Plum and Raspberry Upside-Down Cake

I know in my last post I said I don't like cooked fruit in desserts, but cake sometimes can make me change my mind.

I made this for our 4th of July dinner, along with the cherry tart.
While the overall flavor was good, I had a few problems with the way this turned out.

The recipe says to prepare this in a springform pan and then to bake it on a baking sheet, in case any juice happens to leak out of the pan.
The problem is, that all the juice leaks out of the pan. The sugar/butter mixture that is supposed to stay at the bottom of the pan and get all nice and caramelized when it combines with the juice from the fruit, well, unfortunately, it all wasted away and got stuck to my cookie sheet.

The cake still tasted good, but the fruit was definitely missing the "upside-down" part of the process.

So, if you are going to make this, I would suggest using a tall cake pan, with at least 2-inch sides. And to make sure the batter fits on top, I would suggest a 9-inch pan.

I was slightly disappointed with how this turned out, but the cake has a fabulous taste and lots of potential.

Recipe for Plum and Raspberry Upside-Down Cake

TWD-Parisian Apple Tartlet or Plum, Mango, Apricot, Peach and Pear

Pear

Mango

Plum

Apricot above, Peach below

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Parisian Apple Tartlet, was chosen by Jessica, who blogs over at My Baking Heart.
You can find the recipe on Jessica's blog.
This recipe is easy if you use frozen puff pastry. I was just trying to get as many recipes for TWD as I could, out of the way before we moved to Georgia. I used the frozen puff pastry I found at my local grocery store (Pepperidge Farms), even though Dorie suggest using an all-butter puff pastry.
I was in a hurry, so I didn't even think about making the puff pastry from scratch. I did use as many fruits as I could find though. I made the tartlets about an inch smaller than Dorie suggested and made 12- 2 with each kind of fruit. The favorites in our house were those made with peaches and plums. The topping fell off the apple tartlet and it didn't turn out very pretty, so that is why the pic of that one is at the very bottom of this post.
This dessert would be a great ending to a party or a fun dessert to make with young kids. Check out what all the other TWD-ers came up with by going through the TWD Blogroll!

Up Next- a simple fruit salad

Dimply Plum Cake

I wouldn't say this was a complete failure, but it didn't come out exactly as I would have liked. It was still very delicious, but being the overanxious person that I am, I couldn't wait to try it.

This is from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my home to yours, and it is a breakfast cake. I think my plums halves were too wide and I tried to stuff too many of them into the pan. This caused the baking time to increase and the cake fell apart when I tried to unmold it. All that being said, it was delicious!

Dimply Plum Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cardamom

5 Tbls unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup canola oil

grated zest of 1 orange

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

8 purple or red plums, ( don't try to fit all of them, slices might work better then halves)

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 8-inch square baking pan. Put it on a baking sheet. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom. Beat butter at medium speed until soft and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add sugar and beat for 2 more minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating for a minute after each addition. On medium speed, beat in oil, orange zest, and vanilla. The batter will look very light, and smooth, almost satiny. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until incorporated. Run a spatula around the bowl and under the batter, just to make sure there are no dry spots. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Arrange plums, cut side up, in the batter- jiggling the plums a tad just so they settle comfortably into the batter. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the top is honey brown and puffed around the plums and a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 15 minutes, during which time the plums juice will return to the fruit, then run a knife around the sides of the pan and unmold the cake. Invert and cool right side up.