Healthy Low Fat Banana Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
Low fat banana cake, a lighter from scratch fresh banana cake with a thin layer of sweet peanut butter frosting. This banana cake is an old family favorite recipe that I’ve tinkered with – decreasing the sugar and fat – to make it Weight Watchers friendly. I also cut the frosting recipe in half, spreading the cake with a thinner layer of sweet peanut butter frosting – so you get all the lusciousness; just less of it.
If you don’t like peanut butter frosting, feel free to substitute a thin layer of your favorite icing – vanilla, chocolate, cream cheese, and coconut – would all be delicious.
The original recipe is from one of my favorite baking books, Sylvia’s Cakes and Breads: Famous Recipes from a Small Maine Kitchen
, by Sylvia Hocking, who for years ran a little bakeshop and mail order business from her home kitchen and whose clients included Julie Andrews, Dave Grusin, and John Williams.
Enjoy!
Healthy Low Fat Banana Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup coconut oil or vegetable oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 cups low fat buttermilk
- 1 cup mashed bananas 2 large very ripe bananas
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
Frosting
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoons hot water
- 1 cup confectioner's sugar
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Position an oven rack in the center and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 x 8-inch or 9 x 9-inch square baking pan.
- In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the coconut oil and sugar until well blended. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well. Dissolve the baking soda in the buttermilk and add to the mixture.
- Add the mashed bananas and beat until well blended.
- Add the flour and stir just until combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it out evenly.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and place the baking pan on a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the frosting, place the butter and water in a very small saucepan and heat to boiling. Pour over the sugar. Stir in the peanut butter until well blended and creamy.
- Quickly spread the frosting over the cooled cake.
Recipe Notes
*PointsPlus® for Low Fat Banana Cake calculated by Simple Nourished Living; Not endorsed by Weight Watchers International, Inc.
If You Liked Low Fat Banana Cake You Might Also Like:
Healthy Harvest Fresh Apple Cake Recipe – lighter, healthier apple cake with 6 WW PointsPlus Value
Skinny Low Fat Chocolate Cake Recipes – from scratch and using cake mixes from my files and other blogs and websites with WW PointsPlus Values
Easy Healthy Low Fat Pumpkin Cake Recipes – from my files and other blogs and websites with WW PointsPlus Values
Simple Banana Cake Recipe – begins with a yellow cake mix, easy & delicious, with 6 WW PointsPlus Value
Healthy Low Fat Banana Nut Bread – old-fashioned, moist, and dense with 4 WW PointsPlus Value
*PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® calculated by Simple Nourished Living; Not endorsed by Weight Watchers International, Inc. All recipe ingredients except optional items included in determining nutritional estimates. SmartPoints® values calculated WITHOUT Weight Watchers Zero Points fruits and vegetables using the WW Recipe Builder.
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Hi, I'm Martha. Simple Nourished Living chronicles the easy and delicious Weight Watchers friendly recipes, tips & hints that help me balance my love of food and desire to be happy, healthy and slim. 
Miss Meghan @ scratch-made wife
You basically just have to utter the words “peanut butter” and I’m interested, but this cake really does sound delicious! I love bananas spread with peanut butter, so I can only imagine how amazing this tastes.
Mary
I think you could make it in a crockpot. Hope so! Love your recipies everything Ive made from your web site is delicious. LOVE the Chocolate pudding cake taste like brownies!
Carol
Hi – Just wanted to share… Made this delicious cake earlier this week – it actually seems to be improving with age – the bananas keep it really moist. It’s a real winner – and has gone in my regular recipe files. Particularly enjoyed the light, but very tasty, layer of icing – made it feel indulgent. The little 2×2 squares are surprisingly generous for a LFLS dessert – I love that they’re actually taller than square! Just fo glamourize it up – I had a little bit of dark chocolate ganache in the fridge – warmed it in a zip bag and piped lines about an inch apart and them “feathered” them – napoleon style. Only used 2 T of the ganache, so no critical change in calories – and made it beautiful enough for guests! Thanks again – definitely going to look at your recipes time and again when I’m “browsing”.
Martha McKinnon
Carol,
Thanks for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful comment. I very much appreciate it. Love what you did with the chocolate ganache to “dress up” this dessert for guests. I must remember that the next time I make an iced cake, since I rarely remember to fancy things up 🙂
Laurenzstamper
This was wonderful! I even lowered the fat and calorie content more by substiting applesauce and FF Greek yogurt for the oil, using egg substitute and skim milk soured with lemon juice.
Martha McKinnon
Glad you liked it Lauren!
Leslie
There’s a low fat apple cake recipe on the web that doesn’t use any oil and only 1/3 cup sugar. I’m going to make that with bananas. It’s amazing with apples and I’ve made it 3 X’s this past week. Yes, it’s that good. 116 calories/slice
Martha McKinnon
Would love the apple cake recipe!