Easy 4-Ingredient Cake Mix Banana Bread

This simple Banana Bread recipe is such an EASY way to use up your overripe bananas! It starts with a cake mix and makes the best, most moist dessert bread.

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I cannot count the times I’ve saved bananas with the best intentions of making banana bread.

I walk by the aging bananas day after day, thinking that I really should make a loaf of banana bread. But, dragging out the flour, sugar – measuring out the baking sodas and powders, it just seems like so much well, effort.

So, the story usually ends with me admitting that I’ll never really get around to making the bread and tossing out overripe, occasionally festering, bananas.

That was until I discovered that you can make banana bread with a cake mix. Seriously, this is so simple it’s almost no effort – you just toss everything in a bowl, mix it with your mixer, pour it in the loaf pans, and bake.

Bonus – the recipe makes two loaves so you can eat one and either freeze or share the other. Plus, you can add a variety of mix-ins to create two entirely different loaves of banana bread.

My go-to is to usually make one plain and one with pecans but I’ll share some of my other favorite combinations later in the post.

What You’ll Need to Make Easy Cake Mix Banana Bread

What You’ll Need to Make Cake Mix Banana Bread

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 3-4 medium ripe bananas

How to Make 4-Ingredient Banana Bread

Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Spray two 8×4 loaf pans with cooking spray.

Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl. (There’s no need to mash the bananas, just break them into 3-4 pieces each and toss them in the bowl.)

Using an electric mixer, blend the ingredients on low speed for about a minute until everything is combined.

Next, divide the batter evenly between your two greased loaf pans.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until toothpick or butter knife inserted in center of loaves comes out clean.

Allow the pans to cool for about 15 minutes and then remove the loaves from the pans to finish cooling on a baking rack.

If you cut into the loaves while they are still warm, they are going to crumble a bit. (You’ll need to allow the bread to cool completely before cutting into them in order to prevent crumbling.) That being said, I think that warm banana bread with a pat of butter is totally worth having it crumble a bit on my plate! 🙂

“Mix-Ins” to Create Variations of Banana Bread

Because this recipe makes 2 loaves, you can make two different types of Banana Bread from the same batter.

I usually just divide the batter between the two loaf pans and add the ingredients right to the pan. Just take a wooden spoon and swirl the batter until the mix-ins are evenly distributed.

• Chocolate Chips – Mix in 1 cup per loaf
• Pecans, Almonds, Walnuts – Mix in 1/2 cup per loaf
• Maraschino Cherries – 1/4 cup chopped per loaf
• Butterscotch Chips – Mix in 1 cup per loaf
• Cinnamon-Sugar – Mix 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon per loaf. Sprinkle over the top of the loaf before baking
• Blueberries – Mix in 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries per loaf
• Coconut – Mix in 1/2 cup shredded coconut per loaf

Other Easy Dessert Recipes You Will Love

• Super Easy 2-Ingredient Lemon Bars
• Oh So Yummy Coconut Kiss Macaroons
• 4-Ingredient Almond Joy Cookies
• Soft & Chewy Cherry Almond Sugar Cookies
• 5-Ingredient Lemon Poppy Seed Bread – 2 Loaf Recipe

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