Banana Cake with Latik Caramel

Latik, the coconut caramel usually draped over kakanin like suman and biko, pairs wonderfully with sliced ripe bananas in this tender upside-down cake. Sophisticated enough to wow your tita friends, yet familiar enough to tuck into with kids.

Upside-down cake, a classic American dessert, is a cake that's baked upside-down: topping at bottom—usually pineapples and cherries—then cake batter on top. Once baked and cooled, you flip the pan over a serving plate, releasing the cake right side up.

Instead of pineapples and cherries, this Filipino upside-down cake has a topping of bananas and latik caramel.

What is Latik?

Latik can be one of two things, depending on where you're from. Visayan latik is a syrupy coconut caramel made by reducing coconut milk with brown sugar. Tagalog latik is toasted coconut milk curds left from boiled coconut cream, often sprinkled over snacks like suman, biko, sapin-sapin, and maja blanca.

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The base is a coconut-olive oil cake base made with almond flour, coconut milk, and extra-virgin olive oil, yielding a unique sweetness and a moist, supersoft crumb well worth the extra trip to the grocery.