An easy, light, and fluffy Vegan Banana Cake with dairy-free chocolate chips and smothered in an indulgent chocolate peanut butter frosting.

Vegan banana bread absolutely has it’s place in my heart. It’s a go-to, classic recipe if you’ve got a couple of ripe bananas sitting in the fruit bowl, and always guaranteed to go down well.

Sometimes, though, you just need a little bit more.

This vegan banana cake recipe is when you want to get a little fancier with your bananas – it’s still insanely easy to make, but just adds a little more ‘spice’ to classic banana bakes.

This vegan banana cake is:

• Light, soft, and super fluffy
• Studded with vegan chocolate chips for an extra treat
• Packed full of that classic, delicious banana flavour
• Topped with the most amazing fluffy chocolate peanut butter frosting

What you need to make this recipe:

Scroll down to the recipe card at the bottom of this page to find the full measurements you need to make this vegan banana cake plus instructions.

First, we’ll have a look at the key ingredients need to make this easy banana cake and why:

• Bananas: The staple! For this recipe, I used three very ripe bananas (the skin will be spotty) – the riper your bananas are, the more flavour your cake will have.
• Brown sugar: I used a combination of light brown sugar and dark brown sugar for this recipe, which gives the cake a wonderful texture and depth of flavour.
• Flour: Plain white flour works perfectly in this recipe – you could try adapting to gluten-free flour or spelt flour but I haven’t tested the recipe with these.
• Baking powder and baking soda: These help the cake to rise and give it that lovely fluffy texture.
• Flax egg: As a substitute for eggs, this recipe uses ground flax seed and water to make a flax egg which helps to bind the ingredients together.
• Coconut oil: Instead of butter, I used melted coconut oil to add moistness to the cake. If you don’t have coconut oil, any other type of oil will work – you could also experiment with adding nut butter instead.
• Plant-based milk: You may find that you only need to add a little milk (or none at all), but this just helps to loosen up the batter if it’s a bit dry.
• Apple cider vinegar: Apple cider vinegar reacts with the baking soda to create the most wonderful light and fluffy texture when baking.

How to make Vegan Banana Cake

Step 1: To make this easy vegan banana cake, you’ll start by lining a baking tin (I used a small roasting tin 25 x 20 cm) with baking paper and pre-heating your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Step 2: Then, make your flax egg by combining ground flaxseed with water in a small bowl and leaving for about 5 minutes – the mixture will become thick and almost jelly-like.

Step 3: Next, in a mixing bowl first combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas, and stir in the sugar, melted coconut oil, and flax egg.

Step 4: Add the wet mixture to the dry, and then add your milk and apple cider vinegar and combine the mixture. Fold in your vegan chocolate chips, if using.

Step 5: Pour the batter in your tin and bake.

Step 6: Once the cake has completely cooled, you can smother it in your peanut butter chocolate frosting, grate over some dark chocolate, and serve!

Frosting your vegan banana cake

When making this vegan banana cake, I paired it with a chocolate peanut butter frosting – the ingredients and instructions for which are included in the recipe card below. Other frosting options that could work just as well include:

• Vanilla cream cheese frosting, such as the one used in for this courgette and lime cake.
• Chocolate cream cheese frosting – simply combine cocoa powder with a traditional vegan cream cheese frosting.
• A regular vanilla buttercream frosting
• Lemon cream cheese frosting or lemon buttercream
• Chocolate ganache

Equipment and tools for baking

Here are a few must-have baking tools and equipment that I would really recommend for this bake:

• Electric kitchen scales are an absolute necessity for baking and make measuring out ingredients so much more accurate than measuring cups.
• A good mixing bowl!
• A hand-held electric mixer

Storing, freezing etc

If you’re planning on freezing this vegan banana cake, I would recommend freezing the cake without the frosting. When you want it, let the cake defrost, then make the frosting fresh and smother it on to.

This cake should keep for 3 – 5 days in an airtight container.

More banana recipes you’ll love:

• Vegan Banana Brownies
• Vegan Banana Pancakes
• Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
• The Best Vegan Banana Bread Recipe