There are Sunday afternoons when you need something warm and a little bit magical on the table. This banana upside-down cake is exactly that — one cast-iron skillet, ripe bananas, and a brown sugar caramel that turns sticky and golden as the cake bakes.
If you’ve never made a skillet cake before, this one will make you wonder why it took you so long. It’s the kind of dessert that gets a quiet gasp when you flip it. My kids call it “the flip cake.” Enough said.
If you love the idea but want something ready in ten minutes, our quick caramelized bananas on vanilla ice cream are the shortcut version.
Why You’ll Love This Banana Upside-Down Cake
I’ve made this cake for dinner parties, for random Tuesday nights, and for every person who says they “don’t really like banana desserts.” They always change their mind. Here’s why.
- One skillet, start to finish. The caramel, the bananas, and the cake all cook in the same cast-iron pan. No extra dishes, no separate caramel sauce to make.
- No frosting — the caramel does everything. This is a banana caramel cake where the topping builds itself. The brown sugar and butter bubble into a glossy lacquer around the bananas as the cake bakes. You flip it, and that’s your decoration. Sticky, glistening, done.
- Genuinely moist sponge. Buttermilk and oil in the batter guarantee a tender crumb that stays soft even the next day.
- Ready in under an hour. Twenty minutes of prep, thirty-five in the oven. Warm dessert on a weeknight is entirely doable.
- The flip is easier than it sounds. One confident move, five minutes of patience. I’ll walk you through every step.
Ingredients & Notes
Nothing unusual, nothing hard to find. But a few of these ingredients are doing very specific jobs — especially the bananas — so the notes below are worth a quick read before you start.
Caramel Banana Topping
Unsalted butter (1/4 cup / 60g). Melts directly in the skillet to form the caramel base. Don’t swap for margarine — real butter gives the caramel its deep, nutty richness.
Dark brown sugar (1/2 cup / 100g). Packed. Dark brown sugar gives a more intense, almost toffee-like caramel. Light brown sugar works too, but the topping will be a bit paler and milder.
Fine sea salt (1/4 tsp). Just enough to sharpen the sweetness and make the caramel flavor pop.
Ripe bananas (3 to 4 medium). This is the key: you want bananas that are yellow-golden with small brown spots — naturally sweet and fragrant, but still firm enough to hold their shape when sliced and baked. Very soft, very dark bananas will break apart during the flip. Save those for your classic banana cake with cream cheese frosting where the bananas are mashed right into the batter.
Buttermilk Cake Batter
All-purpose flour (1 1/2 cups / 190g). Standard and reliable for this style of yellow cake. Spoon it into the measuring cup rather than scooping to avoid packing too much in.
Baking powder + baking soda. Both are needed. The combination gives the cake a gentle, even rise without doming aggressively.
Buttermilk (1/2 cup / 120ml). The acid in buttermilk reacts with the baking soda and keeps the crumb incredibly soft. No buttermilk on hand? Stir 1/2 tablespoon of white vinegar into 1/2 cup of whole milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes and it’ll do the job.
Neutral vegetable oil (1/3 cup / 80ml). Oil keeps the sponge moist and tender even after it cools, which butter alone doesn’t always do. Sunflower, rapeseed, or light olive oil all work.
Pure vanilla extract (1 1/2 tsp). Use real vanilla if you can. It rounds out the caramel banana flavor beautifully.
2 large eggs, room temperature. Let them sit out for 20 minutes before you start. Room temperature eggs blend in more smoothly and help the batter stay even.
How to Make Caramelized Banana Upside-Down Cake
Ten steps, one skillet. I’ll walk you through each one, including the parts that make people nervous the first time — because once you’ve done it, you’ll wonder what you were worried about.
Step 1 — Build the Caramel Base
1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Have your 9 or 10-inch oven-safe cast-iron skillet ready.
2. Make the brown sugar caramel. Set the skillet over medium-low heat. Add the butter and let it melt completely. Pour in the brown sugar and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon for 1 to 2 minutes until the sugar dissolves and the caramel begins to bubble and turn glossy. Remove from heat immediately — don’t let it caramelize further on the stove or it’ll be too thick to cover evenly. Smooth it gently across the entire bottom of the pan.
The caramel should look like a thin, even, bubbling layer — this is the top of your finished cake.
Step 2 — Arrange the Bananas
3. Arrange the bananas. Peel your bananas and slice each in half lengthwise. Place them cut-side down directly into the warm caramel, packing them as tightly as you can. Fill every gap — this is the banana Tetris step. Cut small pieces from a fourth banana to fill in the corners and spaces. The more banana coverage, the better the topping looks after the flip.
Every bit of caramel covered means more of that sticky, golden layer on top.
Step 3 — Make & Pour the Batter
4. Mix the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until combined.
5. Mix the wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk the granulated sugar, eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla extract together until the mixture is smooth and slightly frothy.
6. Combine. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and fold together with a silicone spatula until just combined. Stop as soon as the last streak of flour disappears. Overmixing builds gluten and will make the crumb tough and dense — a few unmixed pockets are better than overmixed batter.
7. Pour the batter. Pour the batter slowly and evenly over the arranged bananas. It will be quite fluid — that’s correct. Smooth the surface gently with the spatula so it reaches all the edges.
Step 4 — Bake
8. Bake. Slide the skillet into the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 32 to 35 minutes. The top should be deep golden, the edges pulling slightly away from the pan, and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. Don’t open the oven in the first 25 minutes.
Step 5 — The Flip
9. The flip — your one critical window. Remove the skillet from the oven and rest it on a wire rack for exactly 5 minutes. Not more. Run a thin knife gently around the edges to release the cake. Place a large serving plate with a rim directly on top of the skillet. Grip both firmly with thick oven mitts. In one confident, swift motion, flip them together. Hold for 30 seconds so all the caramel has time to drip down onto the cake. Then slowly lift the skillet straight up.
If a banana piece or two stayed in the pan, simply press them back onto the cake with a spoon. It’s invisible once it’s set.
10. Serve warm. Give the cake a few minutes to settle, then slice and serve with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Lily’s Tips
After making this more times than I can count, these are the things I still remind myself every single time. Especially the flip.
The 5-minute rule is not optional. Flip too early and the sponge is still fragile — it’ll crack under the weight of the pan. Flip too late and the brown sugar hardens and refuses to leave the skillet. Your window is 5 to 8 minutes after the cake comes out. I set a timer every single time.
Use a rimmed serving plate. The caramel is liquid-hot when you flip. A flat dinner plate will let it run straight off the edge. A serving plate or shallow bowl with even a small rim keeps everything contained and the presentation beautiful.
Pack the bananas tightly. It looks like a lot of banana going in, but they shrink as they bake. Cover every centimeter of caramel you can, and use a fourth banana for the gaps.
One confident flip beats a hesitant one every time. Don’t slow down mid-motion. Commit, flip, hold. That’s all.
“The blacker the banana, the better the bread — but for this cake, go golden. You want the banana to hold, not melt.” — Lily
Did you know? Brown-spotted bananas contain up to 80% more natural sugar than yellow ones — which is exactly why we choose ripe-but-firm here for the topping, and let the brown sugar do the deep caramelization.
Variations
The base recipe is already really good. But once you know it, here are four ways to take it somewhere new — from a rum-spiked Bananas Foster version to an autumn spiced cake that feels like a different dessert entirely.
Bananas Foster Upside-Down Cake. New Orleans’ most iconic dessert — bananas, dark rum, brown sugar caramel — translated into a skillet cake. Pull the caramel off the heat, stir in 1 tablespoon of dark rum and a pinch of cinnamon, then arrange the bananas. The alcohol cooks off entirely in the oven, leaving behind a warm, smoky depth that makes every bite taste like a bananas foster upside-down cake at its finest.
Banana Pecan Upside-Down Cake. Scatter 1/2 cup of roughly chopped toasted pecans between and around the banana halves before pouring in the batter. Every slice gets a pecan-pie crunch.
Spiced Brown Sugar Cake. Add 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg to the dry ingredients. Serve with cinnamon-spiced whipped cream instead of ice cream — it becomes an autumnal table centerpiece.
No cast-iron? No problem. Make the caramel in a small saucepan, pour it straight into a buttered 9-inch round cake pan, arrange the bananas, and proceed exactly as above. Same bake time, same flip, slightly fewer bragging rights. If you’d rather have a banana cake with a crumble topping and no flipping required, our banana coffee cake with streusel is a wonderful weekend alternative.
Frequently Asked Questions
A few questions that come up every time I share this recipe. If something’s on your mind before you start, it’s probably answered here.
Melt butter and dark brown sugar in an oven-safe cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat, stirring for 1 to 2 minutes until the sugar dissolves and the mixture turns glossy and bubbling. Remove from heat, spread evenly across the pan bottom, then press banana halves cut-side down into the caramel layer. The bananas caramelize further as the cake bakes at 350°F (175°C), emerging sticky and deeply golden when the cake is flipped.
Yes — make the caramel in a small saucepan, pour it into a well-buttered 9-inch round cake pan, arrange the banana halves on top, then pour the batter over. Bake at the same temperature for the same time. The result is just as delicious; you just lose the one-pan convenience.
Timing is everything. Let the cake cool for exactly 5 minutes after coming out of the oven — not more, not less. Run a thin knife around the edges. Place a large lipped plate on top of the skillet, grip both firmly with thick oven mitts, and flip in one swift, confident motion. Hold for 30 seconds so the caramel drips down fully, then lift the skillet straight up.
At room temperature: up to 1 day, loosely covered. In the fridge: up to 3 days in an airtight container — always reheat each slice 15 to 20 seconds in the microwave before eating. In the freezer: up to 2 months, wrapped slice by slice.
How to Store
This cake is at its best warm, the day it’s baked. But it holds surprisingly well — and the caramel actually deepens overnight. Here’s how to keep every slice tasting like it just came out of the oven.
Counter: Up to 1 day, loosely covered at room temperature. The caramel topping softens over time and seeps gently into the sponge — which is honestly not a bad thing.
Fridge: Up to 3 days in an airtight container. Cold caramel goes firm and loses its magic — always reheat each slice for 15 to 20 seconds in the microwave before eating. It transforms back.
Freezer: Up to 2 months. Wrap individual slices tightly in plastic wrap, then place in a sealed freezer bag. Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat in the microwave or in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 5 to 8 minutes until the caramel is warm and glossy again.
Meal prep tip: Bake the cake the day before a dinner, refrigerate it whole on the serving plate, and reheat the entire thing in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 10 minutes before the meal. The caramel has time to deepen and soak into the crumb overnight — it might actually be better. If you love warm banana desserts that hold well, our old-fashioned banana bread pudding is another one built for making ahead.
Ready to Make the Flip?
This is one of those cakes that makes an ordinary Sunday feel like something worth remembering. You carry it to the table warm, you flip it, and for a moment everyone just looks at it. My kids have watched me make this more times than I can count and the reaction at the flip never changes.
Go for it — one confident flip and it’s yours.
Tag me on Instagram @eatwithmellow or leave a star rating below. It genuinely helps more than you know.
If you love this, try our classic banana cake with cream cheese frosting or this golden banana bundt cake next!
Love, Lily 🍌
Want to save this recipe?
Caramelized Banana Upside-Down Cake
Equipment
- 9 or 10-inch cast-iron skillet (oven-safe)
- Large mixing bowl
- Medium mixing bowl
- Silicone spatula
- Wooden spoon
- Wire cooling rack
- Large lipped serving plate (essential — flat plates won't contain the caramel)
- Thick oven mitts
Ingredients
CARAMEL BANANA TOPPING
- 1/4 cup 60g unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup 100g packed dark brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 3–4 medium ripe bananas firm, yellow-golden with small brown spots
DRY INGREDIENTS
- 1 1/2 cups 190g all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
WET INGREDIENTS
- 3/4 cup 150g granulated white sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1/2 cup 120ml buttermilk, room temperature
- 1/3 cup 80ml neutral vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
OPTIONAL / TO SERVE
- 1 tbsp dark rum optional
- Vanilla ice cream optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Set a 9- or 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat. Melt the butter, then add brown sugar and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon for 1–2 minutes until the sugar dissolves and the mixture bubbles and looks glossy. Remove from heat and smooth evenly across the pan.
- Peel the bananas and slice each in half lengthwise. Place cut-side down onto the caramel, packing them tightly to cover as much surface as possible. Fill gaps with small pieces.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl, whisk together granulated sugar, eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla until smooth.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and fold with a spatula until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Pour the batter slowly and evenly over the banana layer and smooth the top.
- Bake on the middle rack for 32–35 minutes, until the top is deep golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and rest on a wire rack for exactly 5 minutes. Run a thin knife around the edges. Place a large lipped serving plate on top, grip firmly with oven mitts, and flip in one confident motion. Hold for 30 seconds, then lift the skillet. Reposition any bananas that stayed in the pan.
- Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
Notes
