Oh, baby.
And –
Are you ready for this?
This recipe is low fat, low sugar, and really, really good for you.
I’ll give you a moment to gather yourself. Â Are you still with me? Â Are you ready to make it? Â Are you chomping at the bit, screaming into your monitor, “What are the ingredients already?!?”
Apples, bananas, flour, sugar, honey, eggs, flour, spices, salt and baking powder. Â That’s it. Â No butter, no oil, no kidding. Â And you wind up with a dense, delicious flavor-filled cake, and you don’t even have to feel guilty about going back for seconds.
So the next time you’re about to melt a stick of butter to make banana bread, put it back in the fridge, and pull out this recipe. Â You’ll be glad you did.
Apple Banana Cake
INGREDIENTS
2 large, very ripe bananas
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
Pinch of salt
2 large golden apples, sliced
Additional honey, for drizzling
DIRECTIONS
Arrange the sliced apples on a baking sheet and drizzle honey over them. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until apples are moist and tender. Remove the apples from the oven and lower its heat to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, mash bananas and sugar until combined and creamy. Add the honey and eggs and continue to beat until well combined. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, and mix until combined.
Grease an 8″ round cake pan, and arrange one layer of apple slices on the bottom of the pan (use a little less than half the apples). Pour the banana batter into the pan, and arrange a second layer of apples on the top, in an overlapping pattern. Bake the cake in a preheated 350°F oven for one hour and ten minutes.
36 responses so far ↓
1 Bridget // Jun 6, 2009 at 5:15 pm
That cake is absolutely gorgeous! Wow…and healthy, too! Amazing!
2 Aparna // Jun 7, 2009 at 5:06 am
Looking at your cake, its not easy to believe that there’s no oil/ butter in it.
Like the pattern the apple slices make on the top.
3 Kem Elliott // Jun 7, 2009 at 11:40 am
I cannot wait to try this cake! It looks amazing
4 adele // Jun 7, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Huh. And I thought oil was the secret to a good banana bread/cake. Who would have guessed?
5 Kristen // Jun 8, 2009 at 7:14 am
looks gorgeous!
6 stephchows // Jun 8, 2009 at 11:18 am
I love making banana bread sans the oil and butter. Love your version!
7 Nick // Jun 9, 2009 at 1:52 pm
That’s a beautiful lookin’ cake if I’ve ever seen one!
Nice work.
8 Jess R. // Jun 9, 2009 at 2:25 pm
This looks SO good, Katy. I’m going to make this this weekend I think… time to get some bananas.
9 BobMarche // Jun 10, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Thanks for the useful info. It’s so interesting
10 Heather // Jun 11, 2009 at 7:01 am
Amazing! Can’t wait to try it
11 Lori @ RecipeGirl // Jun 15, 2009 at 6:02 am
I’m loving this recipe. It’s a good thought for a post, really, since there are loads of us around who are absolutely tired of making plain old banana bread with our aging bananas. Delicious!
12 jmc // Jun 23, 2009 at 10:37 am
loved the looks of this dish, tried it, was disappointed in the outcome – inside was underdone, outside edges was over done, not enough apples for top and bottom and i sliced them thin…has anyone else had issues or just user error?
13 aj // Jul 17, 2009 at 6:24 am
JMC – I am thinking of doing it… I am not sure if any of the people who posted got a chance to make it. but you stated that when you made it the inside was underdone… U think It might be due to temp?
14 jmc // Jul 17, 2009 at 6:56 am
i really don’t know…i almost feel like if it was in a bigger round pan..so maybe it wasn’t so deep? but i def would have used more apples so i would have had more for the bottom and the top…i guess i sliced them too thin on my mandolin b/c baking them with the honey they basically just tasted like dried apples adn didn’t look ANYTHNG like the picture, i was disappointed.
15 aj // Jul 17, 2009 at 10:58 am
JMC – I am going to try it this weekend. I will let you know how it comes out.
16 wendyb964 // Jul 18, 2009 at 3:57 pm
hmmm, how about using a tube pan?wouldn’t look as elegant, however. bet it would also be great with canned pumpkin instead of the bananas. haven’t tried it yet though i always have those extra bananas in the freezer. i’ve found that using a flat instead of a loaf pan for the very low fat breads seems to work better. i shake powd. sugar over the top.
17 Intan // Jul 21, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Tried and have died and gone to heaven! I used a rectangular loaf tin instead (I haven’t got my round cake tins at the moment) and it solved all issues of apple shortage.
18 Sean // Aug 24, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Oh man…I’m tempted to just let these bananas I have sitting here to blacken just to make this.
Great presentation with the apples!
19 oneshotbeyond // Aug 25, 2009 at 12:18 pm
it sure is beautiful!!!
20 Sonia // Aug 28, 2009 at 10:34 am
I finally got the chance to make this one yesterday and everyone in my family (plus a few friends who wanted it since they found out I made it) thought it tasted AMAZING!! It was soooo good!
21 janet // Oct 5, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I agree, this was a fabulous cake. It was as tasty as it was pretty.
I used 3 apples based on the reviewers’ feedback and found it was plenty.
22 Apple Banana Cake: A Triple Threat « the taste space // Oct 18, 2009 at 4:50 am
[...] Adapted from Sugarlaws [...]
23 Nikki Rappaport - The taste of fall // Nov 6, 2009 at 3:13 pm
[...] recipe is adapted from Sugarlaws. Mine doesn’t look as pretty, but I’m sure tastes just as [...]
24 kathleen // Aug 8, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Love this recipe! I just made this cake with apples we picked from a friend’s yard yesterday. This is about the best cake I have ever eaten! I did not have a round pan so used a lasagna sized pan and doubled the recipe. I baked a lot of apples to be sure to have lots to overlap on the top. I also substituted spelt flour for one half of the flour (you could use whole wheat pastry flour also). I used the same cooking time and came out perfect.
25 kathleen // Aug 8, 2010 at 3:04 pm
In regards to previous post, in total I baked 3 cookie sheets of the baked apples and used any leftover in plain yogurt, sprinkled in cinnamon and drizzled with agave nectar or honey. Delish!
26 24 Apple Cakes To Make: {Recipes} : TipNut.com // Aug 26, 2010 at 11:03 am
[...] Apple Banana Cake: This recipe is low fat, low sugar, and really, really good for you. I’ll give you a moment to gather yourself. Are you still with me? Are you ready to make it? Are you chomping at the bit, screaming into your monitor, “What are the ingredients already?!?” Apples, bananas, flour, sugar, honey, eggs, flour, spices, salt and baking powder. That’s it. No butter, no oil, no kidding. And you wind up with a dense, delicious flavor-filled cake, and you don’t even have to feel guilty about going back for seconds. Recipe from Sugarlaws. [...]
27 24 Apple Cakes To Make: {Recipes} at Cooking~baking // Aug 31, 2010 at 5:33 pm
[...] Apple Banana Cake: This recipe is low fat, low sugar, and really, really good for you. I’ll give you a moment to gather yourself. Are you still with me? Are you ready to make it? Are you chomping at the bit, screaming into your monitor, “What are the ingredients already?!?” Apples, bananas, flour, sugar, honey, eggs, flour, spices, salt and baking powder. That’s it. No butter, no oil, no kidding. And you wind up with a dense, delicious flavor-filled cake, and you don’t even have to feel guilty about going back for seconds. Recipe from Sugarlaws. [...]
28 Kimbers // Oct 3, 2010 at 3:22 pm
I made this cake the other day but unfortunately, I still prefer my old recipe which uses butter. However, I do like the idea of using the apples:)
Is it supposed to rise a lot, or should it be quite dense?
29 Cyndall // Oct 4, 2010 at 1:41 pm
I made this cake for my coworkers and they just adored it!
I wrote about the experience on my blog, and was sure to link to your site!
30 Alan // Nov 25, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Thanks for the recipe, made it a few times now and always goes down a treat. I’ve made a slight change though: I use 4 bananas and 3 apples as well as 3 eggs. I also use golden syrup drizzled on the apples when initially put in the oven but honey in the cake mix. I’ve found the extra ingredients make it quite dense and so it needs an extra 20- 25 mins in the oven (using a rectangular, 3 inch deep tin here), but it comes out really well. It stays moist for a long time and lasts about 5 days when covered up!
31 hello // Feb 9, 2011 at 8:50 pm
i was wonder if this could be made in a loaf pan instead of a cake pan to achieve a more banana bread like end result.
32 Katy // Feb 10, 2011 at 12:32 am
I haven’t tried it, but I bet it would work (although keep an eye on it, because you may need to increase the baking time)! Let me know if you try it!
33 Alan // Feb 10, 2011 at 6:49 am
I always use a loaf tin and it works really well as it means you can have easy slices rather than wedges.
34 Narine // Aug 16, 2011 at 6:36 am
I made this cake for my 2 year old picky eater. He loves it. I’m not good at baking, but this is a perfect recipe.
35 willow // Sep 3, 2011 at 2:13 pm
love the look – why r u adding sugar at all? geez!
between honey and naturally sweet fruit u don’t need the half cup of sugar. Applesauce is a common replacement for oil in baking recipes BTW. [and of course, i make no sugar applesauce]
36 Jacqui // Oct 17, 2011 at 7:28 pm
Dense but Delicious! a good fall/winter cake. looks beautiful. posted my picture on facebook and EVERYONE wanted the recipe… passed link to your website on to them.
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