Recipe: Toffee Apple and Banana Upside Down Cake
I was lying in bed one evening recently wondering what to do with the apples and bananas we had downstairs in the larder, all getting slightly past their best. This is the sort of thing I think about regularly in bed! I have made numerous things with ripe bananas over the lockdown period, and wanted a bit of a change so I mashed up a couple of recipes to create something rather delicious!
The recipe takes inspiration from a traditional tarte tatin, but with a delicate banana sponge instead of a pastry base.
You will need one solid cake tin (23 cms diameter).
INGREDIENTS
For the Toffee Apples/Tarte Tatin
3 or 4 crisp eating apples (Pink Lady are good for this), peeled, cored and chopped into chunks
Juice of half a lemon
100 g sugar
60 g salted butter, cubed
For the banana sponge
2 very ripe or overripe bananas
170 g sugar
170 g self-raising flour
170 g salted butter, softened
3 large eggs
Half tsp bicarbonate of soda
A few drops of vanilla essence
Pre-heat the oven to 180 fan.
METHOD
Squeeze the lemon juice in a mixing bowl large enough to hold the apples once they are prepared. Peel, core and chop the apples into chunks and add them to the lemon juice, and coat them to prevent them discolouring.
Place the 100 g sugar in the cake tin and place on the hob on a medium heat. Resist the temptation to stir and just wait for the sugar to dissolve on the heat. I do cheat a little and make sure that any grains of sugar at the edges get into the molten sugar in the middle. You want all the sugar to dissolve and start to turn a golden brown; it will start to smoke a little. Don’t let it turn too dark.
Turn off the heat and add the butter. Give it a bit of a stir, but you are are just wanting to melt the butter with the sugar. It will turn very toffee-ish at this stage, but don’t worry. Add the chopped apple and stir, then place the cake tin in the oven for 20 minutes. The juice from the apples will combine with the toffee as the apples bake.
After 20 minutes remove the tin and set to one side to cool completely.
Now, you can make the sponge batter.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Chop the ripe bananas and add these to the mix, followed by the 3 eggs. Whisk everything together well, and don’t worry too much if the mix looks slightly curdled at this stage. Add the vanilla essence.
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and bicarbonate of soda, and then add this to the eggs, bananas, butter and sugar. You can use a wooden spoon to fold it all together, or use the mixer on a low setting. You just want to combine all the ingredients together to form a smooth batter; don’t worry if there are one or two banana chunks that resist the mixing.
Pour this on top of the cooled apple mix in the cake tin and return the tin to the oven at 170 - 180 degrees fan for 40 - 45 minutes. The mix will have turned golden brown on top and should just be firm to the touch when it is ready. You can also insert a skewer into the sponge to test it and it should come out clean.
As soon as it comes out of the oven, run a knife around the side of the tin, place a wide plate on the top and and turn the sponge upside down onto the plate. You may find a few chunks of toffee apple still in the tin, but just scoop these out onto the top of the sponge. The apple chunks will be soft and richly golden, and the delicious toffee juices will have soaked into the yummy banana sponge. You can serve this on its own with afternoon tea, or with a scoop of creme fraiche for a lovely wintery dessert.
