It is important that the butter and cream are not cold, if they are, it will make the caramel harden too soon.
• Next, whisk in rum and vanilla. Set aside and let cool to room temperature. This will take about 2 hours.

Frosting

• In a medium sized bowl or base of a stand mixer, beat butter and shortening on medium-high speed until lightened, about 2 minutes. Then, beat in 1 cup of cooled caramel sauce.
• Beat in powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until desired sweetness and consistency reached. NOTE: If you need to thicken the frosting but don’t want it any sweeter, you can add cornstarch about 1/2 tbsp at a time.

Assembly

• Level tops of cakes with a knife or cake leveler. On top of two of the layers, pipe a border of frosting around the outside of the cake. Divide the bananas foster filling between the two piped cake layers.
• Stack the two filled cake layers on top of each other. Place the final cake layer, leveled side down, on the top. Frost cake with a thin layer of buttercream. Place in fridge for about 10 minutes. Then, remove and finish frosting with buttercream as desired (I use a Wilton 2D tip to on the bottom and top of cake).
• Decorate with cut banana and cinnamon as desired. Fill a squeeze bottle with caramel sauce and let drip over sides of cake.

Disclaimer: All nutritional information provided on this website is an estimate only and is not guaranteed.

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If you enjoyed this Bananas Foster Cake, you should check out these other SugarSpicesLife recipes:

Caramel Banana Bread
Caramelized Banana Pudding
Chocolate Baklava
Churro Cake
Churro Rice Krispie Treats

Links to items used to make this recipe:

8″ Round Cake Pan
10″ Wilton Cake Board: I have tried other cake board brands and these are hands down my fave!
10″ Wilton Frosting Bags
Wilton 2D frosting tip: This is my go to piping tip for cakes and cupcakes.