Whenever I purchase bananas, it’s always a struggle to use them up(without resorting to my beloved hummingbird cake). But then I remembered the idea of upside down cakes. They can be versatile, since you can use up a lot of fruit in both the caramelized layer, and in the batter itself, so it’s a good way to get rid of a decent amount of a fruit you’re trying to use up. So I figured, let’s do that? A brown butter-banana cake with a layer of caramelized banana just sounds delightful. And with miso accenting the entire dessert to add that punch of umami and salt keeps everything from being cloyingly sweet. While this dessert is the baking equivalent of a one-pot wonder, the cake itself is tasty and can be eaten on its own(I literally wound up eating it across a week for breakfast every day without even getting sick of it!). So if you ever have a bunch of bananas you want to use, I recommend throwing them at this recipe(or the hummingbird cake one, of course), as it is fairly straightforward, completely egg-free, and the perfect dessert to snack on.

From a technical standpoint, I would give this recipe maybe a 4/10? The biggest challenge is making a caramel, which can be very, very tricky if you have never done one before. I prefer to use a dry method(heating the sugar directly in the pan with nothing else), because it cooks faster that way, but you run the risk of burning the caramel too because of that. That being said, the easiest way to ensure that you don’t end up with a pan full of charcoal is to watch the sugar like a hawk while you are heating it. The moment all of the sugar granules melt and you are left with a layer of browned caramel syrup, that’s when you want to stop heating it, and start adding things like butter and soy milk to keep the caramel from burning. For the cake batter, it is a brown butter-miso-banana cake. Making brown butter is a similar process to making caramel, where you are heating something and watching it turn brown and toasty. That being said, there is a lot more leeway with the brown butter compared to the caramel. even if your brown butter turns a bit black, it’s fine, because the flavor will carry over better if the brown butter is a little burnt. So long as the caramel is fine and you give the cake sufficient time to bake, you have a fairly easy recipe on your hands!

For assembly:
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp miso paste
a pinch of cinnamon
1/2 cup soy milk, in two parts
2 fresh bananas, sliced in half, lengthwise

In a nonstick pan, heat up the white sugar first until it begins to take on a brown color. Then add in the butter, miso paste, cinnamon, and one part of the soy milk, mixing until everything is melted together. Then add the rest of the soy milk in, stirring to create a caramel.

Line a 6-inch ring mold with cooking spray and place onto tin foil. Pour the caramel into the ring mold. Place the bananas, flat side down, inside of the ring mold, on top of the caramel.

For the cake batter:
5.5oz banana, pureed
4oz brown butter
1/2 cup white sugar
a pinch of cinnamon
a pinch of cardamom
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp miso paste
1 tsp cider vinegar
3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

In a bowl, mix everything to form your cake batter. Pour the batter into the ring mold. Then bake the cake at 350 F for 45 minutes. Allow the cake to partially cool before inverting onto a plate and unmolding.