Healthy Banana Bread Pound Cake
This Banana Bread Pound Cake is comfort in a slice with a hidden dose of healthy. Oh yeah, that’s right. This is a HEALTHY Banana Bread Pound Cake!
*gasps*
After one bite you’d never believe me, but this incredibly moist, buttery, and sweet goodness is refined sugar free, low fat, high protein, and 100% whole grain. It seriously tastes like it’s from a bakery.
It’s still hot here in Texas, but it’s just starting to drop out of the 90s and 100s. THANK THE LORD. Because it’s really no fun getting back into your sauna of a car after a quick 5-minute trip to the grocery store.
It’s not even cold yet, but I’m already craving ALL the comfort foods that come along with the fall and winter. You know, foods that you can snuggle up with on the couch in a comfy robe? 😉
Banana Bread has been, and always will be, my choice comfort food. But this Banana Bread Pound Cake is giving it a good run for its money.
It’s just TOO. DAMN. GOOD!
Healthy Banana Bread Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 120g (1 cup) Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
- 32g (⅓ cup) Unflavored Whey Protein Powder
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- ¾ tsp Double-Acting Baking Powder
- ¼ tsp Baking Soda
- ⅛ tsp Salt
- 200g (~2 medium) Bananas
- 2 Large Eggs
- 114g (½ cup) Plain, Nonfat Greek Yogurt
- 112g (⅓ cup) Pure Maple Syrup
- 28g (2 tbs) Grapeseed Oil
- 24g (2 tbs) Granulated Erythritol
- 1½ tsp Liquid Stevia Extract
- 1 tsp Vanilla Paste**
- 1 tsp Natural Butter Flavor
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and spray an 8x4" loaf pan with cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour, protein powder, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl, mash the bananas.
- To the bananas, add the eggs, yogurt, maple syrup, oil, erythritol, stevia extract, vanilla paste, and butter flavor. Whisk until completely combined.
- Dump the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients and fold together until everything is incorporated. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for ~40 minutes, or until the surface browns and springs back when tapped. Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Slice and serve!
Yes, a thick slice of this Healthy Banana Bread Pound Cake has only 190 calories and 5g of fat (just a fraction of typical storebought or homemade pound cakes). Plus, 8g of protein and 3g of fiber, with no butter or white sugar in sight!
Just to see how this recipe stacks up to the competition, I compared the nutrition facts for my recipe to the Starbucks banana bread. My recipe has:
- 230 less calories
- 17g less fat
- 24g less carbs
- 18g less sugar
Yeah, you can enjoy TWO slices of this Healthy Banana Bread Pound Cake and still have less calories than a single slice of Starbucks banana bread.
A guilt free treat? Totally.
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With love and good eats,
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– Jess
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Indulge − no strings attached!
As always, looks delicious!
I have some questions about this recipe: Could it be made vegan? But I would like it to stay as low fat as possible and high protein – I suppose I could use vegan protein powder, soy yoghurt but I don’t know about the egg whites. It’s almost pure protein and I’m thinking of a replacement made of liquid and protein powder, but I would like to know a professional’s cook opinion.
By the way, is it possible to use applesauce instead of the oil? Or do you think it would be too dry?
I’m sure this recipe can be made vegan, but I honestly don’t know how. This cake took four trials to perfect, so I’m hesitant to give any substitution recommendations. However, if you would like to make the recipe vegan I would use soy protein powder, soy yogurt and Ener-G egg replacer. You can try the applesauce too, in my experience, applesauce is a great oil replacement.
I’m crossing my fingers these replacements will work!! Please let me know the results 🙂
-Jess
I hear ya sister, I absolutely hate the weather getting cold.
And as always, a wonderful (and inexplicably somehow healthy!) treat 😀
This looks delicious! I am OBSESSED WITH bANANA bread! I have over 7 recipes for it on my blog!
Banana bread is great, but I’d love to see some seasonal foods with apple or pumpkin, or maybe a healthy version of a popular Halloween candy.
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Hi! I’m just getting back into cooking and baking. I love banana bread, but it’s hard to find a good gluten-free recipe. Could I substitute the whole wheat pastry flour in this recipe for gluten-free all purpose baking flour?
Hi Katrina,
I have never tried gluten free blends but I’m sure they will work! If you try it out let me know how it turns out 🙂
Good luck, hope you love the recipe!
(If the cake sadly doesn’t turn out with the GF flour, you can always make cake pops or dice the cake and make a trifle with it. Hopefully that doesn’t happen though)
About to make this now! Will be going in the oven shortly. Hope it looks as good as your banana bread Fingers crossed! Thank you for a beautiful recipe
Can the protein powder be omitted in this recipe?
Jules-
Sadly, the protein powder can’t be omitted as it provides bulk, texture and flavor to the cake 🙂
-Jess
Could I add pumpkin purée to this?
Stacey-
Mmmm that sounds delicious! I haven’t tried that before but now I want to. I wouldn’t recommend adding pumpkin to the recipe, but maybe you can substitute some of the banana with it. Maybe try 1 cup of mashed banana + 3/4 cup of pumpkin puree.
I find that bananas add more moisture to cakes than pumpkin, so I’m not sure about replacing ALL of the banana with pumpkin… however, if you’re up for some recipe-testing, feel free to give it a shot!
I hope you like the recipe 🙂
-Jess
BANANA BREAD POUND CAKE. Our dreams in a bread!
This is my favorite menu every day, let alone whose name bananas, in my country Indonesia is a very large menu demand, thanks for sharing
Your blog is beautiful. Love the food styling and recipes look healthy. I’ll definitely be consulting your recipes for retreat work. Great work!!
Wow, I’m honored Rachel!! Thank you so much!! 🙂
Sounds like a delish mashup!
It’s been in the low 90s and high 80s where I am in San Luis Obispo, but in all seriousness, I am getting ready for the fall weather myself! It’s the first day I’ve worn my sweatpants and my fall yarn sweater, which is an amazing sign! Anyways, this banana bread pound cake looks sooooo fluffy and delicious. I will have to replace the whey protein, yogurt, and eggs for vegan alternatives, but I think that everything will turn out well–hopefully!
WHOOP WHOOP! I love the “first-day-of-sweatpants” season!
This looks absolutely DELICIOUS!! I have about 8 over-ripe bananas on my counter that need to be frozen for smoothies or turned into this bread!!
I vote the banana bread!! 😉
How much is a serving is it 6 ounces?
The recipe yield is in the yellow ribbon on the top of the recipe box… so this recipe yields one 8X4″ loaf, which slices into 8 slices. 1 slice = 1 serving, which is what the nutrition label was made for 🙂
this looks so yum! but I need vegan options as well. have you heard back from anyone who attempted those substitutes??
You might have seen my comment above, but this recipe took 4 trials to perfect, so I’m hesitant to recommend any ingredient substitutions. It’s not like you’re replacing one small ingredient, you’d need to replace the protein powder, yogurt, AND eggs, which are crucial for the cake’s texture… :/
It’s in the oven now, it has been there for 50 minutes and is still raw in the center while the edges are perfect. It’s sad because by the time the center is cooked the borders will be dry. I love banana cakes but I never get to make any that turns out good, they are always tooooo moist, like raw.
Did you make any ingredient substitutions, and did you make sure to weigh out your ingredients? Also, are you using an oven thermometer to make sure your oven temp is correct?
Does the protein in this, have to be specifically Whey? I have a few different kinds, one including vanilla (by Ensure). I just want to make sure. Please let me know. Thank you!
I wouldn’t recommend subbing the whey protein with anything because whey acts like a flour when baked. I’ve never used Ensure so I googled it and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t work… it has corn syrup, sugar, and artificial ingredients :/
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