This easy banana strawberry cake will bring you the best of both worlds – tanginess of strawberries and sweetness of bananas. Also, you can enjoy ease and taste in this banana cake recipe with cake mix and pudding. Yes, this strawberry banana cake recipe uses a box cake mix base and a poke cake technique! And best of all, this strawberry banana cake recipe incorporates a homemade banana glaze that can be modified into a strawberry banana sauce.
Eyeballing some blackened bananas in our fruit basket, my mind pondered what to do with them. Sure, I could make banana nut bread – a favorite around here. But I was thinking of something poke cake-ish. My wildly popular butter pecan poke cake (linked at the end of the post) has planted lots of spin offs in my mind over the years.
So I introduce to you the butter pecan praline poke cake’s cousin – banana strawberry poke cake!
Making Batter for Banana Strawberry Cake Using a Box Mix Base
For the pictures in this post, I used the Duncan Hines Perfectly Moist Strawberry Supreme, but I have also used Betty Crocker and other strawberry box mix versions in this recipe.
Poking Holes in Your Strawberry Banana Poke Cake
In the past, I have used the end of a wooden spoon to poke holes in my poke cakes. I find the holes grotesquely large. Granted, the glaze will cover the unsightly holes so that part is not that big of a deal. But sometimes when pouring your warm glaze, too much will go into the hole if the hole is too large. You want to ensure the holes are small so that a bit of glaze seeps down, but you still have plenty to work with to cover the top of the cake.
With some poke cake recipes, there is a separate frosting to spread on top. With this recipe, that is not the case. The same glaze that you pour in the cake is the one you will spread on top.
Making Banana Glaze for Strawberry Banana Poke Cake
As I mentioned, one great thing about this recipe for strawberry banana cake is that you can modify the banana glaze into a double-flavored strawberry banana sauce.
If you want to go all bananas, you can make a banana sauce without strawberries. Or you can add fresh strawberries and make a strawberry banana sauce which will give the glaze more of a pink tone. And of course, by adding the strawberries, you will give even more strawberry banana flavoring to the dessert.
In my photos on this post, I made the regular banana sauce with no strawberries. You can see my banana sauce is more of a tan color, full of banana flavor. It is totally up to you which version you go with. Both are great!
Banana Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
Cake Batter
- 15 oz Cake Mix Strawberry
- 3.4 oz Instant Banana Cream Pudding Mix or vanilla, white chocolate or strawberry
- 3 Eggs
- 1/3 cup Vegetable oil
- 1 cup Milk or water
- 1 Banana ripe; mashed
- 1 cup Strawberries fresh; chopped
Banana Butter Sauce
- 4 tbsp Unsalted butter
- 1 can Sweetened condensed milk
- 1/4 cup Banana mashed
- 1/4 cup Walnuts chopped
Instructions
Make Banana Strawberry Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, and milk (or water).
- Mix batter until well blended before adding bananas and strawberries.
- Pour the batter into a greased 9 x 11 inch baking pan.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes. (Temperature can vary widely depending on oven thermostats. Keep an eye on the cake after 30 minutes.)
- Check to make sure cake is firm with NO jiggle and edges slightly drawn in from pan.
- Set cake aside while you work on the next step.
Make Banana Butter Sauce
- In a medium saucepan, melt four tablespoons of butter before adding the can of condensed milk.
- Stir well and add mashed banana.
- Let the pan simmer on medium heat until the mixture appears consistent and heated.
- Add 1/4 cup of walnuts to the mix and stir it all together.
- Moving quickly, poke holes in the hot cake.
- Then, pour the banana butter sauce slowly over the cake until it slowly runs down the sides of the cake and covers the top.
- Allow strawberry banana cake to mostly cool before eating.
- Refrigerate cake but bring to room temperature before serving or heat individual pieces slightly in microwave (10-12 seconds) before serving for best taste.
Notes
- This banana strawberry cake can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for several days, and it still tastes fantastic! Because of the sauce, it doesn’t get dry after a few days – as long as it is refrigerated.
- For best taste, serve at room temperature or heat individual servings in microwave at 10-12 seconds.
- If you prefer your sauce to have more of a pink coloring (rather than the tan coloring), you can reduce the mashed banana to 1/8 cup and add 1/8 cup mashed strawberries. This will add a tinge of pink coloring to the glaze as well as another pop of strawberry banana cake flavoring.
Nutrition
Enjoy Our Other Favorite Cakes Here at Planted in Arkansas!
Easy Chocolate Cake with Homemade Chocolate Buttercream
Butter Pecan Praline Poke Cake (Number ONE recipe on the website!)
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