A new twist to an old southern recipe. Happy 4th! NOTE: Please read through the whole recipe before making the cake. There are quite a few steps.
Ingredients:
Cake
4oz sticks butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 eggs + 2 egg whites
3 tsp vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
One 3.4oz box instant Banana cream pudding mix
1 cup milk
Outside Layer
Nilla wafers
1 Tbsp Sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbsp Whole Milk
Bananas
Filling in between cake layers:
Whisk together the following ingredients and refrigerate until assembling cake (~10minutes).
One 3.4oz box instant vanilla pudding mix
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 cup Cool Whip (or whipped cream)
To layer bananas: Mix together the following:
1 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbsp whole milk
You’ll also need:
2-3 medium ripe bananas sliced
3-4 cups Cool Whip for outside frosting
Nilla wafers
Step 1: Make the cake
Preheat oven to 350 F. Prep three 8″ round pans by lining the bottom with parchment paper or baking spray. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in eggs and egg whites, one at a time. Beat in vanilla until well combined.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and pudding mix. Add into wet ingredients in three separate additions, mixing until just combined. Don’t over mix!
Stir in milk until combined. Divide batter and pour into 3 pans. Bake 22-25 minutes or until cake is golden and begins to pull away from sides of pans.
Allow cake to cool 15 minutes in pan. Loosen and remove from pan.
Allow to cool another 1-2 hours on a wire rack.
Step 2: Begin layering
Level each cake. Add the filling between the cakes to make a 3 layer cake.
Brush outside of cake with milk mixture and decorate with sliced bananas.
Layer the whole cake with cool whip and top with Nilla wafers. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Kim's What's Up 
Half a butter stick I’m lost????
Sorry about that, but when I had 2 sticks of butter on the recipe people thought I meant 2 8oz. sticks. Because sticks can be short or long I specified 2 4oz. sticks.
Hello. Ready to bake this. Just for clarity, 1/2 or 1 cup of butter? Thanks, in advance
It should be 1 cup of butter. 4oz is 1/2 cup. The recipe calls for 2 4oz. sticks.
i made this cake before reading comment… i used 2 4oz sticks like i thought i understood….hope cake turns out…i am no baker and i read recipe about 5 times…..i love all things sweet so not a total loss..lolwill try it again, if i get wrong
Hi My Name Is Marie, I just want to say this is a wonderful cake, I made it and shared this wonderful creation with my Sister in Christ “They Loved IT”. Now my FRist Lady is getting a surprise in the morning she wants this cake, I THank You to the moon and back.
Glad you liked it!
What am I missing? When I made this cake 1 cup of milk was not nearly enough to turn the mixture into a batter rather than an almost dough consistency. What do you think?
Something is not right. It should be a normal cake consistency. I haven’t experienced this.
When I made this the batter was more of a dough consistency than batter. Any thoughts on this?
Please read through the whole recipe before you start. The small amount of milk is used like a glue to stick the bananas on the cake
Am I suppose to brush each layer with the condensed mixture b4 I put filling on the layers or am I just brushing the sides of the layers with the condensed milk mixture then add the filling. Also do the bananas go on top of the filling or do bananas go on the layers then the filling? I hope I didn’t confuse you. Lol but I explained it the best way I know how. My neice has been sweating me for 2 yrs now to make this cake and want to surprise her with it tomorrow but I don’t have time to do a sample cake like I usually do when I have a new recipe. Please and thank you
You’re supposed to brush on the milk mixture (a separate mixture than the filling) on the outside of the cake to help the bananas stick to the cake. The filling does not have bananas in it. The cake should all be put together with the filling before you start to put the bananas on the outside of the cake. Hope that helps.
What is the “milk mixture” that helps the bananas stick to the cake made out of besides milk? I’m not seeing it…
Thank you!
It’s titled outside layer. A mixture of sweetened condensed milk and a bit of regular milk helps the wafers to stick.
Now I see it. Sorry!
I can not wait to try this yummy looking cake, you are indeed awesome to have come up with such a marvelous idea. Since I only saw twice where you use the sweetened condensed milk so not to be wasteful what can I use to make something else with this type of milk? Thank you for your reply. GOD BLESS you and your family!
There are many recipes that use sweetened condensed milk. I make ice cream, so I use it instead of sugar because it has a great consistency and is sweet. It is also used in some sweet potato pie recipes. The best thing to do is Google sweetened condensed milk recipes. Have fun making the cake.
Is the recipe for 3.5 tsp baking powder or 1.5 tsp?
3.5 tsp baking powder
Thank you! And do you by any chance know how much of a difference using 5 eggs instead of 3 eggs n 2 egg whites will make?
Sorry, I don’t know what the cake would be like if you altered the ingredients.
Ok thanks much!
Hey do I only decorate the top of the cake with the bananas or do I go down the sides of it like I do with the wafers?
Go down the sides with the bananas as well.
What is runnning down on the outside of the cake? Cool whip?
Yes. Cool Whip
Does this cake need to be refrigerated???
Yes. The whipped cream will start to melt.
I love the the details of this recipe… But i was wondering if you could use homemade pudding instead of instant pudding.
I don’t see why not, although the recipe calls for the pudding in dry form. Not sure what the batter would be like adding a pudding that’s already liquid form.
I try tgis cake today hope it taste good waiting for my taste testers to arrive.
Well, I was talking with my son from Boston awhile back and he isn’t a cake eater, but was raving about this cake, banana pudding cake. Well of course I had to try this cake, viewed several others, being from the south we like from scratch cakes. As i assembled the cake, it was simple , interesting, no problem, didn’t have a pastry brush, used my hand and then dipped one side of banana slice in milk mixture and stuck it to cake. Not sure of taste, have not cut it yet. Sure to be tasty. Merry Christmas…another cake to wow the church folk at next gathering…
My boyfriend sent me a pic OF a banana pudding cake that he would like me 2 make. But he showed me the sheet cake. I have tried 2 find a recipe 4 a sheet cake but I only found the layered cakes. Can I make a sheet cake using the layered cake recipe????
Sure, but keep in mind that the ingredients fit into 3 8″ round cake pans. You may have alot of batter left over.
Can I substitute with a box cake.
I haven’t tried that before, but I don’t see why not.
Is this 3.5 tsp baking powder or 1.5 teaspoons baking baking powder?
It’s 3.5 tsp baking powder.
I LOVE this version due to it NOT using a boxed mix and for its adaptability…
I can HIGHLY recommend using a stabilized Whipped Cream, (Google ‘Wilton Stabilized Whipped Cream’), with the pudding mix for the Icing IF you want to take your chilled cake to an event of some sort where the icing does not need to run as it gets warm…
What do you have drizzled down the cake?
This is the last step in the recipe:
Brush outside of cake with milk mixture and decorate with sliced bananas.
Layer the whole cake with cool whip and top with Nilla wafers. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
The cool whip is melting here. Needs to be refrigerated right away.
How difficult is it to cut this cake? do the wafers soften at all? just wondering if wafers make it difficult to slice cake or if they fall off when cutting?
thanks for your help 🙂
The wafers become soft while they’re in the refrigorator. I haven’t had an issue with this. Keep in mind that as the cake sits out it will begin to melt because of the whip cream. So plan accordingly.
Question:
Can I use real home made pudding instead of the boxed kind? I always make my own pudding when I make my banana pudding dessert.
Yes. You can use your own pudding
Have you considered making a video?
This recipe really needs to be corrected. The way it is worded for the butter makes you think you need a total of 8 oz of butter but you only need a total of 4 oz. I made the recipe with 8oz and the cake turned out very dense.
I have updated the recipe to 1 stick of butter. But I usually use 2 4oz sticks of butter. My cake does not come out dense.
I made this cake several times and I had only 2 complaints from my customers, telling me it’s too dry and had a cornbread consistency. I believe it not the butter , it’s because if you over mix the batter it will cause it to be very dense because of the pudding mix in the batter and you got to make sure that you’re adding the right amount of milk otherwise it will be dense .
But I’ll continue to make this cake
Thanks for the information. Let me know if you adjust the milk amount and I’ll make a change on the recipe. I trust your judgement.
Do you need 1 or 2 sticks of butter and does it matter if it is salted or unsalted?
Use 2 4oz. sticks of butter. I usually use salted.
If possible can you make the directions more concise. Break it down in to simplier steps. It ran together and was a bit confusing. And my cake isnt turning out right
I need a bigger fridge 😭😭😭😭
Does this cake need to be refrigerated???
Yes
What kind of milk to use when mixing the batter
I use 2% milk