Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Cameroonian Banana Cake
A moist, lightly spiced loaf built on very ripe bananas, the hawked teatime cake of coastal Cameroon.
Cameroonian · easy · serves 8
prep 15 min · cook 45 min
~313 cal · 5g protein · 54g carbs · 9g fat · 2g fiber · 25g sugars · 1g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Banana cake is one of the great everyday sweets of Cameroon, especially around the coastal towns of the Littoral where baking took root under colonial-era home-science schooling and quickly became a household staple. Vendors known simply as the banana-cake sellers carry it in clear buckets, and the smell of it is one of those childhood memories Cameroonians talk about with real feeling.
Its virtue is thrift and simplicity: a couple of blackened, overripe bananas that would otherwise be thrown out, a few pantry staples, and a little cinnamon or nutmeg. Traditionally it is baked plain, without icing or a dusting of sugar, its moist crumb and honest banana flavour doing all the work. Some older cooks baked it in a covered pot banked with hot sand when ovens were scarce.
It is eaten for breakfast, at teatime, at parties, or pressed on guests, and the riper and uglier the bananas the better the cake. It turns something about to spoil into the best thing on the table.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
3 large very ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
1
Beat the mashed bananas with the sugar, eggs, oil and milk until well combined and creamy.
2
In a second bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
3
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet just until no streaks of flour remain, keeping the mixing light.
✎ Chef’s note
Stop as soon as it comes together. Overbeaten batter turns the crumb tough and rubbery instead of soft.
4
Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350F (175C) for about 45 minutes, until risen, golden, and a skewer comes out clean.
5
Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out and slice. It is best the day it is baked, with tea.
Littoral Cameroon home baking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Littoral (Douala). The evening trade in Douala is grilled fish. A whole mackerel or bar is split open, rubbed with a paste of garlic, ginger, parsley and hot pepper and laid over coals at a roadside stand, then served with baton de manioc or fried plantain and a sharp raw onion and lemon relish.
🗺️
Cameroon. The other pole of Cameroonian cooking is achu, from the northwest: pounded cocoyam eaten with a bright yellow soup of palm oil emulsified with limestone water and spiced with country onion and bush pepper, taken with the fingers from a shared bowl. The country's food changes as sharply as its landscape does from coast to Sahel.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Cameroon
NdoléCameroon’s national dish: bitterleaf greens simmered with ground peanuts, beef, and shrimp into a deep, satisfying stew.
Puff-Puff and BeansSweet fried dough balls served with a savory stewed bean pot, a filling Cameroonian breakfast.
Poulet DGFried chicken and sweet plantain simmered with peppers and vegetables in a rich tomato sauce, a Cameroonian celebration favorite.
Browse all Cameroon recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Mould or tin, Whisk.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
Make it a Cameroon meal
NdoléDinner
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Cameroonian Banana Cake?
A moist, lightly spiced loaf built on very ripe bananas, the hawked teatime cake of coastal Cameroon.
Where does Cameroonian Banana Cake come from?
Cameroonian Banana Cake is a Cameroonian dish from Littoral (Douala), Cameroon.
Can Cameroonian Banana Cake be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Cameroonian Banana Cake recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Cameroonian Banana Cake safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Cameroonian Banana Cake take to make?
About 60 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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