Banana Coconut Upside Down Cake

After whipping up a batch of banana muffins I had one lone banana left sitting on the counter, looking sad. I almost threw it in the freezer to make something with when I had more, but I saw the bag of coconut and an idea came to me. Banana and coconut are good together, especially with caramel. I wonder what it would be like as a cake... 

Turns out it's amazing! Basing it off the classic pineapple upside down cake I used browned butter, brown sugar and coconut to make a sweet, chewy glaze surrounding the bananas.

 

Banana Coconut Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

1 banana, cut into 1/4" slices

1/3 cup shredded coconut

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1/2 cup milk, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Set out ingredients to bring up to room temperature.

Place 2 tablespoons butter in the bottom of an 8" cake pan and place in oven and set to 350. 

When the butter begins to brown remove from oven. The time will vary depending on how quickly your oven heats. 

Sprinkle brown sugar over top of the butter and use the back of a spoon to spread evenly. 

Place banana slices on top of the brown sugar, spacing evenly. 

Sprinkle coconut evenly over the top and set aside.

Cream 1/2 cup butter in a mixing bowl until fluffy. Add sugar and mix for 7 minutes, the sugar will begin to break down and the mixture will become light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 

Add flour and milk a little at a time, alternating until all is added. 

Stir in vanilla until mixed. Pour over the banana mixture, filling the pan about half way.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Cool for ten minutes then invert onto a serving plate and remove pan to allow to finish cooling. 

I got the recipe for the cake from here and if I had read better I would have realized that it was enough for a three layer cake so when I cut it in half I had more than I needed for the cake. I put the extra into 3 cupcake liners and they kept little fingers out of the finished cake so it worked out well!