Upside Down Caramel Banana Cake

Bananas make a fantastic base for any cake. We know this. But have you ever made an upside-down caramel banana cake? This is decadent and delicious. And we'll start with our caramel. So I've got some sugar, about a quarter of a cup. I'm going to place it into a pot. What we want to do is for this sugar to start dissolving and become golden brown. I'm going to keep an eye on that while we get on to our bananas. So some lovely ripe bananas. We're just going to peel them. And there's a few ways of placing this into your tin. You can cut them into circles on an angle. Or I sort of want to do a bit of a flower shape. So I'm going to cut these in half lengthways. So you want your bananas to be ripe but not over-ripened, as if you were making a banana cake or a banana bread. You want them to still have a little bit of shape so they don't go too mushy as they cook. I'll just open up another banana. See, these ones are just right. And, of course, you can change up the fruit for this cake. I've done this with pineapple. Works really nicely too. OK, cut those straight down the middle. Beautiful. And I've got a 23-centimetre cake tin. And then we're going to line our tin with our bananas. So just going around like that, allowing them to overlap slightly. And we just continue the process, working from the outside in until we've got beautiful rose shapes. Don't be afraid to just break the bananas or cut them in half, just to make sure that they fit snug. And I'm quite happy with that. Now, over to our caramel. Look, we've got a deep colour. And it's time to add the cream. So just some thickened cream. And you'll see that it starts to stiffen up a bit. That's OK, because now we're going to, little by little, add our butter, just some cubes of butter. And I'll just slowly whisk that in. And you'll see, just by allowing that to bubble away for a few minutes, we're going to get a beautiful caramel. OK, this is looking perfect. So we're going to pour this hot caramel over our bananas, just filling in all those gaps. And that's just going to cool down slightly while we get on to our cake. So into a mixer, we're going to add some butter. Just put the butter straight into the bowl, along with some sugar, some cast sugar. And at this stage, I'm going to add some vanilla. So about a teaspoon of vanilla bean extract. That's fantastic. A pinch of salt. And I like cinnamon because caramel, banana and cinnamon just work so well together. It's totally optional, though. So we're going to beat this until it's really fluffy and light. Then we can go in with four eggs. Now, when you're adding the eggs, don't add them all together. Add one, give it a good whisk and continue adding them. All right, all of the egg has been combined. It will look a little bit curdled, and that's OK because we're going to add the flour now. Now, I like to use a self-raising flour for this. Of course, it's got a rising agent in it. This is also a low-protein self-raising flour. So it's much finer, which means we're going to get a lovely, fluffy result. So we're going to add our flour. I also like to add just a hint of almond meal. It's totally optional. I just like a slight nuttiness to this. So we can add that. And whenever you're at this stage, you don't want to overwork the protein in the flour. So I'm going to just put this on a low speed and we're just going to slowly incorporate our flour. Once that starts to come together, I'm going to add a splash of milk. This is the perfect cake batter. And we'll just take that whisk out. And now this goes straight over our caramel bananas. So because it is quite thick, you just want to dollop it into a few sections of the tin, just so we're not displacing those bananas. And then this goes into the oven. I've preheated my oven to 170 degrees, and this is going to cook for about 40 to 45 minutes. But the best way to test that it's cooked is just to piece it in the centre with a skewer. If the skewer comes out clean, it's ready. Cake has come out of the oven. I've allowed it to cool. And let's take it out of the tin. So a bit of a jiggle. Ooh, it's naturally going to be quite sticky because of all that caramel. I'm just going to loosen it from the base. And what I like to do is just get a plate or a cake stand and flip it over. Place that in the centre. Take the metal base off. And that paper should come off really easily, exposing those beautiful bananas. A little icing sugar over the top. Look at that. Fantastic. I'm naturally going to want a little taste of this. So let's cut a slice. I want to show you how beautiful the crumb of the cake is. Just slice that. Ooh, look at that. Just right. And if you happen to have some cream, then the little dollop of cream on the side, just over here. And I just think that is the most delicious cake. It's still slightly warm. Not hot, but just slightly warm. That's exactly the way I like to serve it. That is such a delicious cake. Caramel bananas and that beautiful tender crumb. Look at that. Not dry whatsoever. Just right.