Air Fryer Banana Cake

This Air Fryer Banana Cake recipe is light and fluffy but still a super moist cake – man oh man – it’s so good with so much banana flavor! And – it was really easy dessert to make!!! I tend to cook more than bake – but this might make a baker out of me yet!

I also whipped up a cream cheese buttercream frosting – and that was easy too! Can you tell I’m not a pastry chef?! But here’s the thing – if I can do it – so can you! It’s so easy and DELICIOUS!!!! This cake really hits the sweet tooth but because it’s banana cake – it’s not overly sweet.

Because I used my air fryer – I ended up using smaller pans – but then I decided to fancy up and do a layer cake (ok – it’s still a simple cake but it felt fancy to me). So artsy! hahaha

What’s in Banana Cake?

Well – making a cake from scratch is really pretty simple! The ingredients are similar to my air fryer banana bread recipe but the combinations are different to make it light and fluffy for a delicious cake! Here’s what you’ll need:

• all purpose flour
• baking soda
• baking powder
• cinnamon
• salt
• Ripe bananas
• lemon juice
• brown sugar
• white sugar
• buttermilk
• butter, softened
• large egg
• vanilla (or vanilla extract)
• walnuts (optional) – you can use whatever your favorite nut is
• chocolate chips (optional)

The frosting is really the best part – right? I chose to do a cream cheese buttercream – from scratch – cuz I’m that fancy now! Here’s what you’ll need for that:

• cream cheese, room temperature
• butter, softenend
• lemon juice & zest (1 lemon is enough for the whole recipe)
• vanilla
• powdered sugar

How do you make cake in the air fryer?

It’s easy peasy – I’m not much of a baker but I was able to make this easily! For the cake:

• Pre heat air fryer to 350 (my oven style requires a preheat – I recommend it for a cake so it’s starting in a hot oven)
• Grease and flour two 7″ pans
• In a medium bowl, add mashed bananas and lemon juice, set aside
• In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter, brown and white sugar until combined with hand mixer
• Add in egg and vanilla and mix ingredients on high until light & fluffy (almost the texture of frosting). Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt)
• Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk to wet ingredients (sugar/egg batter). Mix on medium setting just until combined
• Fold in bananas and pour cake batter into prepared pan (s)
• Sprinkle walnuts on top of both cakes
• Put cake pans into air fryer and reduce heat to 300 degrees.
• Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (do not overbake – check at 15-17 min)
• Remove from oven. For best results, cover with plastic wrap and place pan in freezer for 45 minutes. This helps keep the cake extra moist!

For the frosting – it’s easy too! While your cake is baking,

• Cream together butter & cream cheese until fluffy.
• Add in vanilla, lemon zest & juice
• Add powdered sugar a little at a time until you reach desired consistency
• Spread over cooled cake and layer!

What baking pan should I use in my air fryer?

The main issue you’ll likely run into is is the size, shape and kind of air fryers you have. My air fryer basket has a little handle on the screen – so I would take that screen out and just set the cake pan in the bottom of the basket. But then I’d only be able to do one cake at a time. Which is fine – just takes longer.

With the oven style air fryer – I could either do one larger cake or two smaller. I just purchased these 7″ deep dish pizza pans from William Sonoma and thought they would be perfect for a little mini cake – and they were!

In terms of baking the cake – nothing is different than an oven. I wouldn’t fill the pan too full – just in case the air wants to blow around – you don’t want it splattering onto the heating element. I didn’t have that issue at all. If you go with one larger pan – you’ll need to bake it longer. I would add five minutes and check it from there…a toothpick or cake tester should come out clean to show the cake is done.