Rhubarb seems to have been one of the recent food fads. Several well-known culinary blogs featured desserts made with rhubarb and some of them, like for example Lara Ferroni's rhubarb bars, have been presented in a very attractive way. I have nothing against rhubarb but I have never been really impressed with its taste or appearance. It was growing like a weed in the backyard of my family home in Poland. I liked to eat it raw, dipped in sugar, as many Polish kids did, but I was not fond of cakes or pies made with it. For that reason I will not include rhubarb in my posts, but if you like the idea of reinventing it, this upside-down cake recipe would work with rhubarb as well.
This very simple cake can be prepared in a KitchenAid stand mixer in about 5 minutes. It was the very first cake I made entirely on my own when I was 12, many years ago. It can be made with any seasonal fruits, almost the whole year around. It is a very basic biscuit cake, but fruits make it really special. It is very satisfying with a cup of morning coffee or on a summer afternoon. Yesterday, I saw beautiful ripe blackberries in my local food store and I immediately thought how delicious they would taste and look in that easy cake.
Upside Down Fruit Cake
(For 11'' baking tin)
Ingredients:
4 medium eggs,
2/3 cup flour,
1/3 cup corn starch,
1 tsp baking powder,
1 cup powdered sugar,
4 tbsp of canola or any light cooking oil,
7 tbsp of butter,
1 tsp vanilla extract,
12 oz of blackberries, or any seasonal fruits--blueberries, sour cherries, plums etc.
Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Grease the baking tin with butter and sprinkle it evenly with plain bread crumbs (this will prevent the cake from sticking to the tin),
3. Use a mixer to whisk eggs with powdered sugar into a mousse-like mixture.
4. Melt butter, combine it with oil, and add to the mixture.
5. Mix together the flours, the corn starch, and the baking powder, and incorporate them into the batter.
6. Put the batter in a baking tin.
7. Put the fruits on top (they will sink into the batter).
8. Bake for about 45 minutes until the top becomes light gold.
9. Cool the cake, turn it cake upside down on a large serving plate, and dust with powdered sugar.
Useful tip:
If you use apples, you may wish to add cinnamon to the powdered sugar.
