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Banana Pudding Cake starts with cake mix, has an amazing cool whip frosting recipe, and is so easy to make. It’s banana pudding turned into a fluffy sheet cake and it’s so good no one will know it’s semi-homemade!

square slice of cake on a white plate next to a fork.


Why You’ll LOVE This Recipe

Banana Pudding Cake is the best dessert mashup in the world! It’s a banana cake with a banana pudding frosting made from cool whip! Since it is semi-homemade and used a box-mix, it is such an easy recipe to make.

The cake is moist and has so much banana flavor plus the frosting is creamy and fluffy and it has tons of banana flavor too. Everyone who tries it loves this recipe – it will be a hit in your house too.

ingredients in banana pudding cake laid out on a white marble counter.

Ingredients

  • Cake mix: Use any brand you like.
  • Bananas: the riper your bananas are, the sweeter your cake will be. We will also use some sliced bananas to decorate the top of the cake.
  • Oil: vegetable oil is the best to use when baking to keep your cake moist
  • Nila Wafers (optional): I love to crush vanilla wafer cookies for this recipe for added texture and decoration on top

Click to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions!

How to make Banana Pudding Cake

  1. Using a whisk or a hand mixer, mix together cake mix, some of the milk, mashed bananas, eggs, and vegetable oil.
  2. Pour into prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool cake completely before frosting.
  3. Stir together whipped topping with remaining milk and instant pudding. Frost cake, garnishing with more banana and/or crushed vanilla wafers.
square slice of cake on a white plate.

Expert Tips

  • Your bananas should be over ripe with lots of brown spots. If you’ve frozen the bananas, let them thaw before adding to the cake.
  • This would also taste amazing if you used vanilla pudding mix instead of banana.
  • You can use any kind of milk or nondairy milk (like almond milk) for this recipe.
  • For Cool Whip Frosting, you can use any flavor pudding mix. I do not recommend using homemade whipped cream as I have not tested it.
  • The decorative sliced bananas will darken, so don’t add them until just before serving.

FAQs

Does banana pudding cake have to be refrigerated?

Yes. Cover the pudding poke cake and store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. The frosting also needs to be refrigerated for up to 2 days in an airtight container.

Can you freeze this recipe?

You can! Freeze in the freezer for up to 3 months in an airtight container. If you added any extra sliced bananas on top – remove those before freezing.

square slice of cake on a white plate next to a fork.

Homemade Banana Pudding Cake Recipe

5 from 10 votes
Banana Pudding Cake is an easy banana cake topped with a banana pudding frosting!

Recipe Video

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Yield 24 servings
Serving Size 1 serving

Ingredients
 

  • 1 (approx 15 ounce box) yellow cake mix
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 ripe bananas mashed
  • 3 large eggs
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 8 ounce container Cool Whip
  • 1 3.4 ounce box instant banana pudding mix
  • Bananas and Vanilla Wafers for garnish optional
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Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×13″ pan with nonstick cooking spray.
  • Using a whisk or a hand mixer, mix together cake mix, ¾ cup milk, mashed bananas, eggs, and vegetable oil on medium speed.
  • Pour into prepared pan or baking dish. Bake for 25-32 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool cake completely before frosting.
  • Prepare frosting: stir together cool whip with remaining ¼ cup milk and instant pudding. Frost cake, garnishing with more banana and/or crushed vanilla wafers.
  • Store covered in refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Recipe Notes

  • You can use any kind of milk or nondairy milk (like almondmilk) for this recipe.
  • For Cool Whip Frosting you can use any flavor pudding mix.
  • Store cake in refrigerator for up to 3 days. Bananas will darken, so remove them from the decoration when storing.
  • Cake can be frozen (without banana decoration) for up to a month. 

Recipe Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 38kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 20mg | Sodium: 22mg | Potassium: 42mg | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 35IU | Vitamin C: 0.8mg | Calcium: 16mg | Iron: 0.1mg
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
Course Dessert
Cuisine American

Other Banana Pudding Recipes



Dorothy Kern

Welcome to Crazy for Crust, where I share recipes that are sometimes crazy, often with a crust, and always served with a slice of life.

5 from 10 votes (9 ratings without comment)

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10 Comments

  1. This was a big hit. I added 2 extra mashed bananas to the recipe along with adding some sliced banana into the batter and then I did the same thing in with the pudding cool whip frosting by slicing some bananas into the frosting mix. It was DELICIOUS and I will make it again. Thank you!

  2. Can I use homemade whipped cream instead of cool whip? I never purchase cool whip because no one likes it?

    1. You should be able to yes – I haven’t done it with this frosting but I have added pudding mix to fresh whipped cream