Refined sugar free banana cake is moist, delicious and not too sweet. And it is frosted with cream cheese icing that’s sweetened only with honey and molasses.

After school snacks are a must in our house. My kids aren’t big lunch eaters so when they come in the door at the end of the day they’re starving. They’ll plow through a box of cereal or half a loaf of bread, and a whole stack of clementines, before I can finish a cup of tea.

This refined sugar free banana cake is a true snacking cake. In fact, it’s a bit like a muffin in terms of the ingredients. The cake is lightly sweetened with molasses and honey (and the mashed banana) and is low in fat. The texture remains moist, even though there is only 1/3 cup of oil in the recipe.

The frosting is optional but very tangy and tasty. Lightly sweetened with molasses and honey it works as well as a sweet spread as it does a frosting.

Refined sugar free banana cake can really do double duty — serve it plain as a snack cake or frost it with naturally sweetened cream cheese icing to dress it up a bit.

The recipe is adapted from the blog Cookie & Kate.

Refined Sugar-Free Banana Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

• ⅓ cup grapeseed oil or melted butter
• ⅓ cup Crosby’s Fancy Molasses
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2-3)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• ¼ cup milk
• 1 cup whole wheat or spelt flour
• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. cinnamon

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 2 Tbsp. Crosby’s Fancy Molasses
• 2 Tbsp. Honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a 9” square baking pan with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl beat together the oil, molasses and honey. Beat in the eggs one at a time then the vanilla, banana and milk.
3. In a medium bowl whisk together the dry ingredients.
4. Using a wooden spoon, stir dry ingredients into the wet mixture, stirring just until combined.
5. Scrape batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached.
6. Set on a rack to cool for 10 minutes then lift the cake from the pan by grabbing hold of the parchment paper edges.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Beat together the cream cheese and butter. Beat in the molasses and honey, then the vanilla. Spread over the cake.

(Frosting can be chilled for a few minutes if it becomes too soft.)

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Make this recipe delicious with Crosby's Molasses.