Oh, y'all, I can't wait to tell you the story behind this cake. Like, honestly, it's hilarious. I bumped this recipe straight to the top of my drafts so I could finish it first and get this out, because it's too funny to keep to myself. Well, at least it's funny now. At the time, not so much. I present to you, Upside Down Banana Chocolate Chip Cake. Aka, the most efficient way to fill your entire house with smoke and kind of almost burn your house down. No biggie, you know. Good thing this cake turned out really, really good or I would've been pretty pissed 😉
So, here's the deal. I've been wanting to make a sticky-sweet, caramelized upside down banana cake for eeeoons. Like, I've had it written in my infamous little blog book for ages. So I had a bunch of bananas on the counter, no work today, and I figured the time had come to make this cake happen. My family isn't huge on banana desserts {despite eating mass amounts of bananas daily}, but I figured if I threw some chocolate chips in there, nobody would complain about the fruit. Right? Right. So I mix up some brown sugar and melted butter, slather it on the bottom of my springform pan, lay some halved bananas on top, and top it with the cake batter. So far so good. I stick the cake in the oven, and I kid you not, not even 30 seconds after I put the cake in the oven, the ENTIRE oven is filled to the brim with smoke.
Of course, my first thought is "What the actual f#@k," quickly followed by, "Alas, the springform pan has betrayed me," followed by, "I need to let this smoke out of this oven so let me go and open every single window and door in the house". So the time comes to open this oven, and literally tons and tons of smoke just billows out and into the house. We have a pretty open concept house, which in this case just means my entire house was filled with smelly, stinky smoke. It finally disperses enough for me to figure out what the frick is going on, and of course it's that caramely brown sugar-butter stuff that's oozing out from the springform pan and onto the bottom of the oven and burning catastrophically. I shoved a sheet pan under the cake, shut the oven, and let it finish cooking, and miraculously, the cake turned out just fine and totally delicious. But still. Moral of the story, springform pans are not to be trusted and always, ALWAYS put a baking sheet under them. Unless of course, you're into filling your house with smoke and coughing up a lung. What do I know?
Also moral of the story, it doesn't matter how long you've been baking, nobody is immune to cooking fails. Oops.
{cake recipe from Cooking Classy}
- *for the topping*
- 3 bananas, halved
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup dark brown sugar
- *for the cake*
- ⅓ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 3 ripe bananas, mashed {about 1¼ cup}
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 350F, and butter a 9" springform pan thoroughly. Place the pan on a baking sheet lined with foil to catch any spills.
- In a small bowl, combine the melted butter and brown sugar for the topping, and spread it in the bottom of the cake pan. Top with the halved bananas.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar for the cake until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla and mashed bananas.
- Add in half of the flour mixture, followed by the Greek yogurt, followed by the rest of the flour. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips, and pour the cake batter into the pan.
- Bake for 55-60 min, until the cake no longer juggles and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.
- Let cool slightly before flipping and removing from pan.
Megan - The Emotional Baker says
Haha Valentina! That definitely sounds like something that would happen to me! This is such a fun cake and hope to try it soon!