Banana Bread Pecan Upside Down Cake
Think classic moist banana bread but with a delicious caramelized sticky pecan upside down base that becomes the top, this Banana Bread Pecan Upside Down Cake is perfect for literally anytime.
Servings: 9
Equipment
Ingredients
Pecan Upside Down Topping
- 180 grams pecans
- 80 grams salted butter
- 90 grams dark brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 40 grams maple syrup
- 35 grams milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Banana Bread
- 45 grams salted butter
- 75 grams dark brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon ground
- 4 bananas large, approximately 325 grams peeled for the batter plus one as an add in
- 75 grams granulated sugar
- 2 eggs large, room temperature
- 100 grams full fat greek yogurt
- 60 grams neutral oil I used olive oil but vegetable, avocado, or algae oil all work
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 200 grams all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and place a rack in the middle of the oven. A place a rack with a sheet pan one level below to catch any drips.
Pecan Upside Down topping
- Grease an 9" x 9" square metal pan with a bit of butter and then line it with a rectangle of parchment paper that goes down one side, across the bottom and up the other side.
- Roughly chop the pecans and sprinkle them over the bottom of the pan.
- In a small pot add in the brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, milk, and salt. Heat over medium low heat until melted, stir and cook until combined and just bubbling.
- Turn off the heat and pour in the vanilla.
- Pour the mixture all over the pecans and then put the pan on a kitchen towel into the fridge to firm and chill.
Banana Cake Batter
- In a medium sauce pan, add in the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and 3 of the sliced bananas (approximately 325 grams). Place the heat over medium low, and cook stirring regularly until the bananas start to soften and the sugar has dissolved.
- Once a bit soft and saucy, smush the bananas if needed with a fork. Then remove it from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.
- In a medium mixing bowl add in the white sugar, eggs, salt, vanilla, yogurt and oil. Whisk to combine.
- Pour in the caramelized banana smush and whisk again.
- Sprinkle the flour over the surface of the wet ingredients and then the baking soda on top of the flour.
- Before mixing together, peel and chop the last banana into 1/2″ chunks and add on top of the dry ingredients.
- Use a rubber spatula to fold the wet into the dry ingredients.
Bake
- Pour the batter over the pecan upside down mixture in the pan.
- Bake the cake on the middle rack in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the edges are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Once baked, remove the pan from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Not longer!!
- After the 10 minutes have passed, place a serving plate or cutting board upside down over the pan.
- Holding on to both the pan (careful it's hot) and the serving board, flip it over so the cake can fall out of the pan onto the board.
- Leave it to cool for at least 10 minutes or a few hours before cutting into 9 squares and serving.
Notes
Tips for making a Banana Bread Pecan Upside Down Cake
- Allow the pecan upside down mixture to chill in the fridge first to prevent the banana batter from mixing in and swirling it around.
- The perfect bananas for banana cake are brown and spotty but not completely brown and mushy. If they are too ripe you'll have a somewhat alcoholic tasting bread that has too much moisture in it because the bananas will have broken down too far.
- Make sure to bake this cake in a metal pan but you can use a 8" square pan or a 9" round cake pan.
- If you feel like the bananas aren't easily mushing in the pan, you haven't cooked them long enough, allow them to keep cooking at low heat until they can be mushed with a fork.
- I like to use pecans for the classic pecan sticky bun vibe but you could also use walnuts.
- Make sure the butter and banana mix has cooled before adding in the rest of the ingredients to prevent cooking the eggs or activating the baking soda too soon.
- Don't over mix the batter. Banana cake can easily become tough if over mixed so be sure to mix the dry ingredients only until just combined.
- Set a timer for cooling time, if you let it cool too long, the sugary upside down syrup will harden and make it hard to flip out.