Banana Upside-Down Cake Recipe

At first glance, this fresh-out-of-the-oven cake could be any coffee cake. Once you pop it out of the pan and flip it over, though, the gorgeous caramelized topping of sliced bananas is revealed. It’s totally Instagram-worthy, and no one will ever know it took you just over an hour to make.

Banana Upside-Down Cake

Yield: One 9-inch cake
Active Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour and 10 minutes

Ingredients

For the topping
3/4 cup raw honey
1 tablespoon ghee
2 to 3 bananas, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices

For the cake
3 1/2 cup almond flour
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 large eggs
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 extra-ripe bananas

Special equipment: 9-inch springform pan

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line the bottom of springform pan with parchment paper.

Make the topping
Combine honey and ghee in small sauce pan over medium-low heat and bring to gentle boil. Cook for 5 minutes, then pour mixture into bottom of prepared pan. Arrange banana slices to cover the bottom in a single layer. Set aside.

Make the cake batter
Whisk together almond flour, cardamom, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in large bowl. In medium bowl, whisk together eggs, maple syrup, coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Stir wet ingredients into dry and mix until combined. Mash 4 bananas and fold them in. Slice the final banana into small pieces and fold them in.

Bake the cake
Scrape batter into springform pan. Set pan on baking sheet and bake 50 minutes or until golden and a skewer poked into center of cake comes out clean. Let cake cool completely before removing collar from pan and flipping cake upside-down onto serving plate.

Photo credit: Paul Delmont