Banana Upside-Down Cake
Most cakes tell you what they’re going to look like before you put them in the oven. If you make a flourless chocolate cake, it’s going to be the same color going in as it is coming out. Same for an almond cake, a coconut cake (pre-icing), a hummingbird cake, etc.
Upside-down cakes are different. You put them in the oven and then you wait 40 or 50 minutes until the cake is ready to reveal itself. Even when you take it out, you have to let it cool for fifteen minutes before you flip it on to the cake stand and behold your creation. It’s the culinary equivalent of your spouse getting plastic surgery and then slowly unraveling the gauze.
This upside-down cake comes to us from our most right side-up food writer, Melissa Clark, who starts out by telling you to slice the bananas “lengthwise into half-inch planks.” Unfortunately, my knife skills were no match for these flimsy bananas which broke in half the second I attempted to dissect them.
No matter! As you’ll soon see, upside-down cakes can be forgiving because caramel covers a multitude of sins. Here you make a caramel using brown sugar, butter, and lemon juice. You arrange the banana pieces on top and then add chopped nuts — either walnuts or pecans — neither of which I had, so I used hazelnuts.
The trickiest step here is coating the bananas and nuts in the goo without breaking them up too much more. My parents, who wanted me to go to medical school, will be proud of the surgical skills I employed here
As for the batter, it couldn’t be easier. Bring on the melted butter, the eggs, the sugar, the sour cream (I used yogurt), and flour. I also added a teaspoon of cinnamon for good measure.
The batter goes on, you spread it out with an offset spatula, and into a 350 oven it goes for 35 to 45 minutes. When it comes out, it’ll smell divine, but reveal nothing about itself. Have you succeeded in upside-down cake making? Or will this cake make a mockery of you and all of your culinary ambitions?
The moment of truth comes after you slice around the edges to make sure it detaches and flip it on to a cake stand.
Is the cake beautiful or an abomination? A feather in your cap or a thorn in your side?
Behold!
Just a little stuck to the pan, but it was no problem to detach it and reapply it like the plastic surgeon my parents wanted me to be. And if you unwrapped the gauze after a face lift and saw this cake on your neck, you’d be a very happy patient indeed.
So the next time you feel like rolling the culinary dice, melt some butter and sugar in a skillet, add some fruit, top with cake batter and say your prayers. Chances are you’ll be happy with the results, and if not, there’s always ice cream to cover your mistakes.
BAnana Upside-Down Cake
My take on Melissa Clark’s excellent recipe, with cinnamon and hazelnuts shaking things up a little.
Ingredients:
For the topping:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large bananas (just getting ripe; too ripe and they’ll fall apart like mine did), sliced lengthwise into 1/2-inch planks
1/2 cup coarsely chopped hazelnuts (skins rubbed off), or walnuts, or pecans
For the cake:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled (tip: melt it in the 10-inch cast iron skillet that you’ll be making the cake in, tilting the pan to grease the sides, before pouring out into a bowl… that’ll grease the pan for you)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (if you don’t have vanilla, Bourbon might be nice)
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream or whole-milk yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions:
Heat oven to 350 F.
Make the topping first. In your 10-inch cast iron skillet, melt the butter over medium heat, add the brown sugar, lemon juice, and salt, and whisk until the brown sugar melts… one or two minutes.
Keep cooking for another minute or two until it starts to smell like caramel. Don’t take it too far or your caramel will burn. Turn off the heat, add the bananas and nuts, coat them carefully in the goo, and then arrange it so that it looks nice enough to be the top of your cake when you flip it out.
Make the cake: whisk together the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Whisk in the sour cream or yogurt, then work in the baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, and cinnamon. Add the flour and using a rubber spatula, gently fold in without over working the batter.
Pour the batter over the fruit in the pan, using an off-set spatula to spread it to the edges without disturbing the fruit too much. Pop into the oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes until it’s golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean.
Use a paring knife to cut around the edges right away to make sure it doesn’t stick. Let cool for 15 minutes and then, very carefully, place your cake stand upside-down on top of the pan and flip both over so the skillet is face-down on top. Your cake should slide right out. If any bits remain behind, don’t freak out: use an off-set spatula to surgically reapply them to the cake.
Allow the cake to cool completely and serve by itself or, even better, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
