Banana maple upside-down cake by Bill Granger

Okay, so I'm not that great at making pretty cakes, as you can see from the photograph of the plated cake at the bottom of this post. I'm also not the best at working out how to arrange bananas in a cake tin a la the photography in Bill Granger's book. Nonetheless, this Banana maple upside-down cake from Best of Bill tastes great regardless of how it looks.

Banana maple upside-down cake
from Bill Granger's Best of Bill, pp. 152-3
serves 10-12


50g unsalted butter
55g (1/4 cup) soft brown sugar
60ml (1/4 cup) maple syrup
3-4 bananas, peeled and sliced in half lengthways
100g unsalted butter, softened, extra
230g (1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
155g (1 1/4 cup) plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
vanilla ice-cream to serve

1. Preheat the over to 180 degrees Celsius. To make the topping, place the butter, brown sugar and maple syrup in a small saucepan. Cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, or until the sugar melts and the syrup is rich and golden. 

Pour the syrup into a 23cm (9 inch) greased or non-stick springform cake tin and arrange the sliced banana, cut side down, over the base of the tin. (Yes, I just noticed I put the bananas upside down, and I repeat, a logical way of arranging the bananas was completely gone to me when I was baking this cake...)

 2. To make the cake, place the extra butter and caster sugar in a bowl and beat until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition, then add the vanilla.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt and gently fold through the mixture. Spoon the batter evenly over the bananas and caramel and smooth the top with a spatula.

4. Place the cake in the oven on a baking tray to catch any escaping caramel (my tray was covered in said caramel - definitely necessary) and bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

5. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Transfer to a large serving plate. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Okay, so I know my efforts in baking this cake were poor and I made a few mistakes. Hence why there's no image of the whole completed cake as not to deter you from cooking it (the failures all being on my part, not the recipe's). But seriously, this tastes beautiful. It is lovely and moist and works a treat with vanilla ice cream. Like Liaw's Ant's nest cake, the texture is not that different to a pudding, and the crisp maple adds another degree of stunning flavour. Would I cook it again: most likely, yes.

Visit Bill Granger's website, or even better, one of his cafes