🍌🍞🍰 Upside-Down Banana Bread Cake combines two of my favorite recipes into one incredible treat! A decadent spin on banana bread, it elevates the loaf with caramelized bananas and a sweet flavor I know you’ll love.
Easy Upside Down Banana Cake
I’m a sucker for banana bread anything. With 40+ banana bread and banana recipes and counting, what’s one more? This is an easy recipe that’s adapted from one of the most popular recipes on my site, Cream Cheese-Filled Banana Bread.
Rather than baking it in a loaf pan, I baked it in an 8×8-inch pan, added banana slices, and a heavenly butter and brown sugar topping that caramelizes as the cake bakes. Caramel sauce and bananas go hand in hand.
If you’re looking for a light and airy banana cake, this isn’t it. It’s denser, and the texture is like banana bread. (If you’re craving classic banana cake, try my banana cake recipe instead!)
I like to enjoy this soft, rich banana upside-down cake as both a breakfast and a dessert. Either way, with a nearly five-star review, it’s definitely a keeper!
Recipe Ingredients
To make the best banana bread cake recipe, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar
- Bananas – Use ripe bananas for the topping, and mash bananas for the batter. I don’t recommend frozen bananas. The excess liquid is likely to make the bread soggy
- Egg – I haven’t tested this recipe with egg substitutes and cannot guarantee your results if you do. Let the eggs come to room temperature for easy mixing
- Granulated sugar
- Canola oil – The recipe uses oil rather than butter, so there’s nothing to cream and no mixer to dirty. Oil also keeps quick breads and cakes softer and springier than butter.
- Sour cream
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour – I personally haven’t tested it, but I imagine a 1:1 all-purpose gluten-free flour would work well if you need a gluten-free recipe
- Leaveners- Baking powder and baking soda help create a tall, fluffy loaf. Make sure they’re fresh for the best results
- Salt
Add texture
Feel free to include chopped nuts such as walnuts, walnuts, or pecans in the banana bread batter or the banana layer for extra flavor and crunch.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Banana Bread Cake
This is a straightforward recipe that anyone can prepare! Before you begin, I recommend lining your baking dish with aluminum foil or parchment paper before pouring the caramel topping into it. If you line with foil, it’s also much easier to lift the cake out with the foil overhang, place a cutting board on top of the cake, and invert.
Follow these simple instructions:
- Make the caramelized banana topping: Add the butter and brown sugar to a saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Pour the wet mixture into the bottom the prepared tin, and lay banana slices on top in an even layer. When slicing the bananas for the topping, I recommend slicing them on the thicker side, otherwise they’ll ‘disappear’ into the sauce as the cake bakes!
- Make the banana bread batter: Simply add the wet ingredients and dry ingredients to a mixing bowl, and whisk to combine. There’s no need for a hand mixer or stand mixer!
- Bake the cake: This banana bread cake needs to bake until it’s set in the center and a toothpick or skewer inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no batter. Note that in the final moments of baking, I noticed the caramel sauce mixture bubbling up around the sides of my pan. Be sure to watch your pan so nothing bubbles over, or place your pan on top of a baking sheet in the final moments.
- Let cool: The cake needs to cool for at least 3 hours before inverting it.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, I’m sure you can double this banana upside down cake recipe and bake it in a 9×13-inch pan.
No, this isn’t a cake I’d recommend freezing. Frozen banana slices on top of the cake turn black, and when you thaw the cake, the texture is off.
You should be fine to make this banana bread cake up to 2 days in advance, and store it in the fridge. After that, the cake will begin drying out, and I wouldn’t recommend serving it to guests.
Banana Bread Cake
Equipment
- 1 Wire Rack
Ingredients
Topping
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- about 2 to 3 medium/large ripe bananas, sliced into thick rounds (about 1/2 to 3/4-inch thick)
Cake
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup canola or vegetable oil, liquid-state coconut oil may be substituted
- ¼ cup cup sour cream, lite is okay; or Greek yogurt may be substituted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas, about 2 to 3 medium/large bananas
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8×8-inch pan with heavy duty aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
Make the Topping:
- To a large sauce pan, add the butter, brown sugar, and heat over medium heat to melt butter; whisk or stir nearly constantly to mix the sugar into the melting butter.
- Once butter has melted, allow mixture to come to a boil and boil for about 30 to 45 seconds. Pour sauce into prepared pan.
- Add the banana slices (slice them on the thicker side or they’ll ‘disappear’ into the sauce as the cake bakes) in an even flat layer for complete coverage over the pan, with about 1/2-inch space between bananas. They don’t have to be perfectly spaced out; set aside.
Make the Cake:
- To a large bowl, add the the egg, sugars, oil, sour cream, vanilla, and whisk to combine.
- Add the bananas and stir to combine.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and stir until just combined; don’t overmix.
- Carefully and evenly pour batter over the banana slices, smooth lightly with a spatula as necessary, and bake for about 42 to 45 minutes, or until cake is set in the center and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no batter.
- Allow pan to cool on a wire rack for at least 3 hours (I cooled overnight) before inverting and serving. If you line with foil, it’s easy to lift cake out with foil overhang, place a cutting board on top of cake, and invert.
Notes
- Note: In the final moments of baking I noticed the caramel sauce mixture bubbling up around the sides of the pan; watch your pan so nothing bubbles over or place pan on top of a baking sheet in the final moments.
- Cake will keep airtight at room temp for up to 1 week.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
More Easy Banana Cake Recipes:
ALL OF MY BANANA BREAD RECIPES!
Caramelized Banana Upside-Down Cake — Have ripe bananas? This cake has their name all over it! Dripping with rich, buttery, caramel sauce!
Slow Cooker Banana Cake with Brown Sugar Sauce — The banana bread is soft, tender, full of rich banana flavor, and the sauce that forms while the bread bakes is pure caramely heaven.
Six-Banana Banana Chocolate Chip Cake — Yes, 6 bananas in 1 cake means it’s super SOFT, moist, and has robust banana flavor with chocolate chips in EVERY bite! EASY and one bowl! Now you know what to do with all your ripe bananas!
Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting – The BEST banana cake recipe because it’s soft, tender, moist, and bursting with banana flavor thanks to the 4 bananas used! Tangy-yet-sweet cream cheese frosting takes this cake over the top and makes it a guaranteed family FAVORITE! Fast and easy to make!
Glazed Banana Zucchini Cake — With sweet vanilla pudding mix, ripe bananas, and grated zucchini, this cake is fall-apart soft and tender. It’s a snap to make with just a whisk, one bowl, and is ready to be baked in just minutes!
Spiced Banana Apple Cake — Apple cake meets banana bread with a to-die-for glaze! Best ever!
it tastes great, unfortunately I made too much caramel so it was way too sweet.
it tastes great, unfortunately I made too much caramel so it was way too sweet.
it tastes great, unfortunately I made too much caramel so it was way too sweet.
It’s in the oven now and I’m very excited! Oh, and I’m putting really crunchy crumbled bacon on top!
It’s in the oven now and I’m very excited! Oh, and I’m putting really crunchy crumbled bacon on top!
I made the cake last night, and let it sit overnight. I must say that it tastes very very good but I think that the cake is wet and sticky, which a banana cake shouldn’t be. I don’t know if I should have baked more or shouldnt add sour cream. I will try again later. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
I made the cake last night, and let it sit overnight. I must say that it tastes very very good but I think that the cake is wet and sticky, which a banana cake shouldn’t be. I don’t know if I should have baked more or shouldnt add sour cream. I will try again later. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
This is an extremely moist and dense and wet cake. This is not a light and airy cake by any means. However, if it’s veryyyy wet, it is underbaked or possibly your bananas were very moist and you could either have added a bit more flour or baked longer to counteract that. But it may just be the inherent texture of the cake which you weren’t expecting, it’s hard to say.
Hi Averie. Thank you for your very quick reply. I used 2 ripe plantain bananas, which can be the reason the cake is so wet and doesn’t look like your cake. Once again, your recipe is amazing. I shared the cake with my father-in-law and he loved it. I will add more flour and bake longer next time. Maybe I should try with normal bananas too.
Yes definitely make the recipe as written with regular bananas. Plantains are going to cause a different texture all together. That could be all of the issue right there. I’m glad that it tastes great and that you’re enjoying my recipes!