Banana split cake

This banana split cake is made with fluffy vanilla cake layers brushed with a cherry pomegranate cake soak, and then stacked with sautéed bananas, peanut crunch, and chocolate fudge sauce. The cake is topped with a layer of cherry strawberry frosting and maraschino cherries.

What is a banana split?

A banana split is a classic American ice cream dessert where a banana is split in half, lengthwise, then topped with three scoops of ice cream, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. The dessert is drizzled with chocolate fudge sauce, strawberry sauce, or even pineapple topping, and then garnished with dollops of whipped cream, maraschino cherries, chopped nuts, and even sprinkles.

Ways to turn it into a layer cake

There are so many ways you can translate a banana split into a layer cake. The goal is to pinpoint the key flavours of the classic dessert in order to incorporate them into a layer cake

Here are a few ideas:

• For the cake layers, you can use vanilla cake, banana cake, chocolate cake, or even strawberry and/or cherry cake.
• For the fillings, you can use:
  • sliced bananas and incorporate them as is, or sauté them in butter and brown sugar to soften them.
  • chocolate fudge sauce or salted caramel sauce
  • fruit fillings, like strawberry jam or pineapple compote
• For the frosting, you can flavour it with vanilla extract or go with bolder flavours, incorporating nut butter or even freeze-dried berries.
• For the toppings, chopped nuts or nut crunch work well, as do Milk Bar milk crumbs or berry milk crumbs, and maraschino cherries, the classic topping for most ice cream sundaes and desserts.

After testing out a few combinations with these components, I felt like the combination that best represented the banana split is a vanilla cake with a cherry-pomegranate soak, sautéed bananas, peanut crunch, chocolate fudge sauce, cherry-strawberry frosting, topped with maraschino cherries.

Most of the components for this layer cake are adapted from either Christina Tosi's first book Milk Bar, available on Amazon, or her third book All About Cake, also available on Amazon. I highly recommend both books.

The layers of cake are cut out from a large vanilla sponge sheet cake. This is the secret to achieving the flawless "naked cake" look with no golden brown edges to be seen. Tosi isn't a fan of the golden edges.

The bottom layer of the cake is actually made from cake scraps, patched together and pressed gently to create the base that you build on.

This method will still leave you with leftover cake. Save the cake scraps and make cake truffles, using the same method as the birthday cake truffles.

Special ingredients you need to bake Milk Bar recipes

• liquid glucose: you may find it at Bulk Barn or your local bulk ingredients store, or restaurant/baking supply stores in your area. If not, you can buy Wilton brand glucose from Amazon.
• cake flour: cake flour has a lower protein content and higher starch content than regular all-purpose, which will help you achieve a fluffier, more tender cake. This type of flour is better at absorbing more liquid. You can find it on Amazon if your grocery store doesn't have it.
• grapeseed oil: grapeseed oil is a flavourless oil. If you don't want to buy grapeseed oil, Tosi recommends using canola oil. If you feel like buying grapeseed oil, you can buy it on Amazon. I use canola oil because it's cheaper, so feel free to swap them!
• pailleté feuilletine from Cacao Barry is what gives the nut crunches that crispy light texture. You can buy it on Amazon, but I used Gavottes crispy crêpe cookies, and they worked perfectly. I got them at the grocery store from the cookie aisle, but you may have to order them from Amazon.
• freeze-dried fruit powders, cherry and strawberry for this recipe—you can buy whole freeze-dried cherries on Amazon and whole freeze-dried strawberries on Amazon, and then grind them down in the food processor into a fine powder.

Special equipment and tools to make Milk Bar layer cake recipes

• stand mixer: Christina Tosi has a very specific way of mixing cake batters and they require a ton of beating. Unfortunately, this means using a hand-held electric mixer is a terrible option for this recipe (as is a wooden spoon for mixing by hand). Your best bet is to use a KitchenAid Artisan 5 quart mixer or their 6 quart professional mixer. If you don't have one and you want to bake more, I highly recommend getting one on Amazon.
• 6-inch cake ring: I actually used the ring of a 6-inch springform pan from Amazon to build my cake, but it was not ideal because of the rim/seam on the springform which made it extra hard to unmold. Buy a cake ring from Amazon if you can.
• acetate: when I made this cake, I didn't know where to buy acetate, so I used acetate sheets from an office supply store. No clue if it's food grade. Don't do that. Buy a roll of acetate from Amazon.
• mini offset spatula: I love my mini offset spatula from Ateco and I use it all the time when I am making cakes. You can buy it on Amazon! Tosi actually uses a spoon that she's bent to assemble cakes. That's another option if you don't mind bending one of your spoons.
• quarter sheet pans with rims: I like these Nordic Ware quarter sheet pans on Amazon, which are like the ones Tosi recommends. I actually bake the sheet cakes in a 10x15 pan from Chicago Metallic. The darker finish of this line of baking pans means you have to watch the baking time because cakes brown faster in darker pans

If you are a fan of Milk Bar's baked goods, here are some other Milk Bar recipes to explore:

How to store this cake

Given this banana split layer cake is made with fruit filling, it's best to store it in the fridge. If you've cut into the cake, just cover the cut edges with pieces of parchment to prevent them from drying out. Place the cake in the fridge until the frosting is firm and cold, then cover the whole thing with aluminum foil. You can store this cake for up to a week, or freeze slices for later.

For a detailed explanation, read about how to store cake.

Notes on this recipe

For this three-layer banana split cake recipe, it's very important to follow the directions, especially when it comes to the mixing times for the cake batter and the frosting.

The cake batter is high in fat and sugar, and you need to beat it for several minutes at specific stages in order for the ingredients to emulsify properly. Otherwise, your cake may be heavy or greasy.

The same goes for the frosting, which contains a higher amount of butter than most American buttercream frostings. Make sure to beat the butter and the sugar for a long time to lighten the mixture, incorporate a ton of air and improve its taste and mouthfeel of it.

For the filling components, you might have a little leftover chocolate fudge sauce, for example. Save it in the fridge to top your next bowl of ice cream! All you have to do is warm it in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute to warm it up so that you can use it.

📖 Recipe