Banana Upside Down Cake

Banana Upside Down Cake for Two

Growing up, the only upside down cake I had ever heard of was pineapple and I was not a fan of pineapple at the time. Little did I know, you can make almost anything upside down! I would like to say this is my own creation but I first tried this at a New Years Eve party that I went to several years go. I was not really into baking at the time so I did't think much of it, other than "That's neat." Recently, that cake popped into my head and I knew I had to try it, only on a smaller scale.

One nice thing about this cake is that you can reduce the amount of sugar for the cake portion and this gives a nice contrast between the base and the cake. This is a great modification if you are looking for something to go with coffee and don’t want to over power your taste-buds first thing in the morning.

Like most cake recipes, this first calls for butter and sugar. In the video I only used three tablespoons of brown sugar, whereas the recipe calls for six. I’ve made both and they are great but don’t be afraid to adjust the sugar amounts in this recipe, it will not drastically affect the outcome. While baking needs to follow a recipe more so than cooking a gourmet meal, there is always room for a little flair. Personally, I think a nice whipped topping would go very nicely with this cake so if anyone decides to try that, please let me know how it turns out!

Ingredients

For the Banana Base:

• 3 tablespoons butter, melted

• 6 tablespoons brown sugar

• 1 banana, sliced

For the Cake:

• ¼ cup butter, softened

• ¾ cup sugar

• 1 egg

• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

• ¾ cup all purpose flour

• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

• ¼ cup milk

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F

Grease a 7-inch spring form pan with butter and place pan on top of a baking sheet.

Mix the melted butter and brown sugar together and spread it on the bottom of the pan. Remember, the recipe calls for 6 tablespoons but you can reduce that if you like. I used 3 tablespoons here.

Top with sliced bananas. One large banana should cover a 7" pan

In a small bowl, beat butter and sugar until well mixed. 

Beat in egg and vanilla.

In a separate small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Add to butter/sugar mixture and mix to combine.

Stir in the milk.

Spread the batter evenly over the top of the bananas, and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until top is golden.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes before inverting over a plate.