This is the best banana cake! It’s simple to whip up, starting with a mix, and is supremely moist and flavorful. The chocolate cream cheese frosting is amazing too 🙂

We always, always have old bananas on the counter. Mostly because every time I go to the grocery store, I get all fired up about eating more fruits and vegetables and buy out the produce department. And then, I’m ashamed to admit, a lot of it just sits around for the rest of the week… not getting eaten. Oops!

Thank goodness, old bananas are a LOT easier to rescue than, say, slimy old green beans. ????

I’ve been wanting to make a banana cake that starts with a cake mix. I love the concept of just throwing a few ingredients into the bowl and whipping up a perfectly soft and fluffy cake. I’ve never been one to shy away from a cake mix, and I’ll say it again: I love that you know what you’re getting with a mix.

You know the cake is going to be soft, fluffy, moist, and flavorful. It’s just so reliable! You know the texture is going to be good and that it’s going to bake up just right. I’ve yet to use a cake mix and be disappointed.

So it’s no surprise that this recipe ended up being a slam dunk.

🍌🍌🍌 CELEBRATE BANANAS with us: our favorite Banana Bread Recipes 🍌🍌🍌

All you need is a yellow cake mix, a 2-3 bananas, and a few other simple ingredients. It bakes up beautifully in less than 30 minutes, and it tastes AMAZING. Perfectly sweet with a serious banana flavor.

And the chocolate cream cheese frosting... omg.

I almost made just a regular cream cheese frosting. Which would have been good, I’m sure. But chocolate was for sure the right call to go with banana. Although… isn’t chocolate always the right call??

I hope you enjoy every bit of this cake as much as we did!

Cake Mix Banana Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Yield: 8-16

This is the best banana cake! It's simple to whip up, starting with a mix, and is supremely moist and flavorful. The chocolate cream cheese frosting is amazing too 🙂

Ingredients

The Cake:

1 package yellow cake mix
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup butter, melted
3 eggs
2-3 overripe bananas, mashed

The Frosting:

8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Whisk together all of the cake ingredients until a smooth batter forms. Divide the cake between two 9-inch cake tins, greased and lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until cakes pass the toothpick test.

For the frosting:

Use an electric mixer to beat together the cream cheese and the butter until smooth. Mix in the powdered sugar and the cocoa powder a cup at a time (or 1/2 cup, in the case of the cocoa powder). Mix well in between each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Mix in the salt and the vanilla.

When the cake has cooled completely, frost the cake and garnish with chocolate chips and banana chips if desired.