Banana Upside Down Cake is an old-fashioned cake recipe that uses ingredients I have on hand. Don’t you always have bananas in your kitchen? I guess this is where I insert some mom-joke observation about my family being a bunch of bananas hanging around my kitchen, but I will spare you. What we really want to talk about is including more cake in our lives! Let’s get started on this Banana Upside Down Cake!
Bananas and more bananas
The first thing you will need are bananas. The ripeness of the bananas matters in this recipe. We use bananas in the cake batter and also we use bananas as a topping for the cake. The bananas in the cake batter can be super overripe. The bananas for the top of the cake should be less ripe so that they hold their shape when baked.
Because this is an upside-down cake, the bananas are exposed to a lot of heat at the bottom of the pan. For that reason, the topping bananas need to be a bit more firm. The banana design on the top of the cake should look like bananas and not a bunch of mush.
The second thing you need is the proper sized baking pan. You can use a square pan for this recipe or a round ring mold. Just make sure that whatever pan you use holds 8 cups (1.9lt) of cake batter. Most Bundt cake pans hold 12 cups (2.83lt) and shallow square pans only hold 6 cups (1.4lt.)
To confirm the capacity of your baking pan, simply use a measuring cup filled with water. See how much water you can add to the baking pan. There should be about 1-2” (2.5-5cm) of space to the edge of the baking pan so you have space for the cake to rise.
I love serving Banana Upside Down Cake with coffee. Such a delicious home-made treat!
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