Four bananas sitting on my counter, too spotty for smoothies, too far gone for my kids’ lunchboxes. You know the ones. I had a bundt pan I hadn’t used in months and exactly zero desire to layer a cake that afternoon. This banana bread bundt cake was born on a slow Saturday, and it has been in my regular rotation ever since.
It bakes up tender and golden, with that cozy banana bread warmth in every bite — but in a shape that looks like you put in way more effort than you did. The cream cheese drizzle runs into every ridge and just makes it.
If you love my classic banana bread, this is the celebration version.
Why You’ll Love This Banana Bread Bundt Cake
This is the kind of recipe that works on a lazy Saturday morning and at a dinner party table at the same time. Here’s why it earns its place in the rotation:
- It uses 4 ripe bananas. The ones you almost threw out are your secret weapon here. The riper, the sweeter, the more naturally flavorful your cake.
- Sour cream = the most tender crumb. One full cup makes this bundt impossibly moist without being dense or gummy. It’s the ingredient most bundt cakes are missing.
- No layering, no assembly. The bundt pan does all the visual work. You pour the batter in, flip it once, and you have a showstopper.
- That glaze, though. A pourable cream cheese drizzle flows into every groove of the ridges. It’s simple, but it photographs beautifully every single time.
- Scales easily. Make it for a Sunday morning at home or bring it whole to a gathering. It travels well and holds up for days.
Ingredients & Notes
Nothing complicated here — it’s pantry staples and four very ripe bananas. A few notes on what matters and why, so you get the most out of every ingredient.
For the Cake
All-purpose flour (3 cups / 360g). Spoon and level — don’t scoop straight from the bag or you’ll pack it too dense. I haven’t tested this with cake flour but it’s on my list.
Baking soda (2 tsp). Not baking powder. The sour cream and bananas both provide acidity, so baking soda is what you need here. And once your wet and dry ingredients are combined, bake immediately — baking soda doesn’t wait.
Fine sea salt (1 tsp). Don’t skip it. Salt is what makes the banana flavor pop.
Very ripe bananas (4 large / about 1½ cups mashed / 380g). Brown-spotted, soft, almost black — those are the ones. If yours are yellow and firm, you can roast them unpeeled at 300°F (150°C) for 15 minutes to speed things up. For a banana bundt cake sour cream recipe like this one, you really need deeply ripe fruit to carry the flavor through. More on this in Lily’s Tips below.
Unsalted butter (1 cup / 225g), softened. Room temperature is key. Cold butter won’t cream properly and you’ll lose that light, airy lift.
Brown sugar (1 cup / 200g, packed) + granulated sugar (¼ cup / 50g). The ratio leans heavily on brown sugar for a reason: it adds moisture, depth, and a gentle caramel note that works beautifully with banana. The small amount of white sugar just brightens everything.
Eggs (2 large), room temperature. Cold eggs can cause the batter to seize slightly. Leave them out with your butter.
Pure vanilla extract (1 tsp). Use the real thing here.
Sour cream (1 cup / 240g), room temperature. This is the heart of a moist banana bundt cake. It adds fat, tenderness, and a subtle tang that balances the sweetness of the bananas. Greek yogurt (full-fat) works as a 1:1 substitute if that’s what you have.
For the Cream Cheese Glaze
Cream cheese (4 oz / 113g), softened. Let it sit out for at least an hour. If it’s cold, your glaze will be lumpy.
Powdered sugar (1½ cups / 180g). Sifted if possible.
Whole milk (2–3 tbsp). Start with 2. You’re looking for a pourable consistency — it should drip off a spoon slowly, not fall off like water.
Pure vanilla extract (1 tsp).
How to Make Banana Bundt Cake
One bowl, a hand mixer, and one pan. That’s all this takes. Follow the steps in order — especially the part about baking immediately once the batter is mixed.
Make the Batter
1. Preheat and prep your pan. Heat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Spray your 10–12 cup bundt pan generously with baking spray that contains flour (like Baker’s Joy or Pam Baking). Get into every groove and curve of the pan — this is the single most important step. Set it aside.
2. Whisk your dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt until combined. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugars. In a large bowl, beat softened butter with an electric hand mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until creamy and pale. Add both sugars and beat for another 2–3 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed, until the mixture is light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs and vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Mix in the vanilla extract.
5. Mash and add your bananas. Add the mashed bananas and mix on low until just combined. The batter may look slightly curdled at this point — that’s completely normal with very ripe bananas. It will come together.
6. Mix in the sour cream. Add sour cream and mix on low until just incorporated. Don’t overmix from this point on.
7. Add the dry ingredients. Add the flour mixture in two additions, mixing on low after each just until no dry streaks remain. Stop as soon as it’s combined.
Bake & Unmold
8. Pour immediately and bake. Pour the batter straight into your prepared bundt pan the moment it’s ready. Don’t let it sit — baking soda activates as soon as it meets the wet ingredients and you don’t want to waste that rise. Bake for 55–65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the thickest part comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs.
9. Cool, then unmold. Set the pan on a wire rack and let it rest for exactly 10–15 minutes. Place a cooling rack on top, then flip the whole thing in one confident motion. Lift the pan off slowly. Let the cake cool completely before glazing — at least 30 minutes.
Make the Glaze
10. Whisk the cream cheese glaze. Beat softened cream cheese until completely smooth. Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of milk. Whisk until pourable, adding the third tablespoon if needed. You want it to flow off a spoon slowly.
11. Glaze and serve. Pour the glaze over the completely cooled cake, starting from the center and letting it run naturally into the ridges. Let it set for 5 minutes before slicing.
The glaze settling into the grooves of the bundt — this is the moment.
Lily’s Tips for the Best Banana Bundt Cake
A few things I’ve learned after making this bundt more times than I can count — the difference between a cake that releases perfectly and one that sticks is usually one of these.
Grease that pan like your cake depends on it. Because it does. Every ridge, every curve, every crevice. A bundt pan is unforgiving if you’re hasty here. Baking spray with flour is the most reliable method — brush softened butter into the ridges if you don’t have it, then dust with flour and tap out the excess.
The 10-minute unmold window is real. Too soon and the cake hasn’t set enough and will tear. Too late and the steam trapped inside creates condensation that acts like glue. Set a timer.
Room temperature everything. Butter, eggs, sour cream — all of it. Cold ingredients don’t emulsify properly and you lose the lift. If you forgot, put your eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.
The secret to a moist banana bundt cake is the sour cream. It adds fat, tenderness, and a gentle tang that balances the sweetness. Greek yogurt works as a swap but sour cream gives a slightly richer crumb. Brown-spotted bananas contain up to 80% more natural sugar than yellow ones — don’t bake with ones you’d still eat as a snack.
“When in doubt, blend your bananas instead of mashing them. It changes everything.” A smooth banana purée gives a more even crumb and a subtler flavor that carries all the way through the cake without any chunky spots.
Variations
This recipe is a great base to riff on. The batter is forgiving and takes mix-ins well, and the glaze is easy to swap. Here are the versions I come back to most.
Mix-In Variations
Chocolate chip. Fold ¾ cup of mini chocolate chips into the finished batter before pouring into the pan. Mini chips distribute more evenly in a bundt — regular ones tend to sink.
Walnut or pecan. Stir in ½ cup of roughly chopped toasted walnuts or pecans. Toast them in a dry skillet for 3–4 minutes first. The warmth deepens the flavor.
Glaze Variations
Brown butter glaze. Skip the cream cheese and make a simple brown butter glaze instead: brown 4 tbsp of butter in a small pan, whisk in 1 cup of powdered sugar and 1–2 tbsp of milk. Nutty, warm, and stunning over the banana cake. If you love those warm caramel-banana notes, our banana coffee cake with streusel plays with the same combination in a completely different format.
More frosting, less drizzle. If you want a thick, fluffy cream cheese layer instead of a poured glaze, look at this banana layer cake with cream cheese frosting — the frosting recipe there is my go-to and spreads beautifully over a cooled bundt.
Format & Shortcut
Mini bundt cakes. Use a 6-cavity mini bundt pan and reduce baking time to 22–28 minutes. Individual portions are great for a brunch spread.
Want an even denser crumb? The texture here is soft and moist thanks to the sour cream. If you prefer that classic ultra-dense, buttery bite, our southern banana pound cake is the one to try next — same one-pan format, completely different feel.
Cake mix shortcut. If you’re after an easy banana bundt cake with less measuring, you can swap the flour, leavening, and salt for one box of yellow cake mix. Reduce the butter to ½ cup, keep the 4 bananas, 2 eggs, sour cream, and vanilla, and mix everything together until combined. The result is a banana bundt cake from mix that’s lighter and a little sweeter than the from-scratch version — still delicious on a busy weekend. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45–55 minutes. A chocolate banana bundt cake works the same way with a chocolate cake mix — fold in ¼ cup of cocoa powder too for a deeper flavor.
How to Store
This banana bundt cake keeps beautifully — and is honestly better on day 2, once the crumb has settled and the banana flavor has deepened. Here’s how to store it depending on when you plan to serve it.
Counter: Up to 3 days — cover loosely with a cake dome or plastic wrap. The sour cream in this cake keeps it moist at room temperature longer than most.
Fridge: Up to 5 days in an airtight container. Let slices sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before eating, or warm briefly in the microwave for 15–20 seconds. Cold glaze firms up — that’s fine, it still tastes wonderful.
Freezer: Up to 3 months. Freeze the unglazed cake, tightly wrapped in two layers of plastic wrap and a layer of foil. Thaw overnight in the fridge, bring to room temperature, then make a fresh batch of glaze and pour just before serving. Leftover slices also work beautifully pulled apart and layered into our banana bread pudding — it’s a cozy second life for any cake that’s starting to dry out.
Meal prep tip: Bake the bundt up to 2 days ahead and store it covered at room temperature. Make the glaze the morning you plan to serve. The cake is actually more tender on day 2 — the crumb settles and the banana flavor deepens.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes — and it works beautifully. A standard 10–12 cup bundt pan is the right size for a banana bread batter made with 3–4 bananas. The bake time is longer than a loaf (55–65 minutes vs. 50–60), and you need to grease every ridge carefully. The result has a gorgeous sculpted shape and a slightly crisper crust than a loaf pan version.
Two things: very ripe bananas and sour cream. Ripe bananas add natural moisture and concentrated sweetness. Sour cream adds fat and tenderness that a standard bundt cake recipe doesn’t always include. The brown sugar also helps retain moisture better than white sugar alone.
Insert a toothpick into the thickest part of the cake — it should come out clean or with just a few moist crumbs. The cake will also pull slightly away from the sides of the pan. Start checking at 55 minutes; most ovens land between 58–63 minutes.
Yes. The poured cream cheese glaze in this recipe is thinner than frosting so it flows into the ridges and shows off the bundt shape. If you prefer a thick, spread-on banana bundt cake with cream cheese icing, simply use less milk in the glaze (1 tbsp instead of 3) and spread it with an offset spatula once the cake is cool.
One Bowl, One Pan, One Beautiful Cake
This cake is proof that four sad bananas can become something genuinely beautiful without any fuss. One bowl, one pan, one confident flip. That’s all it takes.
Tag me on Instagram @eatwithmellow or leave a star rating below — seeing your bundt cakes makes my week every single time.
If you loved this, try this caramelized banana upside down cake next — same wow-factor, completely different texture — or go all in on dessert with our no-bake banana pudding cheesecake.
Love, Lily 🍌
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Banana Bundt Cake
Equipment
- 10–12 cup Bundt pan
- Large mixing bowl
- Electric hand mixer
- Rubber spatula
- Wire cooling rack
- Whisk
Ingredients
DRY INGREDIENTS
- 3 cups 360g all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
WET INGREDIENTS
- 4 large very ripe bananas about 1½ cups / 380g, mashed
- 1 cup 225g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup 200g packed brown sugar
- ¼ cup 50g granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup 240g sour cream, room temperature
VANILLA CREAM CHEESE GLAZE
- 4 oz 113g cream cheese, softened
- 1½ cups 180g powdered sugar, sifted
- 2–3 tbsp whole milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Spray a 10–12 cup Bundt pan generously with flour-containing baking spray, coating every ridge and crevice.
- Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Beat softened butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium for 2 minutes until creamy and pale. Add both sugars and beat for 2–3 more minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Mix in vanilla extract.
- Add mashed bananas and mix on low until combined. Batter may look slightly curdled — that’s normal.
- Mix in sour cream on low until just incorporated.
- Add flour mixture in two additions, mixing on low after each until no streaks remain. Do not overmix.
- Pour batter immediately into the prepared pan. Bake for 55–65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the thickest part comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
- Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10–15 minutes. Flip onto the rack and remove the pan. Cool completely, about 30 minutes, before glazing.
- Make the glaze: Beat cream cheese until smooth. Whisk in powdered sugar, vanilla, and 2 tbsp milk until pourable, adding a third tablespoon if needed.
- Glaze the cooled cake, pouring from the center and letting it run into the ridges naturally. Let set for 5 minutes before slicing.
Notes
