Make Ahead Banana Breakfast Cake
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A deliciously moist banana cake that makes a healthy snack or breakfast. You will be surprised how fast your family will empty the dish on this one!
About This Recipe
I’ve been making this breakfast cake for YEARS. It’s one of my go-to make-ahead breakfast recipe ideas that my whole family will devour.
Think moist, sweet banana bread but in a cake form. I love to warm it up a bit and serve with a little bit of butter.
The best part: It is filled with banana and sneaky sweet potato! YES, you can get your crew to eat sweet potato for breakfast!
Ingredients Needed
As I mentioned before, this breakfast cake is made with ingredients you likely already have in your pantry. Here is what you’ll need:
- Bananas – The riper the better. Pro-tip: You can freeze ripe bananas for recipes like this! Here’s how to freeze bananas.
- Cooked sweet potato – You can also substitute canned pumpkin or cooked butternut squash for sweet potato.
- White Whole Wheat Flour – Please note that this is not just whole wheat flour. It needs to be WHITE WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR variety. If you don’t have that, you can use half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour as a substitute. (Read more on this below.)
- Coconut oil – Make sure it’s melted or substitute avocado oil.
- Plain Greek yogurt – You can use full-fat sour cream instead if you want.
- Mini Chocolate Chips – I’ve used dark chocolate chips before and loved it!
- Standard baking ingredients: Eggs, vanilla, sugar (I used coconut sugar), baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
One thing worth noting on this recipe is that you will need a blender. This makes the batter SUPER smooth and hides all the sneaky produce.
How Do I Freeze Banana Breakfast Cake?
We are huge fans of make-ahead freezer meals. Not only have we written two freezer meal cookbooks, but we have a huge collection of freezer meals that are delicious, healthy, and easy! Banana Breakfast Cake is a recipe that freezes beautifully.
If you are already busting out all of the ingredients and utensils to make this breakfast cake, you might as well make two batches and freeze one for later. Here’s how:
To Freeze For Later: Bake breakfast cake just until done. Cool completely. Either cover the baking dish tightly in a few layers of foil or plastic wrap or carefully lift the cake out of the baking dish and wrap in several layers of foil or plastic wrap, pressing as much air out as you can.
To Prepare From Frozen: Thaw on the counter. Warm a slice in the microwave for 15-20 seconds and top with a pat of butter, if desired.
Serving Ideas
Our smoothies would be a perfect pairing with breakfast cake. Choose from one of the following flavors!
- Chocolate Covered Cherry Smoothie
- Blueberry Muffin Smoothie
- Orangesicle Smoothie
- Strawberry Piña Colada Smoothie
- Green Machine Smoothie
- Very Berry Smoothie
- 4-Ingredient Tropical Green Smoothie
Another idea would be Oven Baked Bacon. It comes out perfectly every time using our baking method.
Why Is White Whole Wheat Flour So Important?
If you spend much time browsing through our baked goods, you’ll find that we almost always use white whole wheat flour (instead of just “whole wheat flour”). We’ve found that white whole wheat flour yields much fluffier/lighter-tasting results. It works in most recipes as a replacement for whole wheat flour. Here is a bit more about the difference between the two.
Here are some of our favorite recipes that use white whole wheat flour:
Did you make this? Snap a photo and tag us on Instagram at @thrivinghome so we can see your creations and cheer you on!
Banana Breakfast Cake
A deliciously moist banana cake that makes a healthy snack or breakfast. You will be surprised how fast your family will empty the dish on this one!
Ingredients
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour (sub: 1 cup wheat flour + 1 cup all-purpose flour)
- 1/2 cup sugar (I often use unrefined coconut sugar)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 ripe bananas
- 1 medium sweet potato, cooked and mashed (about 1 cup) (sub: pumpkin puree or butternut squash puree)
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup melted coconut oil (sub: avocado oil or melted butter)
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (sub: sour cream)
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (I used carob chips, since they are low in sugar and dairy-free)
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
Make It Now:
- Preheat oven to 350°F degrees. Spray an 8×8-inch baking dish (or a 9×13 baking dish, but note the shorter cooking time) with non-stick spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a blender, combine the bananas, sweet potato, eggs, vanilla, coconut oil, and yogurt. Blend until smooth. (If needed, add just a splash of milk to help the blender get moving.)
- Using a spatula to clean out the blender, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir gently with a spoon just until combined (do not over-mix). Batter will be thick. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Spoon batter into prepared pan and spread evenly using a spatula.
- Bake for about 35-40 minutes (for a 9×12, bake 25-28 minutes). It’s done when a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool completely.
Freeze For Later: Bake breakfast cake just until done. Cool completely. Either cover the baking dish tightly in a few layers of foil or plastic wrap or carefully lift the cake out of the baking dish and wrap in several layers of foil or plastic wrap, pressing as much air out as you can.
Prepare From Frozen: Thaw on the counter. Warm a slice in the microwave for 15-20 seconds and top with a pat of butter, if desired.
Notes/Tips
How to Turn Into Muffins: Bake at 350°F for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
If you liked this recipe, you might like these 10 other recipes that use up ripe bananas. You’ll never throw away brown bananas again!
★★★★★
So good! My kids devoured it and asked me to make more! Will have to do a double batch next time!
★★★★★
When the kids devour it, it truly is a home run, amiright? 🙂 We’ve been making this recipe for years and still can’t make enough for it to make it to the freezer! Thank you for leaving a review.
all enjoyed
★★★★★
Glad to hear it! This is one of my family’s and Rachel’s family’s favorites!
I made this tonight with 1/3 cup sugar and a little extra yogurt/flaxseed, a little less butter. Turned out great! May not be as kid-friendly, but I loved it not so sweet – with the exception of the chocolatey-chocolate chip bites 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
★★★★★
Awesome! Love hearing that you enjoyed it.
My 9 year old picked out this recipe to make for her Recipe of the Week. Thanks! 🙂
Wow, what an honor, Jena. Thanks for sharing!
Between the song lyrics and the Bill Cosby reference, I am in love with this post. It reminds me of why I love being your friend! I want to try the recipe, too:)