*This Caramelized Banana Upside Down Cake is a perfect and elegant way to use up aging bananas. Soft banana cake is topped with sticky caramel-drenched bananas. Marvelous topped with vanilla ice cream!
Every Spring, early in the season, I get a little antsy for the arrival of spring fruits. But it’s simply too early and no market is carrying rhubarb yet, to my dismay. So my eyes fall on the only thing in my sight – the basket full of aging bananas on my kitchen counter.
Bananas my be my least favorite of fruits, but I’ll admit that they’ve grown on me over the years. Especially in this season. This fruit-less, chilly, somewhat drab season before the blooms burst about on the trees. Because bananas make great bread. And bananas make great cake.
This Caramelized Banana Upside Down Cake is a showstopper that is relatively easy to pull off. The caramel bottom is the hardest part, but to make up for it, the cake batter itself gets made in a blender.
Points of note:
-use old, very ripe bananas for the cake batter. Use perfectly ripe, or even slightly underripe bananas for the bananas used for the upside-down layer. You need them sweet and soft for the batter, but a little more tart and with structure for the upside down layer.
-Flip the cake out onto a serving platter as soon as it comes out of the oven(wear mitts!) – you don’t want the caramel to cool at all as it will harden and stick to the pan, along with the rest of the cake.
-Serve this cake the same day that it’s baked, preferably warm out of the oven. It doesn’t keep wonderfully, though it will be just fine refrigerated.
-Serve topped with vanilla ice cream. If ever a cake should be paired with a scoop of vanilla, this would be it!
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More Banana-based recipes:
Banana Olive Oil Cake + Toffee Sauce
Banana Nutella Molten Lava Mug Cakes
Banana Split Mousse Cake
Caramelized Banana Upside Down Cake
Author: Kayley
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: one 9" round cake
Ingredients
- FOR THE CARAMELIZED BANANA BASE:
- 6 tablespoons Butter
- ¾ cup Brown Sugar(packed)
- 3-4 ripe to semi-ripe Bananas
- FOR THE CAKE:
- 2 cups Flour (all-purpose)
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- ½ cup Brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¾ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 2 Eggs
- ½ cup (1 stick) Butter, browned
- ⅔ cup Milk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 2 Ripe Bananas
Instructions
- FOR THE CARAMELIZED BANANA BASE:
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar together. Turn the heat up to medium high and bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for 30-60 seconds, or until the mixture becomes thick and glossy - There should be no separation of butter and sugar.
- Pour the mixture into a 9" cake pan with sides that have been greased and floured.
- Tilt to evenly coat the bottom of the pan.
- Slice the bananas in half lengthwise and lay as many as you can fit, cut side down, over the layer of caramel. Set aside.
- FOR THE CAKE:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Place the flour, sugars, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl and whisk to combine.
- Add the egg, browned butter, milk, and vanilla to a blender and blend until the banana is broken down - not completely smooth but so that there are only very small lumps. Add the mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk in just until smooth.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, over the banana and caramel. Tap a few times to move batter around bananas and bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until puffed and firm on top and a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Remove from oven - immediately and very carefully flip out onto a serving platter. Let cool sightly. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
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