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This Paleo Banana Upside Down Cake is an impressive and delicious cake that’s gluten-free and refined sugar free. Sweetened almost entirely with bananas, this is a banana lover’s dream! This post is sponsored by ONE Banana.
Yes, it’s still pretty much the first week of January and everyone’s still dieting, or at least trying/pretending to – right? Today, we’re keeping in theme with the rest of the world and having something a bit healthier.
No, it’s not a salad or soup or “detox” anything. Yes, I am giving you a cake as my one of my first posts of the new year – #judgeme. BUT, this is a cake that you could theoretically eat for breakfast without feeling guilty, so let’s embrace it, okay? 
The cake is gluten-free, refined sugar-free, Paleo-friendly, and absolutely FULL of bananas. Bananas are sort of magic when it comes to baking, particularly when they’re brown and yucky looking on the outside, but filled with sweetness on the inside. Bananas are the star of some of my all-time most popular recipes like my favorite Paleo Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread where bananas are the ONLY sweetener and these Vegan Blueberry Muffins, where bananas serve as an egg-replacer!
For the batter of this banana upside down cake, it’s best to use brown, super ripe bananas because bananas give all the sweetness the cake needs – there’s no other added sweetener except for the coconut sugar in the caramelized banana layer!
The batter is pretty much banana bread batter, but when you pour it over the banana slices nuzzled in a mixture of coconut sugar and coconut oil and let the bananas get golden and caramelized, you have to call this a cake.
Bananas are definitely the star of the show here – you’ll use at least five of them depending on their size – so this cake is for the true banana lovers. I used ONE Bananas, which I love because they’re organic, grown sustainably, and always sweet + delicious.
The true magic of this cake is revealed when you flip it over. The flip can be a stressful experience with any upside down cake, so to make my life easier I made the cake in a spring form pan. That way, when it’s finished you can take off the collar, gently flip it on to your plate, and peel off the bottom of the pan. Much easier than flipping and crossing your fingers it all comes out in one piece.
When the pan comes away, you’re left with a gorgeous cake topped with caramelized bananas that no one would ever guess is a healthier option. The cake is soft, moist, and plenty sweet. I devoured a slice with a cup of tea as an afternoon snack, and my dad inhaled three slices as dessert. It would be a fabulous, impressive brunch item too! Grab your bananas and get baking :) enjoy!
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Remember to #bakerita if you try the recipe!
Paleo Banana Upside Down Cake
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- 2 bananas, sliced
For the batter
- 1½ cups mashed banana, 3-4 bananas or 425 grams
- 3 eggs
- ⅓ cup 105g almond butter (or nut butter of choice)
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- ⅓ cup 57g coconut flour
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9” springform pan and place on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment or foil.
- Combine the melted coconut oil and coconut sugar. Spread in the bottom of the prepared pan. Arrange the banana slices over the coconut sugar. Set aside while you prepare the batter.
- In a large bowl or mixer, combine the mashed bananas, eggs, coconut oil, vanilla extract and nut butter until fully combined.
- Add the coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and sea salt to the wet ingredients and mix well.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until the cake is lightly golden brown. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for about 20 minutes, and then carefully flip out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.
This post is sponsored by One Banana. As always, all opinions are entirely my own! Thanks for supporting the brands that support Bakerita! :)
I was looking for a way to use up some overripe bananas and this looks AMAZING! I don’t have a spring form pan though – what do you think of lining the bottom of a 9″ cake pan with parchment paper? Thanks!
Hi Melissa, that would work! I mostly just used the springform pan because it makes getting the bottom off intact much easier, but parchment lined pan or just a really well greased pan will also do the trick. Enjoy!
Just made this and it is absolutely the very best banana cake I have ever made/eaten. I used tahini instead of nut butter.
So happy to hear that, Stefanie! Thanks for sharing your feedback :)
Hi
Can you suggest an alternative to using the coconut oil, flour,etc. I can’t eat coconut but this picture looks so yummy!
Thanks
Hi Karen. Butter can be subbed for the coconut oil and brown sugar can be subbed for the coconut sugar, but coconut flour is has very unique absorbent properties and unfortunately I can’t suggest any other flours that would work 1:1 in this recipes. I haven’t experimented with any other flours in this recipe, but you would likely need a larger amount of another flour to compensate for the coconut flour – since I haven’t tried it, I can’t give any specific recommendations. Sorry about that!
This recipe is amazing! Everyone loved it – even 2 people who don’t like bananas! I would eat this every day!
I just made this and I can’t wait for it to cool enough to taste! Yours is a little prettier, my banana slices were not all round, some were diagonal, some round, but I expect the taste to be amazing! Thank you for this recipe!
I hope you love the recipe, Carol! Doesn’t matter so much how it looks, but how it tastes – right?! :)
Great Looking cake! Im going to have to try it. One question though…. How would I go about making this without using the sugar? How would it turn out if I only used the sliced bananas on the bottom?
Thanks!
Hi Sean, you could skip the sugar, it just won’t be as caramelized on the bottom. Enjoy!
Im going to try it !
Thanks!
It’s in the oven right now. Smells good!! But I think the oil has spilled out the bottom. Will this affect the cake?
Hi Ellen, you just mean a little out the side of the springform pan, right? That should be fine! Hope you enjoy it.
This is an amazing recipe! Absolutely love how gorgeous it is, how delicious it tastes, and how healthy it is!
Thanks so much for your feedback! So glad you’re loving it, Amber.
I made this but with coconut palm sugar(brown sugar sub). I also ran out of baking soda so I doubled the powder. Perfection!
So glad you enjoyed it, Kristy! Thanks for the feedback.
From the top min cake looks the same but it collapsed ;( any ideas why?
Thanks!
Hi Aleks, my guess is that it wasn’t baked long enough, that’s generally the reason why a cake will collapse. Did a toothpick come out clean when inserted into the center? Also, it should bounce back if you press it when your finger, not leave an indent. Sorry that you had trouble! Hopefully it still tastes good.
Thanks for your reply Rachel! Yes, the toothpick came out clean, it was baked. Everyone at work loved it anyway ;)
I’m going to bake it again, less banana and less cocounat oil in the bottom!