This dessert takes the delicious flavors of bananas foster and combines them into a soft and fluffy cake! The result is a sweet and decadent treat that will impress and satisfy the sweetest sweet tooth!
Decadent Bananas Foster Cake
Are you a fan of banana foster? You know, the classic dessert made with bananas, brown sugar, butter, and rum, served over vanilla ice cream? 😋 If so, you’re in for a treat with this twist on the traditional recipe: Bananas Foster Upside Down Cake! 😱
Bananas are a versatile fruit that can be used in many delicious desserts, and one of the most popular banana desserts is Banana Bread, of course! However, I am trying to change that with this cake. The classic bananas foster dessert is a fantastic combination of sweet, caramelized bananas, but what if we put those in a cake? Oh yeah, I just did! It’s incredible.
Soooo. Fat Tuesday is upon us, and like the many Fat Tuesdays that have come before, I am again attempting to lure you in with a pretty and sweet and delightful and amazing Bananas Foster dessert. Fingers crossed, my plan is working…
Working off of my Pineapple Upside Down Cake from a few years back, I decided to make my banana-fosters-cake-dreams come true!
How To Make Bananas Foster Cake
- Preheat oven to 400˚F, and grease an 11×7 pan with cooking spray.
- Arrange the bananas, cut side down, in the prepared pan, and set aside.
- For the Sauce: Combine butter, light brown sugar, and cinnamon in a skillet and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until butter is melted, sugar dissolved, and mixture is well combined.
- Slowly add rum and cook until heated through. Using a lighter, stand back and carefully light the rum.
- Shake the pan a bit until the flames subside. Remove from heat and pour over the bananas; set aside.
- For the Cake: In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt; set aside.
- In your mixer’s bowl, beat the egg yolks for 4 to 5 minutes on high speed, or until lemony yellow. With the mixer on low, add apple juice and vanilla. Slowly add the melted butter and continue to mix until combined. Gradually add in the flour mixture, about 1/4-cup at a time; continue to mix until thoroughly incorporated.
- Remove bowl from mixer and set aside. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat the egg whites on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the flour mixture.
- Spoon dollops of the cake batter over the bananas and using an offset spatula, gently spread the batter, covering the fruit.
- Set a baking sheet on the bottom of the oven. Bake the cake in the center of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert it onto a platter. Let the cake cool slightly; about 20 minutes.
- Cut and serve.
It’s spongy, it’s extremely flavorful, it’s got texture, it’s got caramel, it’s got RUM! It’s just plain ol’ awesome.
If I’m being perfectly honest, this is the way I want to enjoy the classic Bananas Foster from now until eternity – on top of this sweet, one-layer cake + a few cups of hot coffee to go with it. Ice cream, too.
Okay. What I’m really trying to say is that your Chubby Monday, or your Fat Tuesday, should be consumed by this cake-activity. Flambe your bananas and whip up that cake! You will LOVE it!
ENJOY!
More Bananas Recipes
Bananas Foster Upside Down Cake
Ingredients
- 3 to 4 bananas, halved longwise
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup dark rum
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature, white and yolks separated
- ½ cup apple juice
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cool for about 3 minutes before using
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400˚F.
- Grease an 11×7 brownie pan with cooking spray, or you can also use an 8-inch cake pan or an 8×8 brownie pan. (***see notes)
- Arrange the bananas, cut side down, in the prepared pan and set aside.
- Combine butter, light brown sugar and cinnamon in a skillet and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until butter is melted, sugar dissolved and mixture is well combined.
- Slowly add rum and cook until heated through.
- Using a lighter, stand back and carefully light the rum.
- Shake the pan a bit until the flames subside.
- Remove from heat and pour over prepared bananas; set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt; set aside.
- In your mixer’s bowl, beat the egg yolks for 4 to 5 minutes on high speed, or until lemony yellow.
- With the mixer on low, add apple juice and vanilla.
- Slowly add the melted butter and continue to mix until combined.
- Gradually add in the flour mixture, about 1/4-cup at a time; continue to mix until thoroughly incorporated.
- Remove bowl from mixer and set aside.
- In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat the egg whites on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.
- Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the flour mixture. (***see notes)
- Spoon dollops of the cake batter over the bananas and using an offset spatula, gently spread the batter, covering the fruit.
- Set a baking sheet on the bottom of the oven.
- Bake the cake in the center of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
- Invert the cake onto a platter.
- Let the cake cool slightly; about 20 minutes.
- Cut into squares and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
I made this with 1 cup cream of coconut, 1 tbsp butter and some cinnamon as my sugar mixture, and covered it with 2 boxes of those jiffy banana muffin mix because that was all i had and it came out incredible. Thank you so much for this recipe idea. Next time I will make your exact recipe because that sounds so good as well.
Followed the directions, but my carmel seems like it’s going to be very hard an inedible. Don’t know where I went wrong.. anybody?
It’s in the oven now.
Very disappointed as the batter smelled DELICIOUS. Probably user error so I want to correct it for my next attempt.
Hi!
I’m sorry you had problems with this :(. I hope the cake turned out, though…fingers crossed! Cooking the caramel for too long – doesn’t take much, even a second – is what will make it harden up real fast.
I had the same problem. I tried TWICE haha once I mixed all the sugar and butter first and then heated up. But the sugar wasn’t melted like at all. And then it got hard because I kept trying to melt. Second time I melted butter first and then added sugar to hopefully help melt it. Same issue. I give up. This recipe made me mad 😂😂😂 oh the struggle
Hi!
A couple of things that may help; keep the heat at medium-low and stir very frequently while the butter is melting and the sugar is dissolving. Using a whisk to mix it all together may also help.
This is such a brilliant recipe! I am wondering if the pan gets discoloured from lighting it, though. I have several pans that I reserve for better recipes and will try to use a pan that does not really bother me if it would happen to get discoloured.
I can’t wait to make this. Thanks for the beautiful recipe!
Can I do this with a cake mix? I need to cut my prep time…
I wanted something kind of challenging to make today and chose this. Never made a carmel before, and mine came out VERY dark brown (maybe because
I used really dark spiced rum, who knows ) and I didn’t light the pan after I put in the rum. Guess what, it still turned out WONDERFULLY. I used an 8×8 pan and mine was in for 23 minutes before fully cooked. Let it sit for 30 minutes and flipped it, and it slid out without any resistance. Perfecto. I got quite a few surprised faces when the family tasted it, and I’m pretty sure we will all have it devoured before the night is over.
Dark rum is awesommmme!! 😀 But yes, it will darken the cake! hehe
So happy though to hear that you loved it! Thank YOU!!
Looks absolutely amazing!
So… was the yolk and flour mixture supposed to be as GD thick as it was? It was walking that batter/dough line quite finely… folding the egg whites into something like that was definitely a new experience.
My cake is in the oven right now, so I hope it turns out!