This moist tropical banana pound cake is a sweet and boozy dessert made with ripe bananas, lime, a splash of rum, and a sprinkle of shredded coconut. It’s your favorite Caribbean flavors in one delicious pound cake recipe!
Easy Tropical Banana Pound Cake Recipe
Slather on that sunscreen and hold onto your sunhats because this homemade Banana Pound Cake recipe is taking us on a tropical vacation. This is a soft and tender pound cake filled with sweet banana flavor and brightened up with lime. Plus, we’ll throw in a generous splash of Malibu rum (it’s a holiday, after all) and a sprinkle of coconut on top. This moist pound cake is a burst of the tropics in dessert form.
Why You’ll Love This Banana Pound Cake Recipe
- Tropical flavor. This recipe is popping with the Caribbean flavors of sweet bananas, zesty lime, and smooth coconut rum.
- Moist and tender. This pound cake is just the right amount of dense and soft, with a moist and tender crumb that melts in your mouth. It’s really delicious!
- Easy to make. You don’t need anything fancy for this pound cake. You may already have everything you need in the pantry!
How to Make Banana Pound Cake
I don’t know about you, but I can hear the palm trees rustling already. Let’s kick things off with a quick overview of the key ingredients you’ll need to make your fluffy banana pound cake. Be sure to scroll to the recipe card below the post for the full amounts and recipe instructions.
Recipe Ingredients
- Baking Staples: This recipe calls for baking essentials like flour, butter, sugar, eggs, salt, for the pound cake batter.
- Banana: You’ll need one overripe, speckled banana. Just like when making banana bread, the riper the better!
- Rum: Yes, rum! A splash of Malibu or spiced rum gives your banana pound cake a zesty, Caribbean feel.
- Lime: Freshly squeezed lime juice is a must.
- Shredded Coconut: For sprinkling over top of the finished pound cake.
Directions
- Sift the dry ingredients. First, sift together the flour and salt.
- Mash the banana. In a separate bowl, mash up your banana with milk, rum, and lime juice.
- Make the batter. Meanwhile, use a stand mixer to cream the butter together with sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time until combined. Next, alternate mixing in the flour mixture and banana mixture until well combined.
- Fill the pan(s). Pour the batter into two greased and floured loaf pans (or a bundt pan). If you’re making this cake in a bundt pan, sprinkle the shredded coconut in the bottom first. If you’ve filled two loaf pans, add the coconut over top of the batter.
- Bake. Bake your banana pound cake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean. Afterward, wait while the cake cools in the pan for a few minutes before transferring the cake to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
Tips and Variation Ideas
Before you go totally bananas for this pound cake, here are some final tips and easy variations that you can keep in mind:
- Grease and flour the pan. Give the pan(s) a good coating with butter or shortening and a generous dusting with flour to prevent this cake from sticking.
- When mashing the bananas, use a fork, and don’t worry if there are a few chunks remaining afterward.
- Don’t overmix the batter. Overmixing cake batter leads to a dense and tough pound cake that won’t rise properly. Make sure to only mix until the dry ingredients are just combined with the wet batter.
- Prevent over-baking. If the cake is browning too quickly, tent it with foil for the remaining baking time.
- More add-ins. Chocolate chips and chopped pecans or walnuts are easy add-ins for a banana pound cake.
- Pineapple. For even more tropical flair, add pineapple chunks! Be careful with wet add-ins, and make sure to drain the pineapple well and pat it dry beforehand. I also recommend tossing the pineapple chunks in flour first to keep them from sinking in the batter.
- Add a glaze. Borrow the simple vanilla glaze from my baked donuts recipe to drizzle over the finished pound cake.
Is There a Difference Between Bundt Cake and Pound Cake?
Technically, any cake can be a Bundt cake, ie. baked in a Bundt pan. A pound cake, however, is a particular kind of cake that’s a bit more dense. Pound cakes were originally made with a pound each of sugar, butter, eggs, and flour (hence the name). While this banana cake recipe strays from tradition ingredients-wise, it’s still classified as a pound cake!
What to Serve with Pound Cake
This banana pound cake is a perfect sweet addition to a summertime brunch (or a taste of the tropics any time of the year). Pair slices with coffee, a spiced cinnamon dolce latte, or your favorite brunch cocktails. Pineapple Dole Whip mimosas, anyone? Here are more tasty serving ideas:
- Brunch. Round out a brunch table with crispy bacon, crowd-friendly sheet pan eggs, or Benedict-style eggs halifax.
- Coffee. Enjoy this pound cake with a classic cortado coffee, a cozy dirty chai latte, or an easy homemade iced americano.
- Cold Drinks. This tropical banana pound cake is delicious washed down with a cool Caribbean-inspired sorrel drink (Jamaican hibiscus punch). Or, try a strawberry acai refresher.
- Ice Cream. Top your pound cake slices with homemade banana frozen yogurt or mango ice cream for an extra tropical dessert.
- Dinner. A slice of banana pound cake makes a scrumptious dessert. Serve it after a meal of jerk chicken pasta (a.k.a. Rasta pasta) or spicy jerk sauce grilled pork chops and a side of salad.
How to Store A Cake
- To Store. Store the cake in an airtight container or wrap it tightly, and keep it in the fridge for up to 2-3 days. My banana pound cake rarely lasts long (it’s that good!) so I can’t say much about longer-term storage. 😉
- Freezer. This pound cake freezes well. Once it’s cooled completely, double-wrap the cake tightly in plastic wrap, or store it in an airtight container or freezer bag. Freeze the pound cake for up to 2-3 months, and defrost it in the fridge before serving.
ENJOY!
More Banana Recipes to Try
- Skillet Chocolate Banana Bread
- Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Creamy Crock Pot Banana French Toast
- Bananas Foster Upside Down Cake
Banana Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 3¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon white rum
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 1 small overripe banana, mashed
- 2 cups butter, softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 9 large eggs
- 1 cup shredded coconut for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F.
- Grease two 9-inch loaf pans or one 10-inch bundt pan with butter and dust with flour; set aside.
- Whisk together the flour and salt to combine and set aside.
- Combine mashed banana, rum, and lime juice in a separate bowl.
- In your mixer's bowl cream the butter on medium-high until light and fluffy.
- Slowly add the sugar and continue to beat until thoroughly combined and no lumps appear.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating each egg until well incorporated.
- On low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the banana mixture; beat until well incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and top with shredded coconut. *If using a bundt pan, sprinkle the shredded coconut onto the bottom of the pan before pouring in the batter.
- Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Tent with aluminum foil to prevent browning.
- Cool in pan for 15 minutes.
- Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
- Serve.
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
9 eggs is a lot, can I cut down on the eggs? If so cut down by half or how many. I have to watch my cholesterol, too many yolks
Hi! A pound cake has a lot of eggs because recipes for this cake call for equal parts of one pound each of butter, eggs, sugar, and flour, hence its name. If there isn’t enough egg, your batter may be unable to hold its structure.
has anyone made using gluten free flours?