Caramel-Walnut Upside-Down Banana Cake

What a mouth full! The titles of the recipes in this book are certainly descriptive.  I made this cake for another father's day celebration that happened this past weekend.  I took a risk, since my Dad might not be the most open-minded guy - food wise.  Happily the cake went over with resounding success, everyone liked it, my dad especially. 

A few days prior I intentionally squirreled a few bananas away top of my refrigerator until they were so dark they nearly met their fate in the garbage.  Then I peeled off their black skins, mashed them with a fork and swirled my pureed bananas into a sweet vanilla rum batter.  The banana batter sat atop a nearly sickly sweet caramel and the two mingled in the oven until they were one.  In the end the cake was delicious, but very, almost overly sweet.  Please note.

Baking notes:
-In reading the reviews on this recipe I noticed how hard the caramel became when the cake cooled.  To counteract this I added a 1/4 cup of thick cream as soon as the caramel was cooked, but before the walnuts were added.  While the caramel still hardened to a tooth-some chew, it was not crunchy and tooth-breakable.
-I used a 9-inch spring-form pan to cook this cake.  Unfortunately, all-though I suspected it might, the caramel did leak out the bottom.  Next time, and I would advise you too, I'll use a regular cake pan.  The 8-inch pan called for would never be big enough.
-Next time I would add about a 1/3 cup more walnuts to the caramel, I found this a little lacking.

You can find the Caramel-Walnut Upside-Down Banana Cake recipe on the epicurious website.

13/569