Banana Upside Down Cake

Banana Upside Down Cake

Sunday is a traditional day in our house with a roast dinner and a dessert to follow, upside down banana cake was on the menu last Sunday! And it did not disappoint, I just love warm bananas! Yummy!

I was looking in the cupboards, trying to decide what to bake and then I remembered watching Lorraine Pascale’s BBC program, Lorraine’s Fast, Fresh and Easy Food where she featured a Dulce and banana traybake. Not having all the ingredients to make her recipe I went with what was available to me and came up with a banana upside down cake. I have baked many varieties of upside down cakes in the past… orange, pineapple and apple! There is something about caramelised fruit, but warm bananas are my weakness! This cake was exceptional, banana and caramel work beautifully together. The smell of caramel and warm bananas filled the kitchen and we could not wait to get stuck in. The bananas caramelise and the caramel soaks into the sponge to give it a moist texture. The flavour from the bananas in the topping slightly flavours the sponge too. It was delicious, served best still slightly warm, but I’m sure the cake would taste great even after a few days (ours was devoured).

Ingredients For the sticky topping 

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp lemon juice

Good pinch of salt

220 grams brown sugar

2 large bananas (or 3 small)

 

For the sponge

110grams butter, room temperature

190grams sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

120mls milk

250 grams Self Raising Flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Lightly grease and line a 9-inch spring form pan, wrap the outside bottom of the pan well with foil to prevent caramel from leaking while cooking.

3. In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt together the butter, salt and lemon juice. Then stir in brown sugar to form the caramel.

4. Slice peeled bananas approx. 1/4-inch thick and arrange in a single layer in the bottom of the prepared pan.

5. Pour the caramel mixture over the bananas into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Set aside.

6. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla and cinnamon. Add the milk to the mixture. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl and stir till just combined.

7. Pour batter into pan and spread evenly, ensuring that all banana slices are covered.

8. Bake for 90 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the centre comes out clean and the cake springs back when lightly pressed. 9. Once the cake is out of the oven, run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen and turn cake out onto a serving platter while still hot. Allow to cool to warm before serving.

10. Serve with vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream.

11. Serves 10-12 Enjoy, I’ll be back again for another post soon. Until then, I leave you with these words:

Bácáil with Love (Bake with Love)