Banana pistachio cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting
on Mar 13, 2019, Updated Aug 19, 2022
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Feel like you’ve tried every kind of banana bread in existence? How about a banana pistachio cake? Packed with pistachio nuts and smothered in a delicious white chocolate cream cheese frosting, this is a banana loaf with attitude!
Table of Contents
In search of the best banana cake
Banana bread… the cake that we all love to eat. And the cake that most of us feel confident making.
We like it because it works. It’s delicious. It’s easy to make. And it uses up the almost mouldy bananas that we all have regularly lurking in our fruit bowl.
I have my fair share of delicious banana cake recipes here on Scrummy Lane already:
- You can make this really easy mini air fryer banana bread in the oven… or the air fryer! It’s faster to make than regular banana bread, and reduces the temptation of having lots of cake hanging around all week. Can’t even wait that long? You need this gluten free banana mug cake in your life!
- This banana sheet cake with peanut butter fudge frosting is great for parties!
- Pineapple, coconut and banana cake (aka Hummingbird cake!)
- This banana, chocolate chip and peanut butter cake is a cake I created to try to copy something I’d tried in a cafe. It’s incredible!
- Last but not least… for some banana breakfast magic, you have to try both these caramelised banana pancakes, and these incredible healthy banana waffles.
So why make THIS banana bread?
- It’s a unique take on a classic. Studded with pistachios and slathered in a delicious white chocolate cream cheese frosting, it’s a little bit special, don’t you think?
- It looks pretty darn delicious, right, with all those green and pink tinged pistachios on top.
- Thanks to both almond flour and yoghurt in the mixture, the loaf is moist but not at all heavy.
- The frosting recipe makes enough for two cakes so you can freeze some for your next cake. Or use it to ice cupcakes, a layer cake, or brownies.
- I originally made this recipe with gluten free flour, so it’s easy to adapt if you need your loaf to be gluten free.
How to make a banana pistachio cake
There’s a simple formula for making this cake:
Step 1: Cream together the butter and sugar either with a handheld whisk or in a food processor.
Step 2: Whisk in the eggs.
Step 3: Add the other ‘wet’ ingredients i.e. the banana and yoghurt.
Step 4: Add the ‘dry’ ingredients i.e. the flour mixture and ground nuts, then fold in the pistachios.
Step 5: Bake!
Step 6: Let cool. Make the frosting. Slather it all over the cake. Sprinkle with more yummy pistachios. Eat.
Pretty easy, right?
Ingredients for the white chocolate cream cheese frosting
This is a quick and easy 4 ingredient icing for banana cake – or any other kind of cake. All you need is:
- cream cheese
- butter
- white chocolate
- icing sugar / powdered sugar
As I’ve already mentioned, the recipe makes enough for two cakes so you can freeze the leftover frosting for another time.
Recipe variations
When I first made the frosting for this banana pistachio loaf, I could only find white chocolate with crispy rice bits in it at the supermarket. Surprisingly, it was delicious! Try it!
You could also try using milk or dark chocolate for the frosting.
You could use a different kind of nut instead of pistachios. How about hazelnuts, walnuts, flaked almonds or macadamia nuts? I think macadamia nuts would work especially well with the white chocolate frosting.
More easy morning or afternoon tea cake recipes
This frosted banana bread is the sort of cake you would make if you had friends coming over for a cup of coffee or tea.
Here are some other options from Scrummy Lane:
- Gingerbread muffins with salted caramel icing
- Sticky blueberry lemon curd cake
- Nutella swirl loaf cake (with hazelnuts)
- Easy Italian apple cake
- Really easy lemon mascarpone cake
- Or see all my cakes here
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Banana pistachio cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting
Equipment
Ingredients
For the loaf
- 8 tablespoons butter, chopped into pieces (1 stick)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup ripe bananas, (2-3)
- 4 tablespoons of Greek yoghurt
- 1 cup plain flour , (substitute with gluten free flour if you like)
- 1/2 cup almond meal
- a large pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup pistachio nuts
For the frosting
- 3½ ounces cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3½ ounces white chocolate
- 1 cup plus a tablespoon of powdered/icing sugar
Instructions
For the loaf
- Pre-heat the oven to 355F/180C and line a regular-sized loaf tin (approx. 23 x 13 x 7 cm) with baking paper.
- Cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer or in a food processor, then add the eggs with the motor still running one at a time until well mixed in.
- Scrape the mixture into a large bowl and add the banana and Greek yoghurt. Mix well.
- Sift in the flour, almond meal, salt and baking soda and mix until just combined. Then fold in the pistachio nuts.
- Pour the batter into the lined loaf tin and bake for 55 to 65 minutes or until a skewer or knife inserted into the loaf comes out clean. (Cover loosely with some kitchen foil after about 30 minutes to stop the loaf browning too much)
- Leave to cool.
For the frosting
- Whip the cream cheese and butter together, then melt the chocolate in 30-second spurts in the microwave (or in a bowl over simmering water). Let the chocolate cool slightly, then whisk into the cream cheese and butter mixture as well.
- Add the powdered sugar and mix really well.
- When the loaf is completely cool, use about half of the frosting to frost your loaf (you can freeze the rest). Decorate with the reserved pistachio nuts. Enjoy!
This looks so good, and the happy accident of the rice balls I’m sure made this frosting divine. I’m totally going to try making a frosting with a Nestle crunch and see how it comes out!
Hey, thanks Chrissy! I have to say I was really happy with the ‘accidental rice ball frosting’!
Haha, I don’t think there’s ever been a time that I DIDN”T eat the frosting right off the spoon! And I know I wouldn’t be able to help myself if it was this insane white chocolate krispie cream cheese gloriousness 😉 The bread sounds amazing too! And ps- I’m so jealous of your gorgeous pistachios! Why can I never find brilliant greeny-pink pistachios like that around here??? Pinned!
Thanks so much for the pin, Allie! I guess I’m so new to putting frosting on things that licking the spoon still seems a novelty! Actually, pistachios grow in Greece – I guess that’s why they’re easy to get. I bought a big tub of them from the supermarket and just sprinkled them right in, but now you mention it it was trickier to get unshelled pistachios when I was in Australia recently. Hmmm… good point!
Baking is fairly new for me to, Helen. But what you posted today is gorgeous, I can’t wait to bake this up in my own home. Love the way the frosting studded with pistachios looks on top.
Thank you, Cheri … it’s an effortlessly pretty cake … the pistachios did all the ‘work’! I hope you do have a go at it too … I enjoyed it so much!
Isn’t it amazing how much experinece and knowledge one can gain from being a food blogger?! Love it. 🙂
And I love this banana bread!! It looks ridiculously delicious. First of all, I love how you loaded the topping with lots of frosting and sprinkled pretty pistachios on top. (Bonus for presentation points…so pretty. 🙂 ) Second, I love banana bread and I love how you added pistachios instead of the standard walnuts or pecans. Super duper fabulous job!! 🙂
Aw, thanks Tina … so lovely of you to say all these nice things 🙂 I am REALLY loving being a food blogger. Definitely fumbling my way through it, but it’s a lot of fun, especially meeting all of you lovely ladies (and gentlemen .. well, one or two anyway!) I’ve just realised not everyone might be able to get hold of shelled pistachios to make this, but there would be no problem subbing for other kinds of nuts. Thanks again for all the compliments and have a lovely Friday!
This loaf sounds all sorts of delicious and that scrummy frosting – why I could most definitely lick it off a spoon!
Thanks, Shashi! I was lickin’ away while making this!
Yum!! So colorful, and I love pistachios, definitely pinning this one!
Thank you, Kaylee! I have to admit I was pleased with this one. Thanks so much for the pin, too!
I’m not the best baker either. I’m on my 4th batch of blueberry muffins, and I’ve just about got them right. This bread looks amazing! Wish I had some for breakfast : )
Thank you, Natalie! Looking forward to reading about your perfected blueberry muffins soon! That’s another thing I’ve developed a bit of an obsession with … blueberries. I didn’t realise how gorgeous they were until recently … and they hold up so well in baking. My goodness, I’m really starting to sound like a baker now! P.S. Wish I could share a piece of this with you all for brekky too!
Helen, it looks like you are a baker!! This loaf is gorgeous! That icing looks amazing, and the pistachios on top are so pretty.
Aw, thanks for saying so, Cate! I have to admit this one was a lot of fun to make … and eat!
Yay for expanding your baking horizons!!! This loaf is quite gorgeous. The pistachios are the perfect pretty touch!
Thank you, Joanne! I still feel all excited like a child when something I bake goes well! You wouldn’t believe that something totally natural and simple like a few nuts could make something pretty, would you?
I have just pinned this to my teatime board. Looks so pretty – and so irresistibly yummy. You are a born baker 🙂
Wow, I think that’s the best compliment I’ve had since I started blogging, Skye! Thank you!!! I will be walking around with a silly smile on my face all morning now. And thanks for pinning, too … that’s so kind 🙂