Banana Crumb Snack Cake

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Read the full disclosure here.

A simple and perfectly moist banana cake with a fine sandy crumb topping.

Banana Crunch Snack Cake: A simple and perfectly moist banana cake with a fine sandy crumb topping.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, something I really love about this whole blogging gig is that I can help you (my dear readers) find the best recipes for something specific or recreating something you love but you maybe don’t know how or where to start it.

That’s part of my job!

I’m not perfect, but I’ve experimented a lot with baking in my time, so I do know a thing or two about at least where to start sometimes.

Save This Recipe form

WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?

Enter your email below & we'll send it straight to your inbox. Plus you’ll get great new recipes from us every week!

Back at the end of 2016, I asked for cake recipes you’d like to see. A wrote a lot of them down and have been working my way through them by way of my Cake of The Month collection.

Thanks for helping me bring white cake and dark chocolate cake to the cake table! This month we’re changing things up because I had a very specific request from a reader (hi, Marissa!) and it sounded WAYYY to good to pass up.

Are you familiar with Entenmann’s?

They’re a New York based company, so I’m not sure if they’ve made their way over to other parts of the country or not. They make a whole slew of bakery treats, and they certainly remind me so much of my childhood.

Apparently, they made a cake called a “banana crunch cake” that has been discontinued, and my Google consulting tells me that consumers are not so happy about this. Including Marissa!

Banana Crumb Snack Cake: A simple and perfectly moist banana cake with a fine sandy crumb topping.

I was told, and found in my research, that this cake was a moist yet light and fluffy banana cake with a very fine sandy crumb on top, and on top of that was a chocolate ganache drizzle. I took some notes, asked some questions, and got to work in the kitchen.

My first attempt was pretty good, I have to give myself some credit, but where I really screwed up was the size of the baking pan. I chose an 8×8 inch square pan, and while I think the cake itself would have probably been ok, there was so much crumb on top that it weighed the whole cake down and I don’t think the cake was able to puff up as nicely as it could have without all that business going on on top of it.

You may have seen my picture of how we solved this issue: we ate just the done parts (which happened to be the edges).

You may also see that I attempted some chocolate chip action in the crumb. Nope. Not a great choice. I wanted to keep this cake easy, and while a chocolate ganache drizzle isn’t all that difficult, I aim for suuuuuper easy sometimes, and wanted to cut some corners.

Yeah, that didn’t work out so great either, as the chips had nowhere to “stick.” They sort of just sat around in the crumb and didn’t do too much for me.

So I spread things out into a 9×13 inch baking dish and abandoned the chocolate completely. Such a great decision. I think this cake is perfectly flavored and doesn’t need anything else. If you’d like to add some chocolate after the fact, or even put some chocolate chips into the cake itself, go for it.

But Matt and I both liked this cake better without chocolate.

Banana Crumb Snack Cake: A simple and perfectly moist banana cake with a fine sandy crumb topping.

As for the recipe, it’s pretty straight forward. I will say, however, that you’ll really want to spend some time making that crumb super sandy. This isn’t a streusel topping like one you’d find on my cinnamon streusel coffee cake or my apple cinnamon streusel bread, it’s more of a crumbly crumb (what?!) that is meant to fall all over the place and create a mess on your plate so you’re forced to lick it clean (no shame).

If you feel your crumb isn’t fine enough, get your hands in there. That’s the best way I found to make it nice and sandy.

What I really love about snack cakes is that they’re not quite a bar dessert, but they’re also not as fancy or serious as a layer cake. They can stay right there in the pan, so they travel well, and you can either eat a slice with a fork or pick it up and eat it like a brownie.

Your choice! No wrong way to snack on some snack cake, folks. No wrong way at all.

If you’re in need of a simple cake that will please lots of tastebuds and won’t require a whole lot of elbow grease for a pretty presentation, definitely consider this banana snack cake for your next get together.

It’s light and fluffy, Goldilocks level of banana flavor, and it’s that perfect level of sweetness that you can totally get away with a piece for breakfast. I mean, BANANAS. That’s breakfast, right?

Banana Crumb Snack Cake: A simple and perfectly moist banana cake with a fine sandy crumb topping.

Easy peasy, transportable, and tasty little streusel-like crumbs? Count me in for sure!

Banana Crumb Snack Cake: A simple and perfectly moist banana cake with a fine sandy crumb topping.
No ratings yet
Pin Recipe Print Recipe Rate this Recipe

Banana Crumb Snack Cake

A simple and perfectly moist banana cake with a fine sandy crumb topping.
Prep Time15 minutes
Bake Time22 minutes
Total Time37 minutes
Recipe Author Lynn April
Servings: 12 servings

Ingredients

CRUMB TOPPING

  • 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled for 5 minutes

BANANA CAKE

  • 2 cups all purpose flour be sure to measure properly
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup buttermilk*
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 large bananas (or 3 medium) mashed

Instructions

CRUMB TOPPING

  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, both sugars, and salt until thoroughly combined. Drizzle melted butter over the flour mixture.
  • Stir with a spatula until a fine, sandy crumb forms. You may also use your hands to break up larger chunks. Set aside.

BANANA CAKE

  • Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9" x 13" baking sheet with non-stick spray. Set aside.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
  • Whisk the buttermilk and vanilla together in a small bowl or measuring cup. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl with a handheld mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and both sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Beat the eggs in one at a time until fully incorporated, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary.
  • Reduce mixer speed to medium and add half of the flour mixture to the batter, followed by half of the buttermilk mixture. Beat until incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour and buttermilk mixtures. Fold in the mashed bananas with a spatula until just combined.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish, making sure to spread the batter evenly. Top with sandy crumbs, ensuring even distribution again. Bake the cake for 20-22 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

Notes

*If you don't have buttermilk, you can make your own: see my post about homemade buttermilk.
Did you make this recipe?Mention @freshaprilflours on Instagram or tag #freshaprilflours!

Nutrition Disclosure

All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

13 Comments

  1. Yes! Entenmann’s! Mom would always pick up a Entenmann’s coffee cake when we had company coming or for a random Saturday treat growing up, and I swear I’d gobble up half of one in the blink of an eye. It’s one of my FIL’s guilty pleasures to this day! Never tried the banana cake mentioned, but I can only imagine that your version is 100x better anyways 😉

  2. Banana + crumbly crumb sounds like a winner to me! You have definitely put in a lot of research making this the perfect banana crumb snack cake for the Entenmann’s fans and I’ll definitely be giving it a try when my next batch of bananas reach peak almost-rotten-ness 🙂 I love a simple snack cake – perfect for ‘just a sliver…and another….’ eaters like me 😉

    1. Haha, the exactly right level of rottenness is so key! And the slivers were dangerous with this one. Soooo dangerous.

  3. Um, yes I want to try this! I’ve heard of Entenmann’s, but do not know their Banana Crumb Cake. I love, LOVE, banana cake though so this is a MUST try for me. I can’t wait to try this bad boy; it will be perfect for my sis’s upcoming birthday. She also has a love for banana cake. Thanks for sharing! Pinned!

  4. I’m reading through the comments, and don’t see that anyone states the actually tried this recipe. I’m an avid baker, and I have a rather new LG range, but I’m struggling to get this cake baked in the amount of time suggested in your recipe. It’s currently in the oven at 350°F, for 33 minutes now, and still raw in the middle. Is the time an error?

    1. Hi, Cari– it’s always possible I made a typo in the recipe. I did have a reader turn these into cupcakes and her bake time was approximately 18 minutes, which makes my 20-22 minutes seem very off. How did it turn out? I’ll have to go back through my paper recipe notes and see if I made an error in typing.

  5. Omgoodness. I’m visiting family and this just happens to be my niece is very favorite cake that is discontinued now and it was absolutely impressive thank you very much for letting me be able to bring something to the barbecue so far from home