• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Savoring Italy

Savoring Italy

An Italian food and travel blog. Find easy and delicious Italian recipes and Italian travel stories at "Savoring Italy".

  • Home
  • About
    • Press
    • Privacy Policy
    • Photo Use Policy
    • Media
    • Podcast
    • Videos
  • Blogging
    • How to Start a Blog
  • Recipes
    • Recipes by Season
      • Christmas Recipes
      • Easter
      • Fall Recipes
      • Summer
    • Meals
      • breakfast
      • side dish
      • appetizers
      • dinner
      • dessert
    • Special Diets
      • Dairy Free
      • Gluten Free
      • Healthy recipes
      • Keto
      • Paleo
      • Sugar free
      • Mediterranean Diet
      • Vegan
      • Vegetarian
      • Whole30
    • Ingredients
      • Beef
      • Bread
      • Chicken
      • Pork
      • Seafood
    • Popular
      • American Recipes
      • Baking
      • Cookies
      • Sourdough
      • Slow cooker
      • Soup
    • Recipe Stories
  • Italy
    • Italian Baking
    • Italian Recipes
    • Pasta Recipes
    • Travel
  • Freebies
    • Packing List Freebie
    • Lightroom Filter Freebie
    • Content Scheduler Freebie
  • Shop
  • Subscribe
Savoring Italy
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • About
    • Press
    • Privacy Policy
    • Photo Use Policy
    • Media
    • Podcast
    • Videos
  • Blogging
    • How to Start a Blog
  • Recipes
    • Recipes by Season
      • Christmas Recipes
      • Easter
      • Fall Recipes
      • Summer
    • Meals
      • breakfast
      • side dish
      • appetizers
      • dinner
      • dessert
    • Special Diets
      • Dairy Free
      • Gluten Free
      • Healthy recipes
      • Keto
      • Paleo
      • Sugar free
      • Mediterranean Diet
      • Vegan
      • Vegetarian
      • Whole30
    • Ingredients
      • Beef
      • Bread
      • Chicken
      • Pork
      • Seafood
    • Popular
      • American Recipes
      • Baking
      • Cookies
      • Sourdough
      • Slow cooker
      • Soup
    • Recipe Stories
  • Italy
    • Italian Baking
    • Italian Recipes
    • Pasta Recipes
    • Travel
  • Freebies
    • Packing List Freebie
    • Lightroom Filter Freebie
    • Content Scheduler Freebie
  • Shop
  • Subscribe
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Home » Popular » baking » Banana Coconut Upside-Down Cake

Banana Coconut Upside-Down Cake

September 9, 2014 by Savoring Italy

Jump to Recipe - Print Recipe

My Banana Coconut Upside-Down Cake is a really easy cake recipe. It is soft and tender with a gooey brown sugar topping, and baked bananas for that extra natural sweetness. So easy to make, you don’t need your mixer!

I like to make upside-down cakes. I do. I really do! I think about these sort of cakes often. I know, it does sound weird.

overhead image of upside-down banana coconut cake on a white plate

 

But really, it’s not that weird if you’re into baking. The truth is, I don’t bake enough cakes over here. I know that this also may sound weird coming from a blogger who first started out only intending to blog about cakes (and other sweets). I started this blog one day 4 years ago on a whim. There was no plan. I was missing my Hungarian aunt that was like my grandmother.

overhead image of banana coconut cake on a white plate

 

She used to bake so many Hungarian sweets and especially, cakes. I was reminiscing about her. I used to call her “sweety” because I couldn’t pronounce her Hungarian name correctly (Mariskaneni…which means, aunt Maria).

I thought I should start to save some of my favorite recipes for my kids, who one day may actually use them. Thinking of my dear “sweety”, I came up with the name Cake Duchess. That’s how my blog first came about!

I ‘m just a girl that loves baking simple and not too fancy things. Like this cake. Please don’t be afraid of it because it’s an upside-down cake. Why does it scare you? Because you may burn yourself when you flip the pan? Ok, I get it…I do. Because I have burned myself doing the flip thing. More often than I care to remember. But you get better with each flip of the pan. It just takes some practice!

overhead image of a slice of banana cake on a white plate

 

Hey, I was told by my daughter that it’s time to bake a cake. She told me I was a slacking in the baking area and suggested a cake with a caramel sauce. I adore any dessert with coconut. I thought that this cake could make up for my lack of cake baking. It did..really, it did! It disappeared in one afternoon. We did even share some with the neighbors. Now that’s the sign of a good cake!

I used my lovely cast-iron skillet for this cake. I am recommending you use an 8-inch square pan instead, as it’s much easier to flip onto a serving plate. Bananas, coconut, a caramel sauce…oh, my word! Dreamy. Yes, very dreamy!

Some other upside-down cake recipes to enjoy:

  • Warm Apple-Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake
  • Upside-Down Cranberry Cake
  • Peach and Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake
  • Pineapple Upside-down Cake
Print Recipe Pin Recipe Rate this Recipe

Banana Coconut Upside-Down Cake

My Banana Upside-Down Cake is a really easy cake recipe. It is soft and tender with a gooey brown sugar topping, and baked bananas for that extra natural sweetness. So easy to make, you don’t need your mixer!
Prep Time8 mins
Cook Time50 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: bananas, cake, upside-down cake
Servings: 1 8-inch cake
Author: Lora

Ingredients

  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter room temp
  • ½ cup packed light-brown sugar
  • 1 cup granulated sugar I used 3/4 cup
  • 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 ripe mashed banana
  • 1 ⅓ cups cake flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon allspice I used cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 cup shredded coconut
  • for the caramel sauce
  • 4 tbs of unsalted butter
  • ¾ cup of lightly packed brown sugar
  • 2 tbs of dark maple syrup
  • 3-4 just ripe bananas sliced diagonally

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 F.
  • For the sauce-melt butter over a medium heat in a saucepan. Add sugar and maple syrup. Stir for 3 minutes or until bubbling but do not burn.
  • Pour the sauce into an 8-inch cake pan and coat the base well. Arrange
  • bananas in staggered overlapping rows, covering bottom of pan evenly.
  • In a large bowl, cream 8 tablespoons of butter, sugar and lemon zest. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined after each. Mix in the
  • mashed banana until combined.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
  • Add flour mixture to butter mixture in three batches, alternating with the milk and starting and ending with the flour.
  • Sprinkle shredded coconut over the bananas in cake pan. Pour batter into cake pan, and spread evenly over coconut and bananas.
  • Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, about 50 minutes (my oven was about 40 minutes). Invert cake carefully onto serving plate.
Tried this recipe?Mention @savoringitaly or tag #savoringitaly!
« Previous Post
Sicilian Food Memories and a Day with 2 Star Michelin Chef Pino Cuttaia
Next Post »
Penne and Cheese

If you enjoyed this…

Kumquat Ricotta Cupcakes

Caramel-Topped Semolina Cake

Strawberry Monkey Bread

Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Helpful comments include feedback on the post or changes you made.

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Lora and Gabby

Welcome to our Italian kitchen! We are Lora and Gabriella, the mother-daughter team behind Savoring Italy. We work hard to create recipes that are inclusive of many sorts of diets, but do not follow one diet. Read More

What’s Trending

mixed berry crumble bar

  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Videos
  • Presets
  • Podcast
  • travel to Italy
  • Web Stories
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

© 2022 · Copyright © · Savoring Italy · Privacy Policy