Pumpkin Banana Cake (Dairy-Free)
Ingredients
- CAKE
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
- pinch of salt
- 3/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 ripe banana mashed
- 5 medjool dates chopped
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 oz can pumpkin 15
- 1 cup almond milk
- FROSTING
- 1/3 c coconut oil shortening
- 3/4 c powdered sugar
- DATE CARAMEL
- 1 c almond or coconut milk
- 8 chopped medjool dates
- pinch of salt
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 300°F. Using a non-stick spray of your choice, grease 3, 8-inch round cake pans.
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In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Set aside.
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In a large bowl, mix coconut oil and sugar (recommend electric beaters), until well incorporated. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla, banana and pumpkin, add in the chopped dates. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk.
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Divide batter while pouring into the greased pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a knife in the center comes out clean.
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While the cakes cool, heat the ingredients for the date caramel in a small saucepan over low heat. Simmer and stir for 5-10 mintues until the dates lose their shape and the sauce starts to thicken. Remove from heat and let cool.
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Combine the shortening and sugar in a small bowl and mix until combined (frosting will be stiff). Spread on one of the cake layers Divide the date caramel up in half and spread on top of the other two of the layers.I used a little leftover date caramel on top of the regular frosting around the rim, this is optional!
Fate is a tricky thing.
Whether or not you believe in everything having a certain path or reason, it’s undoubtable that when things fall into place you get a wonderful feeling of satisfaction. Fate can bring things together that may have otherwise forever been apart.
There is plenty of speculation and frustration over whether or not we have control of our own fate, or if there is some kind of higher force that picks and chooses the things that end up together and the things that don’t. If two things are meant to be together, sometimes it’s clear to just one person, and is an oversight of everyone else.
Sometimes when I need a real ego trip, I go to the kitchen and I look at my ingredients and instead of making the same old usual recipe with them, I play with fate and forge a new path, cross-breeding desserts in some kind of mad scientist way to find a new and delicious combination.
This creation is the product of just that, I took bananas, that are usually fated into banana bread and pumpkin, that often becomes pumpkin squares, and brought them together to create one magical delicious dessert – pumpkin banana cake.
This delectable treat has all the wonderful moisture of pumpkin squares and the caramelized sweetness of banana bread brought together to delight your taste buds in what I think is safe to say a cake that can be had for dessert or breakfast!
While this is made with all-purpose white flour, contrary to my usual forays into gluten-free baking, it’s a very simply recipe and you probably have most of the ingredients in your kitchen already!
A good thing to note is that because this is made with a gluten-full flour you have to be careful when mixing the batter not to over-stir, as this causes excess gluten formation and can yield tough and chewy baked goods. (One of the perks of gluten-free baking is not having to worry about that!)
If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice handy, I would highly suggest buying some as it is probably my favorite spice for fall baking (and all year round baking if I’m being honest with myself). If you are just so inspired to make this right now and can’t wait to buy some online, you can make your own version by combining cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger (I would do 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 ginger and 1/4 each of nutmeg and cloves) or you could simply combine allspice and cinnamon which delivers a similar warm and spicy taste.
Have you been searching for a cross between banana bread and pumpkin squares? Look no further, this recipe combines the best of both in a date-sweetened, moist, pumpkin-spiced delight.
Fiona is a lover of all things sweet and all things healthy. Follow to stay updated on the latest "hidden vegetable" desserts
What a beautiful cake! I love the very “Zen” kind of design that you created atop!
Almost to beautiful to eat! Pumpkin and banana are great pairs. I love how you hinted pumpkin was in the cake by using pepitas on the top.
This looks like the most moist cake ever! Could you please save me a slice?
Sounds like a good combination. I’m kind of the same way..I play with whatever ingredients I have sometimes and hope for the best 🙂
Isn’t that just the most fun way to bake/cook?
Totally intrigued by the banana pumpkin combo! Plus the pumpkin seed makes a great garnish.
Cake sounded fabulous. Brought to a Thanksgiving get together, and wasn’t impressed by anyone. Cake is very dense and heavy. Not the kind I usually make being airy. Needed more spice flavor and sugar. I had an awful time trying to carmamelize the dates. Although I don’t know if the type of dates used makes a difference, but the kind you recommend costs $59.99/ per pound (not in my pocketbook!) I tried melting and thickening it for 3 hours and still it did not thicken up. So I put caramel ice cream topping in it. I used Sunkist dates that you find in the baking aisle. I will not be making this cake again unless I can find a way to tweak it.
Hi Kathy, thanks so much for stopping by the blog and trying out this recipe! I’m sorry you weren’t a fan of the cake – I definitely agree that it is dense, almost like a pumpkin banana bread. Most of my desserts are low-sugar hence the lack of sweetness in the cake, I try to rely on natural sugars (in the dates and the banana) for sweetness. Medjool dates can definitely be expensive (I am a huge fan of bulk buying) but they are key in this recipe because they are much larger, and much sweeter than the Sunkist ones and much less fibrous which is why they only take 5-10 minutes to break down on the stove versus the hours you had to endure! I did try the recipe several times and had someone else make it so I’m not sure if it was just a difference in taste or purely the dates but I appreciate your feedback and next time I make it I’ll use different dates to confirm that for sure! Happy baking!