I love upside down cakes. That classic pineapple version with maraschino cherries is an integral part of my childhood. It was a cake for family celebrations.
This week the competition gained a few new faces. Bryan will be a weekly regular, and Jesse an occasional participant (while appear weekly as the photographer for Lara).
The fun thing with an upside down cake is that there is an endless variety or fruits, herbs, and options.
Lara made Apricot and Whiskey Caramel Upside Down Cake with a simple yellow cake recipe that had an extra shot of whiskey in it. The whiskey taste was subtle but the apricots turned out perfect. She used super hard, not ripe, ones so they softened up perfectly in the massive amount of butter, sugar, and whiskey and were on the verge of becoming jam, but didn’t fall off the edge. She adapted this recipe for her apricot topping.
I got into the full spirit of anything goes topping and used this Kitchn recipe. I made a blueberry rhubarb mint cake. I wouldn’t recommend the cake recipe, since it turned out super dense and a look back at the comments section revealed that there seemed be some missing liquid which I had suspected but didn’t remedy. The topping was great, though.
Bryan entered into the competition strongly with a lemon raspberry upside down cake. While delicious, a lot of the raspberries stayed clung to the pan and most are turned to raspberry mush which made for a less beautiful final presentation. But served with some whupped cream and vanilla ice cream, it’s still tasty.
Jesse chose to go tropical with his Yo-Ho-Ho Upside Down Plantain Rum Cake. It’s baked upside-down and the rum also knocks you upside-down after eating. In a repeat, he’d recommend using regular bananas and less rum. Upon conversation, it seems that letting the plantains fully ripen might also do the trick for making sure that they’re soften and sweet enough to really cook down in the topping.
Capers in the Kitchen 