Food blogger ELLY MCCAUSLAND gets baking – with bananas

I DON’T know about you, but I’m more than a little excited about the return of The Great British Bake Off to our screens next week.

As summer draws to a close, we all need a little more light-hearted cake-based banter in our lives. We also – it goes without saying – need a little more cake.

Here is one of the most decadent you can imagine: moist, buttery and studded with pecans, the top is drenched in cinnamon- and maple-scented caramel and topped with gooey bananas.

I hope Mary Berry would approve.

Banana, maple syrup and pecan upsidedown cake (serves eight):
(inspired by ‘Best of Bill’ by Bill Granger)

For the topping:
50g butter
50g dark muscovado sugar
60ml maple syrup
½ tsp ground cinnamon
3-4 bananas, peeled, sliced in half widthways then lengthways

For the cake:
100g butter, softened
200g light muscovado sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
155g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
100g pecan nuts, roughly chopped

Put the topping ingredients (except the bananas) in a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Cook for five minutes, until the syrup is dark and thick. Grease a 22cm springform cake tin, and pour the caramel into the bottom. Arrange the bananas, cut side down, over the bottom of the tin on top of the caramel so it is covered. Pre-heat the oven to 170C.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the mixture and fold in until combined, then fold through the pecan nuts. Pour the mixture over the bananas and caramel, even it out with a spatula, then put the tin on a baking tray (to avoid any leaking caramel ruining your oven).

Bake for 35-40 minutes until the sponge is golden and springs back when pressed in the middle. Leave to cool in the tin for around 15 minutes, then put a plate over the tin and invert. Serve warm, preferably with vanilla ice cream.

• Read Elly’s blog at nutmegsseven.co.uk and follow her on twitter @nutmegs_seven