Cranberry Upside Down Cake

Cranberry Upside Down Cake

Recipe tweaked from the original appearing in Everyday Food Magazine. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I’m making two cakes in the pictures while the quantities given below yield one cake. Go ahead and double it like I did. You know you want to…

Ingredients:

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg (omit if you don’t have fresh.)
• 1 -3/4 cups cranberries, fresh or straight from the freezer!
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 -1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 -1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

Arrange a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350F. Use 2 Tablespoons of the butter to generously grease an 8-inch round cake pan.

Make sure you get the crease in the pan really well. Leave no surface un-buttered!

Set aside.

Add 1/2 cup of the sugar and the cinnamon to a small bowl. Grate the nutmeg over the top…

Don't jump, Little Nutmeg, you have so much to live for...

…and whisk together.

Pour mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.

Tilt and swirl the sugar around until it evenly coats the bottom -but not the sides- of the pan.

Tilt the cake pan and swirl the sugar.

Make sure the entire bottom is coated evenly.

Arrange cranberries in a single layer on top.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or using an electric hand-held mixer) cream the remaining 6 tablespoons butter and 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until well combined. Add the vanilla and mix in well.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Whisk the dry ingredients. We don't need no stinkin' sifter.

Start your mixer on low speed and carefully add 1/3 of the flour mixture followed by 1/3 of the milk. Repeat, scraping down the bowl occasionally, until you have added all the flour and milk.

Spoon batter on top of the cranberries in the pan.

Scientifically dividing the double batch of batter ultra-precisely by eyeballing it. Throw some caution to the wind here, people. We're talking cake, not rocket science!

Smooth the top bringing the cake batter to the edges of the pan.

Try not to lift the cranberries into the batter while spreading it.

Keep rotating and spreading the batter...

Place pan on a baking sheet to help protect your oven in case the syrup boils up and over.

Bake the cake until a toothpick, skewer or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Insert a skewer, toothpick or cake tester in the center of the cake.

When it comes out clean the cake is done!

This should take about 30 to 35 minutes. Let the cake cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes.

Run a butterknife or thin spatula around edge of cake.

Slide a butterknife around the edge to loosen that precious cake.

Lay your cake plate or platter on top the pan, flip, give a little tap to the bottom of the pan and remove the pan. The manoeuver looks like this:

Lay your cake plate or platter on top of the pan.

Holding the pan to the plate, invert.

Gently lift the pan from the plate.

This cake is definitely best when served slightly warm, but it will still put a smile on your face and a song in your heart at room temperature or chilled.

Recipe credit