Banana Pudding Layer Cake

This Banana Pudding Layer cake is perfect for any banana pudding lover!! Layers of yellow cake are stuffed with perfect banana pudding and covered in whipped cream.

A week and a half ago, my almost 17 month old, Lucy, got a black eye.

Trust me when I say it’s been harder on me than it’s been on her. I mean…she was affected for like 30 minutes. It has affected me for a week and a half. I don’t even think she knows it’s there. We spend a lot of time waving at the mirror and I’m 99% sure she thinks she’s waving a random baby.

What happened was, I live in an old house. An old house with electrical outlets in stupid places. And Lucy Goose, who just happens to have an addiction to iPhone chargers (she is drawn to them like moths to a flame), yanked a charger by it’s cord from an outlet a foot above her head. The whole thing flew out of the wall and hit her on the side of her face, and now she has a black eye from an iPhone charger.

That’s like, the lamest black eye excuse ever. An iPhone charger.

I know that you already think I’m a bad mom for making this about me, but I’m not making this about me. The stupid iPhone charger made this about me, because now I’ve had the pleasure of telling 978 strangers, all of whom are looking at my child with pity (trust me, I’m the one using applesauce pouches to bargain her into behaving good at Walmart) that yes, my kid knocked herself out with a phone charger.

Do you want to know something? You might think you’re a good mom, but you’re an iPhone charger away from being Public Enemy #1. That’s all it takes. Want to see the world turn on you? Take a sweet baby girl out in public with a black eye.

It kind of got to where I was used to the black eye, and one day I realized I was out of wine. So we packed up and headed to Target because they sell the good boxed stuff. Since I only needed one thing, I strapped Lucy in her stroller and headed in, grabbed my box of White Zin and headed towards the registers, pushing the stroller with one hand and carrying the wine with the other. I use one of those jogging strollers, which is like infinity long. Seriously, my child is like a mile ahead of me in that thing.

As I pushed towards the front, I noticed several strange looks in my direction. I was honestly a little confused, but whatever, I don’t understand everything about life. And then when we got to the register and I was paying, I came around to the front of the stroller and noticed Lucy’s black eye again. And I realized that maybe black eyed toddlers and Target wine runs don’t mix.

So…you’re welcome for basically the best parenting advice I’ll ever give. If your toddler gets a black eye, particularly if that toddler is a girl, don’t go anywhere. Hire a sitter or settle in for the long haul, because you’re facing two weeks of solitary confinement.

Now for cake!

I love banana pudding. LOOOOOOVE so so much. And a couple of years ago, I shared a recipe for the Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding, which is honestly the most wonderful banana pudding ever created. It’s like banana flavored heaven. I decided that that wonderful pudding needed to be stuffed inside a triple layer cake.

Duh.

I’m weird about bananas — I don’t like when they start to get gooey, so I usually cut them fresh and add them to the pudding right before serving. With this being a cake, that’s obviously not an option…and since cakes often sit for a few days before completely eaten, I did without bananas and used banana flavored pudding in the filling. If you’d like to use bananas and vanilla pudding, feel free, but squishy bananas aren’t for me.

You need to prep the pudding ahead, so this isn’t a throw together last minute kind of cake. But it IS completely amazing. So light, so wonderful, I have no doubt you’ll love it as much as I do!

Ingredients

• Banana Pudding:
• 8 oz ( 1/2 of a 16 oz can) sweetened condensed milk
• 3/4 cups ice cold water
• HALF of a small box (3.4 oz) instant banana cream pudding mix
• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
• Box Nilla Wafers
• Cake:
• Box yellow cake mix, plus eggs, oil and water to prepare
• Whipped cream:
• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Prepare pudding: In the bowl of a mixer, beat sweetened condensed milk and water for about a minute. Add the pudding mix and beat for about two more minutes. Transfer to a smaller bowl, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
2. In a large bowl on medium speed, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form (I put my metal mixing bowl and whisk mixer attachment in the freezer for five minutes prior...the cream always whips up very quickly this way). Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the pudding mixture until fully combined and no streaks of pudding are visible.
3. In a 8x8 pan, layer wafers and pudding. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 8 hours before filling cake.
4. Prepare cake mix according to box directions. Pour evenly into 3 (8 inch) round cake pans and bake until cakes spring back when lightly touched in the center. Cool cakes in pans for 5 minutes, turn onto wire racks and finish cooling completely.
5. Using a serrated knife, trim the cakes so they are level. Place one cake, top down, on a platter. Top with half the pudding mixture. Place another cake on top, top side down, and top with remaining pudding mixture. Top with last cake.
6. Prepare whipped topping: Place metal mixing bowl, plus the mixer's whisk attachment in the freezer for 10 minutes. Place cold, heavy cream and powdered sugar in mixing bowl, and beat on medium speed until it starts to thicken. Increase speed to high and beat until stiff peaks form. Frost cake, then top with additional cookies, if desired.

Notes

I halved the pudding recipe, because the whole recipe is too much to fill a cake. If you'd like pudding left over, feel free to double the pudding recipe.

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