After nearly every school day throughout our childhood, my brother and I walked in from the car, dropped our backpacks next to the kitchen table, and headed straight for the pantry. All of those lectures and tests really worked up our appetites!
Mom typically stocked the shelves with popular kid-friendly snacks, like cheesy Goldfish, sweet fruit snacks, and extra chocolaty chewy Chips Ahoy cookies. She let us pick out whatever we wanted before we pulled out our textbooks and started on homework…
Although she did put a three-cookie limit on that last snack option. She knew we’d be tempted to eat half the package and forget to save room for dinner!
Occasionally, Mom bought boxes of individually wrapped Little Debbie oatmeal crème pies, miniature chocolate cake rolls, and chocolate-dipped cakes with vanilla frosting inside to slip inside our lunches as our daily treat.
On particularly stressful school days, ones with spelling tests followed by quick 3-minute timed multiplication math tests and a book report due on top of that, Mom agreed to let us have one of those extra special treats as our snack as well. Those sugary store-bought desserts always helped alleviate the anxious feelings in our stomachs after school!
Once I reached high school, I switched to slightly more wholesome afternoon snacks, like Triscuits or granola bars. But if I had known about this Healthy Banana Oatmeal Snack Cake, it would’ve been my top choice! With entirely wholesome ingredients and no butter, refined flour or sugar, it’s the perfect healthy “treat” for those afternoon hunger pains—or even first thing in the morning for breakfast!
And with only 101 calories, it comes with none of the guilt of my sugary childhood snacks! ??
This healthy snack cake begins with whole wheat flour (or gluten-free!) and instant oats. Instant oats are also known as “quick-cooking” or “one-minute” oats. They’re not the same thing as what’s sold in those individual flavored brown paper envelopes! Instant oats come in canisters right next to the regular old-fashioned oats at the grocery store. (And you’ll use them in all of these healthy cookie recipes of mine, too!)
It’s extremely important to measure the flour and oats correctly, using this method or a kitchen scale. Too much of either will dry out your cake and give it a crumbly texture—especially the oats! They act like little sponges and soak up moisture from your cake batter.
Therefore, I highly recommend a kitchen scale. This is the one I own, and it’s been the best $20 I’ve ever spent! I use it multiple times a day and to make every recipe I publish here on my blog because it ensures my treats turn out with the perfect taste and texture every time.
Now for the most important ingredient… The mashed banana! Be sure to grab the spottiest ones you can find! The ones with more brown color than yellow on their peels will taste much sweeter, which means you’ll only add a few tablespoons of pure maple syrup (be sure you buy the real kind, not pancake syrup or sugar-free syrup!) for sweetness. That’s right—we’re skipping the refined sugar today!
With only 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, the mashed banana provides some of this snack cake’s tender texture, and the rest comes from one of my favorite ingredients in healthier baking: Greek yogurt! It adds the same moisture as extra oil or butter for a fraction of the calories, and it gives your baked treats a protein boost, too!
Snack time! ? And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! ?) I’d love to see your cake and feature it in my Sunday Spotlight series!
| Healthy Banana Oatmeal Snack Cake | | Print |
- 1 ½ cups (150g) instant oats (measured like this and gluten-free, if necessary)
- 1 ¼ cups (150g) whole wheat or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp (14g) coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (264g) mashed banana (about 2 medium)
- ½ cup (120g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- ¼ cup (60mL) pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup (60mL) nonfat milk
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and coat a 9”-square pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, egg whites, and vanilla. Add in the mashed banana and Greek yogurt, stirring until no large lumps of yogurt remain. Stir in the maple syrup. Alternate between adding the oat mixture and milk, beginning and ending with the oat mixture, and stirring just until incorporated. (For best results, add the oat mixture in 3 equal parts.)
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 350°F for 26-29 minutes or until the center feels firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely to room temperature in the pan before slicing and serving.
For the gluten-free flour, I recommend the following blend: ¾ cup (90g) millet flour, ¼ cup (30g) tapioca flour, ¼ cup (30g) brown rice flour, and ½ teaspoon xanthan gum. Most store-bought gluten-free flour blends will work as well, if measured like this.
White whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, or all-purpose flour may be substituted for the whole wheat flour.
It’s extremely important to measure the flour and oats correctly, using this method or a kitchen scale. Too much of either will dry out your cake and give it a crumbly texture—especially the oats! They act like little sponges and soak up moisture from your cake batter.
Honey or agave may be substituted for the pure maple syrup.
Any milk may be substituted for the nonfat milk.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
View Nutrition Information
You may also enjoy Amy’s other recipes…
♥ Banana Bread Protein Overnight Oats
♥ Blueberry Buttermilk Banana Bread
♥ Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Oatmeal Cookies
♥ Chocolate Drizzled Raspberry Banana Bread
♥ Chocolate Chip Banana Mini Muffins
♥ Chocolate Chip Strawberry Banana Bread
♥ Chocolate Chip Banana Bran Muffins
♥ Blueberry Banana Bran Muffins
Thanks Amy will use a fork next time! I don’t have my electric hand whisk with me, so have to do things by hand at the moment. But good to know. Thanks again 🙂
It’s my pleasure, Mary! I actually recommend against using any electric mixers, electric whisks, or stand mixers in my recipes unless explicitly stated to do so in the Instructions. It’s so easy to over-mix my recipes when using those tools, and over-mixing results in a tough or gummy texture. So it’s probably a good thing that you don’t have your electric whisk with you right now! 😉
What can I use instead of milk and yogurt.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Laura! The non-dairy equivalents will be the best substitute, so non-dairy milk and non-dairy yogurt (ie soy- or almond-based). I’d love to hear what you think if you try this snack cake!
Thanks so much Amy.i tried it and I passed your site on.
I done a small change since I had no greece yougurt and I swop that with peanut butter.
I would like to thank you for your get work and kind support.
love
Lorra
I’m so glad you enjoyed this snack cake Lorraine! Thanks for letting me know about your peanut butter modification. I always love hearing what recipe tweaks work! 🙂 And I truly appreciate you sharing my website with others — that really means the world to me!
Hi. Can I substitute wheat flour wuth almond flour, please?
Thank you
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Rouy! I typically don’t recommend substituting almond flour in this particular recipe because the snack cake turns out a little denser and collapses a bit while cooling. If you don’t mind that texture difference, though, then the flavor will remain the same. 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try this snack cake!
Hi I was wondering can you just do baking powder if you don’t have baking soda
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Robyn! This recipe does work best as written, using baking soda, so I definitely recommend using it! If you’re completely against buying or using baking soda… Then you may substitute baking powder for the baking soda, but because they behave slightly differently in baking recipes, your snack cake may not rise as high and may turn out with a slightly denser texture. I’d love to hear what you think if you decide to try making it! 🙂
Hey Amy
What could I do or what did I do
Because they seem to be tasting very plain
Hi Amy
I am just wondering could I have done something to make them taste so plain
Or is there something I could do they just have been lacking flavour
Thank you
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Robyn! I’m happy to help you fix that plain issue. I’m assuming you meant this snack cake didn’t taste very sweet — is that correct? If so, how ripe were your bananas? Were they mostly yellow, mostly brown, or completely black? Did you measure the mashed banana with measuring cups or a kitchen scale? Also, how was the texture of your snack cake?
Once I know your answers to those questions, I’ll have a much better idea of what you can do differently if you decide to retry this recipe so it better suits your tastes! 🙂
I have very black bananas, does this matter?
Those are PERFECT!! When it comes to my banana baking recipes, the blacker your bananas, the better your baked treats will be! This is because they’re softer, sweeter, and have a stronger flavor than mostly yellow bananas — so they’ll add more moisture, sweetness, and banana flavor to your baked goods. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of this snack cake if you try making it, Aimee!
My area of South Carolina is under a tropical storm warning from Ian. All preps are done, including this delicious banana-oatmeal snack cake and your Pumpkin cake (no icing)!!! Gotta have some comfort food in times like this. I love that your recipes can be adapted so easily in case I’ve run out of an ingredient. I didn’t use the icing for the pumpkin cake because I wanted to use up some mini chocolate chips that I’ve used in many of your cookie recipes. Thank you, Amy!