Banana Buttercream

This Banana Buttercream frosting tastes just like bananas. Perfect to top on cakes and cupcakes. Our secret ingredient? Three words. Freeze dried bananas.

You will go B-A-N-A-N-A-S for this Banana Buttercream recipe. It's only five ingredients and a super easy. Our secret ingredient, freeze dried fruit gives the buttercream so much natural banana flavor. Using fresh bananas can result is super soft, mushy frosting. Not with freeze dried fruit. You'll have beautiful buttercream consistency for piping and frosting and it tastes delicious.

Why You'll Love this Recipe

You will find this recipe quiet a-'PEELING' - These is so much banana flavor. Banana pair wells with many flavors. This frosting is wonderful on cakes, cupcakes and in whoopie pies, macarons or even topped on cinnamon rolls. See a full list of cake flavor ideas in my FAQ section.

Go Bananas for this Recipe - The consistency is pipeable and smooth. The freeze dried bananas are ground into a powder vs using fresh bananas. Fresh bananas add too much moisture and can make your frosting consistency mushy and soft.

Ingredient Notes

Butter, Unsalted - let's you control the amount of salt in frosting. Should be room temperature!

Freeze Dried Bananas - We grind them into a fine powder. You can find them on Amazon and I found mine at Sprouts Farmer's Market. Do not mistaken these with Banana Chips.

Powdered Sugar - also known as confectioners sugar.

Vanilla Extract - extra flavor! Real vanilla will result in the best flavor.

Heavy Whipping Cream - helps create a light and fluffy whipped texture.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Using a mini food processor or blender, process the freeze dried banana into a powdery crumb. Sift the freeze dried banana powder with a fine mesh sifter to get rid of the larger pieces. BUT SAVE THEM! They make pretty 'sprinkles' and can be used for decoration on top of your cake or cupcakes.

2. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a handheld mixer, beat butter on medium speed for about 2 minutes until creamed.

3. Finally, add in powdered sugar, freeze dried banana powder, vanilla extract and heavy cream. Beat on low speed for about 30 seconds and then increase to medium speed for another 30 seconds and then medium-high for another 2 minutes until frosting is well combined and fluffy. You will want to scape the bottom of the mixer at least once with a silicone spatula to ensure everything gets beaten well together. Use immediately!

Expert Tips

Simply Sift! Best practice is to sift your freeze dried banana powder and powdered sugar to ensure a lump-free frosting.

Room temperature butter is a must! Cold butter for frosting can result in a chunky frosting or the frosting will not come together. Forgot to soften your butter? Check on this video on how to quickly soften butter. As for the heavy whipping cream, it can be room temperature, however, I have used cold heavy whipping cream in my frosting as well without problem.

Banana Chips vs Freeze Dried Bananas.

• Banana Chips: deep fried or dried, crispy slices of banana. They are very firm and crunchy. I like to use banana chips for edible decorations on top of the cupcakes pictured.
• Freeze Dried Bananas. Banana slices that are placed in a freeze drying machine where they are frozen through sublimation, resulting in removing water from the food. Then, subjected to a vacuum. The result is a very dry, shelf stable product. For this frosting recipes you want feeze dried bananas not banana chips.

Recipe FAQ

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