David Lebovitz's Upside Down Banana Cake

Soon enough Calgarians will have to pay more for bananas and my blog will have to be renamed to Scrumptiously Fit Bananas because at the rate I’m going through them, the prices are guaranteed to increase. I don’t know what it is, but I can’t seem to stop finding recipes that I want to try which utilizes bananas as the main ingredient (it could also be due to the fact that I personally can’t get over eating them either).

Nutritional Tidbit: On the plus side bananas are truly healthy and nutritious for you (and I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about it before). It is loaded with potassium, which is required by our bodies to remain at homeostasis and have been found to be good for our hearts through the lowering of blood pressure. Bananas also contain a high amount of Vitamin B6, which our bodies use to help maintain our blood glucose level within a normal range, not to mention a good amount of fibre.

Those are the reasons I’m using for why I’m baking so much with bananas, plus I really wanted to try a recipe from David Lebovitz. Readers of this blog know my infatuation with his blog, his books and most importantly his desserts! I’ve followed his recipe fairly closely since it was a pretty healthy recipe to begin with (it was written for a health magazine afterall), the only difference is the chocolate. Since I enjoy my bananas anything without too many additional ingredients I tend to keep it pretty simple and plain, but feel free to add it back in since chocolate after all is also healthy for you!

Ingredients:Topping:
1/3 cup & 2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp water
3 ripe bananas (you could use 4 if your pan required so)
Lemon juice

Cake:
1½ cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt (you can omit this if you’re using salted butter)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp melted butter
2 large eggs (or 1 egg and 1 egg white)
1 cup banana puree (roughly 2-3 mashed bananas)
½ cup low fat yogurt or sour cream
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (optional)


Preparation:
For the topping:
1) Mix the brown sugar in hot water and wait until it dissolves. Pour it into an 8 inch cake pan.

2) Slice the bananas and place them on top of the brown sugar mixture, slightly overlapping each other.

3) Squeeze a couple drops of lemon juice on top of the bananas.

For the cake:
1) Preheat the oven to 350ºF

2) Put all the dry ingredients, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, sugar in a bowl, lightly mix them until all the ingredients are blended together.

3) In a second bowl, combine the butter, eggs, bananas, yogurt and vanilla extract, mix thoroughly.

4) Slowly pour the dry ingredients in to the wet mixture until it’s all combined.

5) Carefully add in the chocolate if doing so.

6) Pour the mixture carefully over the bananas and lightly spread the batter until it evenly covers the pan.

7) Put it in the over and let it bake for 40 – 50 mins. You can test it with a toothpick and if it comes out clean then the cake is done.

8) Let the cake cool and slowly run a knife along the edge of the pan to help separate the cake from the pan.

9) Invert and serve with ice cream, frozen yogurt or whip cream! Best served warm.