Banana Smash Cake
If your baby’s first birthday is right around the corner, check out this nutrient-dense smash cake option! It’s soft in texture and rich in brain-building ingredients like avocado oil, eggs, and cream cheese, and the cake batter is sweetened only with ripe bananas.
A typical slice of white cake with buttercream frosting contains about 83 grams of added sugar. With this option, you can skip most of the added sugars (babies don't know what they are missing yet, anyway!) and still provide a celebratory opportunity for baby to smash a naturally sweetened, nutritious cake.
(Please note that the frosting does include a bit of added sugar, but it’s totally fine to leave out the frosting if you’d rather go without.)
Save this recipe - the cake is a great option for toddlers and older kids as well!
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Banana Smash Cake Recipe
Banana Smash Cake

Ingredients
- 4 very ripe bananas
- ½ cup of plain yogurt
- ⅓ cup avocado oil
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups spelt flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- (Optional ¼ teaspoon salt)
- 2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 cup homemade or prepared whipped cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F and lightly oil two 6-inch round metal cake pans.
- In a large mixing bowl, mash bananas until smooth (a few lumps are ok) with a large fork.
- Add the oil, eggs, yogurt, and vanilla, and whisk until well incorporated, about 2 minutes.
- Fold in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until evenly combined.
- Pour batter evenly into the prepared cake pans.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25-35 minutes.
- While the cake bakes, make the frosting: beat all frosting ingredients together in a large bowl until smooth, about 3 minutes, then refrigerate.
- When the cake is done, cool completely on a wire cooling rack before adding the frosting, at least 1 hour. To frost, cover one layer of cake completely with frosting, lay the second layer on top, and frost. Refrigerate until serving.
Notes
- Keep leftovers for up to 5 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
- Please note that the frosting does include a bit of added sugar, but it’s totally fine to leave out the frosting if you’d rather go without.
- Feel free to use all-purpose flour instead of spelt flour. But if you have access to spelt flour, I highly recommend using it for baking! Spelt is an ancient grain that is similar to wheat (note that spelt does contain gluten). I love baking with spelt flour whenever I can find it, because it’s a whole grain, has about 4x as much fiber as all-purpose flour (and more vitamins and minerals), offers a slightly sweet, nuttier flavor, and produces baked treats that are tender.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
539Fat
32 gSat. Fat
12 gCarbs
52 gFiber
7 gNet carbs
46 gSugar
17 gProtein
12 gSodium
348 mgCholesterol
130 mg