Bananas Foster Upside Down Cake

Today is another recipe inspired by my best friend Chelsey’s family, my second family. During high school, I spent a majority of my time at their house. So much so that I had my designated spot on the couch. Whenever we had sleepovers, Chelsey’s mom would make us pancakes with bananas foster for breakfast. It was something I always looked forward to. So now, bananas foster is such a comforting and special dish. It brings back so many memories of times with my favorite people.

So I took those flavors and turned them into the most delicious, moist, and flavorful cake that is shockingly easy to make. This isn’t any regular upside down cake either – there’s bananas in the bananas foster topping but there’s also tons of bananas in the cake too. It’s the greatest mash up of banana bread and bananas foster you will ever taste. The cake is SUPER moist from all of the banana and both the cake and topping are warm and comforting with flavors of cinnamon, rum, and caramel. Seriously – go buy some bananas so you can make this. The recipe uses 6 bananas, 2 for the topping and 4 for the cake, so its perfect for those bunch of bananas you bought last week swearing you would eat but then forgot about.

Making the Banana Foster Upside Down Cake

First you are going to make your batter, this way as soon as your topping is ready, you can put your batter right on top. To make your batter, first you will beat your butter and brown sugar until combined. Then add your eggs, one at a time, until combined. Once that is combined, you will add your vanilla extract and rum. For all of the rum in this recipe, I used Bacardi Gold. Any rum will work, but I think this one is especially great in the recipe because of it’s naturally mild and sweet flavor. It even has notes of vanilla, caramel, and banana already so it’s the perfect complement. Once that is all mixed in, add your plain Greek yogurt and mashed bananas. Then you’re ready for your dry ingredients!

Add your baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and flour to your batter. When you add your baking soda and baking powder, sprinkle it evenly over the batter. You want to make sure that is really well distributed and there are no unmixed pockets. Unmixed baking powder can leave a really metallic taste in your baked goods, so you want to make sure you avoid that! Set your finished batter aside so you can your topping.

Over medium heat, combine your brown sugar, butter, and salt in a small saucepan. Stir frequently to combine your butter and sugar. Once that is melted together and combined, remove from heat. Then add your cinnamon and rum. Now you’re ready to assemble! You also probably want to take a little taste of this before you use it because it’s so yummy.

Pour the caramel topping into the bottom of your prepared 9x13inch baking dish. I really like to use my clear Pyrex for this because it’s really easy to get the cake out of it once it’s done baking because of the round edges (no corners to get stuck!) and you can also see what your cake is going to look like before you flip it over. If you use a metal cake pan instead, watch the cooking time because metal and glass heat differently in the oven.

Spread your caramel topping evenly on the bottom of the pan and then arrange your sliced bananas on top of that. Longer slices of bananas will stay in place, but smaller pieces might get displaced when you pour your batter on top. If you have a lot of small pieces of banana, you might want to throw your pan in the refrigerator quickly to set that up a little bit first. But honestly, the parts where the caramel topping is but there’s no banana are seriously delicious. So it doesn’t need to be perfect! So just gently pour your batter on top of the bananas foster topping and spread it out with a rubber spatula.

Now you’re ready to bake! Bake for 30 minutes, then cover with tin foil and cook 10 minutes more, until the cake is fully cooked through. You can check the cake with a cake tester – it is ready when the tester comes out clean. You can also test the cake by touching it. It should bounce back when you press on it and feel like a cushion. When it’s done baking, run a knife along the edge of the pan and then let the cake cool for 10 minutes. When you’re ready to flip your cake over out of the dish, say a little prayer, then cover the top with parchment paper, tin foil, or wax paper and then place a large dish or baking sheet on top of that. Holding the baking sheet firmly against the cake dish, flip the dish over so the cake can fall out of the pan and onto the baking sheet.

If any topping is left in the pan or slides off the cake, you can just use a spoon to add that back on to the cake. Now you can slice and serve! This is delicious plain or topped with ice cream.

Print Recipe

Bananas Foster Upside Down Cake

This bananas foster upside down cake has a bananas foster topping on top of a bananas foster cake – filled with cinnamon, rum, and bananas! So much flavor and so easy to make!

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: banana bread, banana cake, bananas foster

Servings: 1 9×13 cake

Ingredients

For the bananas foster topping:

• 2/3 cup dark brown sugar lightly packed
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
• 3 tbsp rum I use Bacardi Gold
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 ripe bananas Sliced lengthwise into 4 pieces

For the bananas foster cake:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar lightly packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs room temperature
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tbsp rum I use Bacardi Gold
• 4 overripe bananas mashed
• 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 cup all-purpose flour

Instructions

For the cake batter:

• Preheat the oven to 350F and prepare a 9×13 baking dish or cake pan by spraying with cooking spray or greasing with butter. I like to use my glass Pyrex dish for this so you can see what the topping looks like as it cooks and it’s really easy to get the cake out of the dish when it’s done baking.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat together the butter and sugars (brown and granulated on medium speed until combined and light in color.
• Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Beat on medium speed to combine.
• Add the rum and vanilla and beat on medium speed to combine.
• Add the Greek yogurt and mashed bananas and beat on medium speed to combine.
• On low speed, beat in the dry ingredients (salt, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, AP flour). Make sure to sprinkle the baking powder and baking soda evenly over the top of the batter to ensure it is evenly distributed.
• Scrape down the sides of the bowl and give it one last good mix making sure everything is fully incorporated. Set the batter aside while you make the topping.

For the bananas foster topping:

• In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the brown sugar, butter, and salt until combined. Stir frequently until the butter and sugar are melted together.
• Remove from heat and stir in the cinnamon and rum.

To assemble and bake:

• Pour the bananas foster topping mixture into the bottom of the prepared 9×13 pan and arrange your sliced bananas on top of it.
• Gently pour your cake batter on top of the topping and spread the batter out evenly in the pan.
• Bake for 30 minutes, then cover with tin foil and cook 10 minutes more, until the cake is fully cooked through. You can check the cake with a cake tester – it is ready when the tester comes out clean. If you are using a metal baking pan instead of a Pyrex dish, you will want to watch the baking time. Metal and glass heat differently in the oven so the timing will likely be different. You may also want to put something on the bottom of your oven to catch any overflow. In making this, I never had any overflow but the caramel topping does bubble up quite a bit towards the end as it heats up. If you have a more shallow baking dish, it’s possible to get overflow.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool about 10 minutes.
• Run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cake and the bananas foster caramel topping.
• Place a sheet of parchment paper over the cake and place a baking sheet on top of that. Holding the baking dish with your cake in it tightly against the baking sheet, flip the dish and baking sheet over so your cake can turn out onto the baking sheet.
• Remove the baking dish. If any topping slides off or gets left behind in the pan, gently spoon it over the cake. Slice and serve!

Notes

This cake can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for several days.