Banana Coconut Upside-Down Cake

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.

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. 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!

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!

Banana Coconut Upside-Down Cake

Ingredients

8 tablespoons unsalted butter,room temp
1/2 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 1/3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice (I used cinnamon)
1/2 cup milk
1 cup shredded coconut
for the caramel sauce
4 tbs of unsalted butter
3/4 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.