Pecan and banana bundt cakes with lemon cheese frosting

I’m totally in love with these mini pecan and banana bundt cakes with a tangy lemon flavoured cream cheese frosting. They make a nice change from the normal banana bread that we always seem to make when we have spotty old bananas to use up. The pecan nuts add an element of crunch and the tangy lemon cheese frosting really turns them into something special.

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Mini pecan and banana bundt cakes

One of the most popular recipes on my website is this easy banana walnut bread, so it was a bit of a no-brainer to adapt it to make these pecan and banana bundt cakes.

To be quite honest, it didn’t take much adapting – all I did was swap out the walnuts for chopped pecans and cut down on the baking time, and I was delighted with the results.

The pecan and banana bundt cakes turned out perfectly! Moist and fluffy with a delightful crunch from the pecans and a delicious banana flavour.

All they needed as a finishing touch was the addition of a tangy lemon and cream cheese frosting.

The end result was a muffin-sized cake with a hole in the middle, filled with the delicious frosting, and topped with half pecan nut.

How much batter should I put in the bundt pan?

The simple answer is – it depends!

If you would like your bundts to turn out similar to a muffin, but with a hole in the middle, then you should pour in the batter until the inner spike is completely covered, ie level with the rim.

If you prefer your bundts to have the hole running all the way through then you should only fill them halfway so that the batter just reaches the top of the inner spike.

I wanted to be able to fill my pecan and banana bundts with the frosting (without it running out of the bottom) and so I filled my bundt pan all the way to the rim. You can see in the picture below what I am talking about.

If you prefer a more elegant cake that you can just drizzle with frosting then by all means make them smaller so that the hole runs all the way through. You may find that you need to cook these for 2 or 3 minutes less.

These pecan and banana bundt cakes are quite substantial and are ideal for popping into lunch boxes to fill you up until dinner time! Smaller ones are more suited to an elegant afternoon tea or mid-morning snack 🙂 . You can decide for yourself how you would like to make them.

So without further ado, let’s get onto the recipe.

Ingredients

This recipe makes 8 larger (i.e. filled to the top) bundt cakes, or 12 to 14 smaller ones (ie the hole running all the way through).

**You can get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making these pecan and banana bundt cakes on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**

• Bananas – these should be as ripe as possible because they provide the moisture content of the batter. If there are any dark brown patches on the bananas cut them away and discard them before mashing the bananas. You will need approximately 2 cups of well-mashed bananas for this recipe.
• Flour – I’ve used plain all-purpose flour (or cake flour as it is known in South Africa) and added baking powder for the rise. If you prefer to use self-raising flour this is fine – just leave out the baking powder.
• Butter – this should be at room temperature to make for easier mixing. I’ve also made this recipe using yellow baking margarine with no problems so you can substitute if you wish.
• Sugar – caster sugar dissolves more easily into the butter so there’s less work involved. If you only have granulated sugar you can use that but be prepared for a bit more mixing.
• Egg – you will need 1 large egg, but if your eggs are very small you can use 2.
• Pecan nuts – you will need three-quarters of a cup of chopped pecans, plus additional half-pecans for decoration.
• Vanilla essence – for flavouring. This is optional.
• Salt – also optional but I would recommend adding at least half a teaspoon.

Equipment

I like to use a silicone bundt pan for this recipe because it doesn’t stick and the buns can be removed easily.

What to do

This is a really easy batter to mix.

• Mash the bananas with a fork until most of the lumps have been removed. Chop the pecans into small pieces -slightly larger than a grain of cooked rice. Set these aside until you are ready to mix them in.
• Using an electric hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until it is light and fluffy, and pale in colour. If you don’t have a hand mixer, just use a wooden spoon.
• Add the egg and vanilla essence and continue to whisk until the egg is fully incorporated (image 1).
• Now tip in the flour, chopped pecan nuts, bananas, flour, salt, and baking powder. Use a wooden spoon to mix until everything is well combined and you have a thick batter (image 3).

• Spray the silicone mould with one or two squirts of cooking oil spray. I realise the mould is non-stick, but there are so many ridges in there and I like to be safe rather than sorry.
• Spoon the batter into the mould until the inner spike is just covered and the batter is level with the top of the mould (image 1). If you prefer the hole to come all the way through the bundt cakes, then only fill three-quarters full and leave the top of the inner spike exposed.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven (190C / 375F) for 20 minutes until the tops of the cakes are golden, and a toothpick inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out cleanly. If there is still a little batter sticking to the toothpick, leave the cakes in the oven for one or two minutes longer (image 2). These cakes to not rise a lot, so they will just have a gentle curve on top rather than a pointed dome like a muffin.
• Allow the cakes to cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before removing them (image 3).

Mix the frosting and ice the bundt cakes

This frosting is really easy to make and goes so well with the flavours of the pecans and bananas.

• Soft cream cheese – you can use any brand of soft cream cheese. If you are a Philadelphia fan you can use that, but my local supermarket does a really good ‘house brand’ that I like to use.
• Icing sugar – depending on where you live in the world you may know this as confectioner’s sugar or powdered sugar.
• Lemon essence – I’ve used lemon essence rather than lemon juice because you only need one teaspoon to get a strong lemony flavour. You can use lemon juice but the extra liquid will turn the icing too runny, and you will have to add extra icing sugar to compensate.

To make the frosting, just combine all the ingredients in a small mixing bowl until you have a smooth thick paste.

Fill the holes in the pecan and banana bundt cakes with the icing, and top with half a pecan nut.

You will find it easiest to do this with a piping bag. If you don’t have a piping bag, just spoon the mixture into a small freezer bag and snip off the corner before squeezing the icing into the hole.

If you’ve made the cakes smaller, ie with a hole running all the way through, you may just want to drizzle the icing over the cakes. In this case, thin the frosting mixture down slightly with the addition of a little milk, one teaspoon at a time until you have a more runny consistency.

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Questions

Pin for later

If you’d like to try these pecan and banan bundt cakes yourself why not pin the recipe to one of your Pinterest boards so you can make it later. Just click the image below.

Other recipes

You may also like to try these other baking recipes:

• Fruit mincemeat star bread – made with fruit mincemeat, or swap it out for sultanas – just like a tear and share Chelsea bun.
• Zucchini and pistachio cake
• Coffee and walnut layer cake
• Carrot and walnut cake tray bake
• Fresh pear cream slice
• German bee sting cake
• Pineapple coconut cake

The recipe

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