Upside-Down Banana Cake with Dulce de Leche

I think I mentioned I live practically in Cuba.

There are some definite pluses to living in South Florida. I'm talking about food things.

• Amazing fruits and vegetables from all the Latino countries that surround this bountiless peninsula.
• A rockin' caffe' con leche on any corner...just like you would find in say, little Havana.
• Miami.
• Cool little Argentinine and Cuban bakeries with pastries like: guayabas, guayabas con queso.
• And the number one reason: DULCE DE LECHE

Dulce de leche is kind of like Nutella. You open the can or jar and grab a spoon and just sit back and enjoy. It is crazy sweet and I have been baking with it recently. If you don't have dulce de leche in your supermarket, you could use caramel.

Update to post: October 6, 2010 I posted this summer how to make your own yummy caramel with sweetened condensed milk. A couple of my sweet readers mentioned how you can make your own if you can't find Dulce de Leche. Here is the link to make your own caramel . As a bonus, you can see my pancake recipe. It is really good! I make them every day. Not exaggerating.

This is the brand I used from my supermarket:

Upside-Down Banana Cake with Dulce de Leche


8 tablespoons unsalted butter,room temp
2 -3 ripe bananas peeled and sliced on an angle in thick slices (about 1/2 inch thick)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/2 cup milk
6 tablespoons dulce de leche



Directions


1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Place 4 tablespoons of dulce de leche in an 8 inch square cake pan. Heat in oven until it softens, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven; spread evenly around bottom of pan. Arrange banana slices to cover bottom of pan evenly.

2. In a large bowl, cream 8 tablespoons of butter with sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined after each.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add flour mixture to butter mixture in three batches., alternating with the milk and starting and ending with the flour. Fold in the remaining 2 tablespoons of dulce de leche in the batter.

4. Spoon batter over pans carefully and spread it with a flat end spatula to even out. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, about 50 minutes (my oven was about 40 minutes). Let cool 10 minutes, then invert cake onto your serving dish.

These are some other reasons why I like living here:

beautiful beaches

cool Florida plants on the beach.

gorgeous tropical fish.

and my most favorite reason why (besides the food stuff), walking on beach w/my family: