When I recently looked for highly rated plum cakes on epicurious.com, I found several that looked quite promising. The Plum Streusel Coffeecake was terrific, but I saw no reason to stop there when there were other plum cakes to try! I also decided to make the Plum Upside-Down Cake.
I made a double batch of this recipe in a 9-inch by 13-inch pan. Even though the recipe didn't call for it, I lined my pan with parchment, which is my usual practice. The first step in the recipe is to make a sauce from butter, brown sugar, and honey by heating them together on the stove. You pour the sauce into the pan and arrange sliced plums on top. Then you make a cake batter by creaming together butter and sugar, adding eggs, almond extract, and vanilla, and then alternately adding the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt) and milk. You spoon the cake batter on top of the plums, bake, and let the cake cool for 30 minutes before turning it out of the pan.
I didn't have any problems getting the cake out of the pan, as the parchment contained everything nicely. I'm sad to say that I did not try this cake warm, because I made it the night before I served it. But even the morning after, this cake was delicious. I loved the cinnamon flavor in the tender cake. And while the cake itself was not very sweet, the sauce-soaked plums on top were quite sweet, and taken as a whole, I thought the sweetness level was nicely balanced.
It's difficult for me to decide which cake I like better, this one or the plum streusel coffeecake. One of the main differences between the two is that the plums are definitely the star of the plum upside-down cake, while I don't think the same is true of the coffeecake. But both are wonderful. I speculate that eating a slice of still-warm-from-the-oven upside-down cake with ice cream is probably indescribably good, and I plan to make this cake again some time to put that theory to the test!
Recipe: "Plum Upside-Down Cake" from epicurious.com.
Previous Posts:
I made a double batch of this recipe in a 9-inch by 13-inch pan. Even though the recipe didn't call for it, I lined my pan with parchment, which is my usual practice. The first step in the recipe is to make a sauce from butter, brown sugar, and honey by heating them together on the stove. You pour the sauce into the pan and arrange sliced plums on top. Then you make a cake batter by creaming together butter and sugar, adding eggs, almond extract, and vanilla, and then alternately adding the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt) and milk. You spoon the cake batter on top of the plums, bake, and let the cake cool for 30 minutes before turning it out of the pan.
Recipe: "Plum Upside-Down Cake" from epicurious.com.
Previous Posts:
- "Putting the 'Cake' Back into 'Coffeecake': Plum Streusel Coffeecake," September 30, 2011.
- "Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming: Crunchy-Topped Whole-Wheat Plum Cake," September 7, 2010.
Comments