Plantain Bread (Plantain Cake)
Moist, tender, and perfectly sweet plantain bread (or cake) makes a beautiful breakfast or snack. One bite and you’ll never complain about those overripe plantains again.
When your plantains have passed the tostones mark and are getting a little too black for even fried sweet plantains, plantain bread is the answer! This bread is cake-like in texture with subtle plantain notes that are highly delicious.
Plantain bread is super easy to make, too. It only takes a few minutes to make the batter and less than an hour in the oven for perfectly baked plantain bread. It’s one of those simple recipes the kids love to help with that comes out delish every time.
Banana Bread vs. Plantain Bread
If you love banana bread, I promise you’ll love plantain bread. Plantain bread is similar to banana bread with a few minor differences. The bread itself is a little denser.
Flavor-wise, plantain bread is still sweet, but the actual plantain flavor is less intense than that of bananas. And while riper plantains have a stronger flavor, it’s never overpowering.
How to Make Plantain Bread
- Peel the plantains, slice them, and then puree them in a food processor or blender until thoroughly mashed. Set aside. (Photos 1-3)
- Add the eggs, sour cream, sugar, softened butter, vanilla, and milk. Mix well. (Photo 4)
- Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and nutmeg. (Photo 5)
- Add the plantain mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. (Photos 6-7)
- Pour the cake batter into the greased loaf pan (or cake pan), place two plantain slices on top, and sprinkle with brown sugar. (Photo 8)
- Bake at 325℉ (160℃) until a tester inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean, 45–50 minutes. Transfer it to a wire rack, and allow it to cool.
- Melt the butter and brown sugar until bubbling and lightly browned. Pour in the optional rum and vanilla extract, and simmer until slightly thickened and it bubbles. Pour it over the freshly baked bread, and enjoy. (Photos 9-10)
Recipe Variations and Tips
- Feel free to use orange zest, omit the nutmeg, add cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom, or customize the spices any way you see fit.
- Bake this cake in a muffin tin instead for personal portions of plantain bread. They won’t take quite as long to bake, so keep an eye on them.
- Add chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, etc.), dried fruit, or chocolate chips if you please.
- This bread tastes best with the sweetest, ripest plantains you’ve got. Black plantains aren’t usually bad, just really sweet and soft.
- Tapping the pan on your work surface a few times will eliminate large air bubbles for even rising and baking.
Make-Ahead and Storage Instructions
Plantain and banana bread are even better baked ahead of time. Wrap it in plastic after it’s completely cooled, then store it in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days, in the fridge for 3-5 days, or in the freezer for 4-6 months.
You can reheat single slices in your toaster oven for that fresh-out-of-the-oven taste. Or zap it in the microwave for a few seconds.
What Goes With Plantain Bread
Indulge in plantain bread with a cozy cup of ginger tea or a specialty coffee like a pumpkin spice latte. You can always dress up your plantain bread and turn it into a more cake-like experience by topping it with some cream cheese frosting or a dollop of homemade whipped cream. Go ahead and add some of that to your coffee, too.
More Delightful Plantain Recipes to Try
- Fried Sweet Plantains
- Stuffed Baked Plantains
- Plantain Frittata
- Klako (Plantain Fritters)
- Crunchy Plantain Chips
By Imma
Watch How to Make It
[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”KaB5erKH” upload-date=”Tue Aug 07 2018 11:38:08 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)” name=”Plantain Cake” description=”Plantain Cake – easy, light and delicious plantain cake or bread that serves as a great breakfast or afternoon snack. You could eat the whole thing without realizing you have gone overboard!”]
This blog post was originally published in April 2015 and has been updated with additional tips, new photos, and a video.
Plantain Bread (Plantain Cake)
Ingredients
The Bread
- 2 large overripe plantains
- 2 large eggs
- ⅓ cup (80g) plain yogurt or sour cream
- ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons (175g) granulated sugar
- 8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter, partially melted
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (60ml) milk
- 2 cups (240g) sifted cake flour
- 1 teaspoon (6g) baking soda
- 1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 1 tablespoon (6g) grated lime zest (optional)
- 1 teaspoon (2-3g) grated nutmeg
The Glaze
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter
- ½ cup (100g) light brown sugar
- ¼ cup (60ml) dark rum (optional)
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C). Grease a loaf or cake pan generously with cooking spray and set aside.
- Peel the plantains, slice them, and then puree them in a food processor or blender until creamy with no lumps.
- Add the eggs, yogurt, sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and milk, and mix well.
- Combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, optional lime zest, and nutmeg.
- Add the dry ingredients to the batter and stir well, scraping the sides of the mixing bowl as you go.
- Pour the cake batter into the greased loaf pan (or cake pan). Add a couple of plantain slices and sprinkle with brown sugar if desired.
- Bake at 325℉ (160℃) until a tester inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean, 45-50 minutes. Transfer it to a wire rack and allow it to cool.
- Melt the butter and brown sugar until bubbling and lightly browned. Pour in rum and vanilla extract, and simmer until slightly thickened and it bubbles. Pour it over the freshly baked bread, and enjoy.
Tips & Notes:
- My original recipe omits the vanilla extract, as you see in the video, and mixing is a little more complicated. The dump and mix method works just as well.
- Use the sweetest, ripest plantains you’ve got for sweeter bread.
- A potato masher, a fork, an immersion blender, and a regular blender will all mash your plantains just fine. Just make sure they’re creamy with no chunks.
- Please remember that the nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary significantly based on the products used in the recipe.
Very light and fluffy – but way too sweet for my taste (even though I used only 175g of brown sugar). Next time I will try it with even less sugar.
But the texture: perfect!
Hello Catha. Thanks 🙂 Yes, you can half the sugar in most recipes without anyone noticing.
Absolutely love, love, love this recipe! I made a few additions: I put some dark chocolate chips, a handful of raisins and a sprinkle of desiccated coconut, and the results were amazing! This bread is so delicious, the recipe is definitely worth keeping and adding to my regular rotation. Thank you so much Imma .
I’m so happy you loved it!!! And thanks for letting us know what add-ins work great.
I just put it in the oven…by the looks of it is going yo be delisios, i added some walnuts
Wonderful! Looking forward to your feedback!
Thanks for the recipe. I tried it with a little twist . I didnt have enough butter at home, so I added some Lard . The 2 loaves I baked were gone in 1 day. Now im about to make another batch.
I have tried a number of your recipes and I always get good results from them.
Hi Oyin! Thank you for the feedback! This bread doesn’t last long in my house either :)!
I had two very very ripe plantains at home. I did a quick search before throwing them in the compost. Oh my goodness am I glad I found this recipe beforehand.
I backed these as muffins with my daughters. The whole family agreed that they were delicious. Thanks so much!
Oh and I added a tablespoon of dessicated coconut. chef’s kiss!
Thank you:) There’s more to come, so stay tuned
The recipe was easy to follow. But I would not use a bread tin to back better off in cake time.
The recipe is delicious! Normally I don’t change a recipe but this time I had no choice. I’m at 6,500′ altitude and had to adjust for high altitude. I used 2 cups regular flour, 1/4 tsp ea of baking powder and baking soda, 2 XL eggs, 3/4 cup sugar, and a scant 1/3 cup of milk. The oven was 350° for 40 min then 325° for 10 more minutes for glass bread pan and 15 more minutes for a pottery bread pan. They both turned out perfect. I will make this again. When I get to Ohio where it is near sea-level I’ll make it with your measurements! Thanks for the recipe.
Hi thanks! I’m happy to know that it turned out perfect for you. 🙂 Baking at high altitude is definitely a challenge. Lol. Thanks love!:D
This recipe was easy to make & certainly delicious. Had overripe plantains & didn’t want to throw them away. I doubled the recipe & from 4 large plantains got 2 3/4 cups puree, added some cinnamon powder, vanilla & orange essence. Did everything else as stated. Got three beautiful & delicious loaves. Friends & family enjoyed. Definitely a keeper! Thank you so much. Love from Trinidad & Tobago W.I.
Had 4 overripe plantains and wondering if a cake could be made with them so searched and came across this recipe. The plantain purée came up to 4 cups so I was wondering if to double the recipe as your recipe was 2 plantains. Then I read the reviews and saw that the 2 plantains you used was approx 1 cup, so had to multiply the recipe by 4. It came out surprisingly delicious. Not sure how to upload a picture here, I would have done so. Didn’t have lime so used orange zest and vanilla extract. So soft and yummy ❤️. This recipe is definitely a keeper!
Wow! Thank you for sharing, Debbie! Glad to know that it came out well for you. If you have more plantains, you can check out my list of 9 Delicious Plantain Recipes. Enjoy!
I just made this for the very first time just now and it is delicious. Gave some to my sister and brother-in-law and they like it too. I cut down on the sugar a bit but it’s still a little sweet for me. It took about 65 minutes for mine to bake. Maybe because my plantains were pretty big. I will be making this again.
Thanks for the feedback.
I really enjoyed this recipe. I have two plantains in the freezer ready to make another cake/bread. I also make your Plantain crepes….very delicious!
Great! Thanks
I always planned on making banana bread but never had the time to try until today. And I’m so glad I did try! it came out amazing all fluffy and nice and sweet. I could finally use up 1 banana and 2 plantains that weren’t nice to look at anymore.
sorry for the long comment haha
thanks for the recipe and keep up the good work!
xoxo from California
Hi Aida!! I am so glad you love this Plantain Bread. No need to waste any more of those over-ripe plantains and bananas huh ;)! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave this feedback. xoxo
For me, recipe needed a bit more flour as the final result was a little too wet and took an extra 30 minutes to cook… I also added some allspice, cinnamon, and walnuts… came out very tasty!
Hi M! Glad you were able to make it work for you! Thanks for the feedback!
I made this today. I loved so much I could hardly keep my hands of it. A couple things I did to changed it is add coconut stuff( because of the lime in it I kept thinking about the song with the words ”lime in the coconut ”). So anyway I added coconut yogurt and silk coconut milk. Thank you for posting.
Hahahah, I love that song :)! I think I will try your coconut version. Thank you for sharing, Patricia!
Beautiful recipe! I made this for my MIL who can’t eat bananas but loves plantains. I will make it over and over again! I added about 1 cup blackberries from our garden and it took an extra 15 mins to bake. Came out darker but so lovely – perfectly moist and sweet with beautiful crispy edges!
Oh, nice!! Now I have to try this with blackberries too :). Thank you so much for sharing, Catie !
Hi Imma
Please do you have a weight measurement for the butter?
Many thanks
Hi Jenny! The butter is 114 g. Do let me know how this recipe works out for you!
Thanks Imma, I will let you know how I get on
I basically applied my own method as i did not want to use sugar seeing that the plantains were extremely sweet. I used 4 tablespoons of brown sugar without yogurt just did 1/2 cub of milk. First time making this and did not follow the method at all but after all ingredients was added i baked for 50 minutes and i have a moist not overly sweet loaf.
Thank you for this
Hi Dwayne. I am glad this worked out for you. Thanks for sharing!
Really happy I found this recipe, this plantain bread tastes so good! I couldn’t find cake flour (I don’t think it’s a thing here in the Netherlands), so I used OP flour instead. It still came out quite fluffy (so I’m wondering if this bread is even more fluffy with cake flour). I’m off to check out the rest of the recipes on your site, thank you so much!
Yay! So happy to hear it worked out well. Thanks for taking time out to share your thoughts.