Banana, cinnamon, and caramel sauce. Oh, and vanilla icecream.
If you are looking for a dessert to warm you up, look no further. This incredibly moist banana cake is making its own cinnamon caramel sauce! The pudding is super moist, cinnamony, and packed with banana flavor. Is there anything better than cold ice cream melting over a warm pudding?
What I love about this dessert is how easy it is to prepare, it requires only one bowl and ingredients you probably already have on hand.
You start by mixing all the dry ingredients together and then stir in the wet ingredients. Mix and pour into a baking dish. For the batter, I went with a base of oat flour plus some almond flour to make the cake even moister. The wet ingredients consist of almond milk, coconut oil, and a full cup of mashed bananas! I can tell you the banana flavor is not missing! For better results, use ripe bananas, they are sweeter and will be easier to mash.
The magic of this pudding cake is that it makes its own caramel sauce on the bottom.
Once you have spread the pudding batter into the baking dish, pour a mix of water and coconut sugar on top. Using coconut sugar gives the sauce a delicious caramel flavor. It will look a bit messy at first, with a liquid floating on top of the cake but as it will bake, the cake will rise on the surface and a sauce will form at the bottom.
Regarding the baking time, I found out 25 minutes in the oven was the perfect duration to get a moist, almost sticky cake with a thick sauce. Just 5 more minutes and you will have almost no sauce, so make sure to set your timer!
This self-saucing banana pudding cake makes the perfect weeknight dessert, especially at this time of the year. Vanilla ice cream melting over the warm and moist pudding is the best thing that ever happened in the dessert world. And if you plan on having this for breakfast, please do so, I'm not judging!
Let me know in the comments if you try this recipe!
Self-Saucing Banana Pudding Cake
Ingredients
- 1 and ½ cup 140g oat flour
- ½ cup 56g almond flour
- ⅓ cup 60g coconut sugar
- 1 and ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup mashed banana about 2 and ½ bananas*
- ½ cup 118ml almond milk
- 2 tablespoon 30ml melted coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¾ cup 177ml water
- ½ cup 90g coconut sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
- In a large bowl, whisk together the oat flour, almond flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- Add the mashed bananas, almond milk, melted coconut oil, and vanilla. Mix until well combined. The batter will be thick.
- Pour the batter into a 10x7-inch baking dish and spread using a spoon to flatten. (I used this baking dish). Set aside.
- In a small saucepan, warm the water over medium heat. Once warm, remove from heat and add the coconut sugar to the water. Whisk until the sugar is almost fully dissolved.
- Slowly pour the sugar water over the pudding batter. I recommend pouring over the back of a spoon, this way you won't make holes in the batter and distribute it more evenly.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until the top looks cooked. Remove from heat and let cool 5-10 minutes. You will end up with a moist banana cake with a thick sauce at the bottom. Serve warm topped with vanilla ice cream.
- This pudding cake will keep for up to 3 days covered in the refrigerator. To reheat: cover with foil and reheat in a 350°F preheated oven for 10 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
Do you think the sauce will become absorbed by the cake if it's made a day in advance and reheated? This sounds great for an upcoming midweek office potluck as it's quick to put together, but we have no oven at work, just a microwave.
I'm afraid it will! The cake is really best served warm, out of the oven. It can be reheated but you will have little to no sauce, it will still be very moist though.
Thank you! Maybe I'll save it for just us at home then. 😉
Can all purpose flour be used in place of oat flour?
I haven't tried yet but I think it should work.
What about rice flour in place to keep it gluten-free?
This recipe is already gluten-free.
Some people intolerant to gluten can’t eat oats either - so whilst strictly speaking it may be gluten free it may not suit everyone with a gluten intolerance.
I love that this makes its own sauce! Delicious!
This sounds just fantastic! I'd like to make it for someone I know who truly loves bananas but is allergic to nuts. Would it work almost as well replacing the almond flour?
If he loves bananas I definitely think he is going to love this one!
I have never tried using another flour since almond flour is a bit difficult to replace. Considering there is a lot of moisture coming from the bananas in this recipe I guess you could try replacing it with more oat flour, or all-purpose flour if not gluten-free.
I loved this recipe. I'm definitely going to try it since I love bananas. This is fantastic! I'm always making recipes using fruit and looking for many other ways to use them too.
So good! I substituted oat flour for brown rice to make it GF. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing your tweak!
The 2nd time I made this, I had guest who couldn't eat almonds and some stewed apricots I needed to use. I replaced the almond meal with sunflower meal and used about 1 and 1/2 cups of apricot with one medium banana. I also used maple syrup for the sauce on top and a mix of teff, rice and tapioca flour instead of oat. It was even better than before which meant I had to share it more. Great recipe!
Thanks for your rating and for sharing your tweaks Sylvia! 🙂
The recipe is amazing! Thank you! It’s a bit too sweet for men though. Maybe I will reduce the sugar next time. :))
I would just like to say that this is one of the best vegan blogs I've seen. Your recipes are unique and interesting, but not so complex that non-professionals would get overwhelmed. Your photos are great too!
Thank you so much, Cat! I really appreciate your kind words!
This looks amazing! Bananas aren’t the best for me, unfortunately. Have you tried any other fruit? Was wondering about peaches (smushed with some purée) or apples (with some applesauce). Thanks so much!
I haven't! Apples may work, I'm not sure about peaches.
Can anything be substituted for the coconut oil? I don’t use oil of any kind.
Just omit!
Thomas I’ve made your blue and Camembert cheeses a few times - brilliant recipes! I’ve now started branching out to your others like Chick’n (I’m still working to nail that one) and now this one - soooo good! We actually prefer it with the sauce absorbed .. and I’ve swapped to walnut meal and MCT as well and it works brilliantly. Thank you for sharing all your wonderful recipes!
Thanks Shannon! I'm glad you liked this pudding 🙂 Walnut meal sounds delicious!
This is a beautiful desert and so easy to make. I took it to our friend's house, reheated for 10 mins and served it with ice cream. The flavour was great, no sauce as I cooked it earlier in the day and reheated it later, it was lovely and moist though, everyone had seconds so not so good for the waistline! Thank you.
Thanks Janet! Haha I agree about the waistline 🙂
This pudding is quick and easy , but so Just sweet enough thanks to the natural sweetness from the bananas . Even though i made one last night , it was so good i have to make another again tonite
Thanks Tanya!
Thanks for sharing this. it is superb. I modified it the second time I made it by adding some organic cacao nibs, which give it a chocolatey element without overwhelming the other flavours.
This is one of my favourite recipe blogs - keep up the good work!
Thanks Dauvit! Sounds like a great addition!
Thank you Thomas for this unique receipe. I made it today and the family could not get enough of it. The non-vegan family members could not tell. It was so delicious. I will make it again!
You're welcome Shirley! Glad you and your family liked this pudding 🙂
Thanks for your feedback!
Hello is that vanilla essence or extract ? Thanks 🙂
Hi Dakota,
It's vanilla extract 🙂
Thomas, you have created an amazing and wonderful dessert. I followed the directions faithfully--however I didn't have a 10x7 pan. I used an 8x8 pan and baked it an extra 20 minutes or so, pulling it out of the oven when the top was brown and the sides pulled away a bit from the pan. I had some when it cooled a bit, so delicious, and there was another serving with warmed almond milk on it.... and some left for today! Thank you!!
Thanks for your great feedback Susan! I'm happy to hear you liked this dessert ^^