Cranberry Upside Down Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This past Thursday Mike and I went to the lighting of Baltimore's Washington Monument which is always as close to a scene from Bedford Falls at Christmastime as you can find in present-day Baltimore.

A throng of people mill about in the chilly twilight, stands sell hot chocolate, and school choirs and bands play Christmas carols. When it's time to light the monument the mayor leads the crowd in the countdown. The lights come on, fireworks go off, and the crowd cheers. For some reason I always find myself moved to the edge of tears. This year we had the first really chilly weather of the year and there were even a few snow flurries making the whole scene even more like something from a movie. Afterwards we made our way home through the surrounding streets with their shop windows outlined with lights, and buildings decorated with greens, and in the dark Baltimore really did look more like a Christmas village than a grimy second-tier city. Well, almost.

I came home filled with Christmas spirit and immediately plunged into all sorts of Christmas baking.

This cake comes from the LA Times food section via The Best American Recipes 2001-2002, a wonderfully curated collection of recipes series that I find are among my most used cookbooks. The Los Angeles Times does a yearly list of the food section staff's favorite recipes of the year, and this one was a unanimous winner. It's a single-layer sour cream cake with a topping of cranberries. It's rich and moist and works as either dessert or coffeecake. It's also pretty with it's topping of glowing red berries -- far prettier than it is in my picture -- and while it's baking it fills the house with a delicious cinnamony fragrance. All good things for a holiday cake.

Cranberry Upside Down Cake

serves 14 to 16

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9" springform pan and wrap foil around the outside to prevent leaks. If my experience is any indication it will leak anyway so put it on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper for easy cleanup.

Topping:

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 cups cranberries, rinsed, picked over to remove stems and get rid of shriveled or nasty cranberries, and at room temperature (this worked out to be just less than a 12 oz bag of cranberries).

1. Melt butter in medium saucepan. Add sugar, water, and cinnamon. Cook over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves, about three minutes. Stir in cranberries, make sure they are coated with sugar-butter mixture, then pour into pan and set aside. 

Cake:

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

3/4 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2. Beat butter and sugars on medium speed until smooth and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. On low speed add half the flour mixture then mix to combine. Add sour cream and vanilla. Mix to combine. Add remaining flour mixture and mix until smooth. Spread batter evenly over the cranberries in the springform pan.

3. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown, edges begin to pull away from the side of the pan, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 to 50 minutes. Cool on rack for 10 minutes. Run knife around edge to loosen cake. Invert onto plate. Remove foil, springform ring, and bottom. Invert again onto serving plate. If any cranberries remain in the pan just put them back on top of the cake. Cut into wedges and serve.

Note: The first time I pulled this out of the oven to test it I thought the cake was still very liquid. The second time I pulled it out to test and it still appeared to be just as liquid I realized that it was the cake moving on top of the layer of cranberries. The large amount of butter and shifting cranberries made an almost liquid layer on the bottom of the cake.   

Comments

[Jules]

I think I'll try this one; how sweet do the cranberries taste at the end?

[rachel]

Yum! That looks really pretty!

[Miz S]

You keep making me want to move to Baltimore.

[Julie]

Jules, they are still somewhat tart and it makes a nice counterpoint to the sweetness of the cake.

Rachel, thanks. It is pretty but I wasn't really able to capture just how pretty it is in a photo.

Miz S, that's the plan.

[Luisa]

Yes! I also adore those Best Recipe books and have had this recipe earmarked for obvious reasons for a while now. So glad you tested it for me! It looks delicious...

[sher]

That looks gorgeous. I love upside down cake, and cranberries. So, I must make this.

I hope you saw the season episode of The Wire. So powerful!

[Tanna]

I love the cranberry almond coffee cake I've been making but I've also been looking at an upside down cranberry in Dorie Greenspans Baking. Your photo is stunning. I've got to make one of them.

[the bee]

That sounds like a lovely evening.I love old fashioned celebrations. I loved the spagetti from previous post and I will try the cranberry cake. It looks devine ! I love a slightly tart cake. Would cherries also work?
I love a tart cherry desert.

[Cazza]

Even though I have spent the last 35+ years living in a hot climate for Christmas I still get the festive shivers when I read a post like this.

Enjoy the cold.

[Anne]

This is such a great post for several reasons:

a. You have the best holiday seasons in Baltimore. Your halloween sounded great, and *I* was practically moved to tears by your Christmas night.

b. I've been looking for a good cranberry cake recipe for ages. This fits the bill.

and

c. I can't imagine how good the cake must be in person because the picture looks beautiful to me.

[lobstersquad]

those cranberries, again! I must go to the US some time next winter, and taste them. Can´t go on like this

[angela]

Yummy and yours looks great! I bet it does smell wonderful when cooking.

[Rebecca]

I love upside down cakes and this one looks just about perfect!

[aria]

mmm i love the sourness of cranberries so much. this looks d'lish!

[anna maria]

Just like Aria, I love sourness mixed with sweetness, and I could almost taste those cranberries.
Baltimore's Christmas celebration sounds magical. I've skipped "It's a Wonderful Life" for a couple of years, but I think it's time to see it again.

[Ari (Baking and Books)]

I never thought about it before, but Baltimore sounds like a wonderful place to live! Every now and then I'll encounter someone who is very much in the holiday spirit and that's always such an uplifting experience, but it doesn't happen too often in New York City! ;)

Beautiful, beautiful photo. I love the colors.

Ari (Baking and Books)

[Ellen]

You just inspired me to make this cake for the Christmas eve dinner I've been invited to. I've never made an upside down cake (or most other things) before, so keep your fingers crossed for me. At least I do actually own a springform pan.

[lindy]

I love cranberries, and am very fond of upside down cakes. But the main reason I'm making this almost immediately is the beautiful, Christmassy redness. It's gorgeous-I'll let you know how mine comes out.

[blue plate]

What a pretty cake. The cranberries are such a vibrant red.

[Tiny Banquet Committee]

Pretty, pretty cake, and a big thank-you for the reminder to put the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper - I am always thinking that I'm *finally* ready to stop ruining baking sheets, but it keeps happening!

[lindy]

I just made the cake yesterday, and will serve it tonight. I realized at the last moment that I had left the bottom of my plain springform pan at a friend's house (with some unfinished bananarama cake on it), so I did it in the springform tube pan. It looks very pretty and sort of wreath-like- makes me feel a bit Marthaesque, as it is so decorative. The batter tasted great, as did the few cranberries that stuck on the pan, I'm looking forward to eating some.

[Julie]

Luisa, it's easy, tastes good, and it's pretty. Which is all I ask for.

Sher, The Wire's season finale was excellent. All in all, an incredible season -- the best season of an excellent series.

Tanna, I noticed that recipe in the Dorrie Greenspan book. I'll bet it's good also. I guess cranberries are just a natural candidate for an upside down cake.

Bets, yes, I think cherries would work although if I were doing it I would cut back on the sugar in the topping because cherries aren't as tart as cranberries.

Cazza, it seems strange to me to think of Christmas being part of high summer but there it is. Enjoy the heat!

Anne, that monument lighting just has a small town feel. It also almost, *almost* reminds me of the Christmas parade scene in A Christmas Story.

Ximena, I know. First all fall it's pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin and then it changes to cranberry, cranberry, cranberry. Americans are obsessed with cranberries at this time of year. But after all the buildup I am afraid cranberries might be a letdown when you ever get a chance to taste them.

Angela, it's the cinnamon that smells so good. I love coming into the house and smelling it.

Rebecca, cranberries are a natural for an upside down cake. It's surprising to me (now that I've actually stopped and thought about it) that it's not a more commonly made one.

aria, it was delish! And it's that sourness of the cranberries that plays so well against the sweetness of the cake.

Anna Maria, I always enjoy watching It's a Wonderful Life. I just read somewhere that it wasn't considered a success when it came out and it really didn't become a beloved movie until sometime in the 1970s when it had fallen into the public domain and began to be shown on every television station at Christmastime.

Ari, I think of New York City as the ultimate Christmas city! Baltimore has its charms, although it's not immediately apparent to everyone. In fact, some people never manage to see it.

Ellen, this cake is a great choice. It's very easy!

blue plate, cranberries really are a great color. You're right, very vibrant.

TBC, I have done more than my fair share of destroying cookie sheets and also getting next to impossible to remove glop all over the bottom of the oven. Glad to be of service in preventing anyone else from doing it.

Lindy, the tube pan is a GREAT idea! I bet it's gorgeous. I'm doing it that way next time.

[Jules]

Julie, I made this for Christmas Eve (which was celebrated on Saturday at my house) and it was wonderful! Thank you for sharing it.

[Fairfax]

I have made this cake a few times, and it always leaks from the bottom of the pan, even though I wrap it in foil. When I made it Christmas eve, I used another recipe and made it in an oven-proof skillet. It was a little too buttery, but still very good.

I actually had to make it twice, since the first one stuck to the pan since all of the carmel had leaked into the oven, and caused the smoke alarms to wail endlessly!

I was at the Monument lighting, too! It was just a wonderful evening. I think that the Style network filmed some of event for their show "Ace of Cakes". The ace had made a cake with some fireworks and the cake slid off the table during the real fireworks, or something like that.

[Julie]

Hey, Jules, glad it worked for you.

Fairfax, bummer about the leaking!! I think some springform pans fit more snugly than others and as they get older and get banged around they leak more, or at least that was the case with my old pan. I know you can actually buy completely leakproof ones and when I recently bought a new springform pan I briefly considered the leakproof one, however when I realized the leakproof pan was $40 I went ahead and bought a regular one. I wonder if you lined the inside of your springform pan with foil if that would take care of the problem?

[Fran]

Made this cake with a few variations & it was delidious! Used wonderful Saigon Cinnamon--oh wow! The fragrance & flavor. Used a 9x13 pan & didn't flip it. Turned out great.

[Serenade For Solitude]

Hi! Thanks for the recipe! I tried it last night, and it is divine! I used a bundt pan instead of a spring-form and it worked great. No mess, like the recipe had warned of. Thanks again! It's my new fav.!

[Valerie]

I have made this recipe 3 times and each time the cake is raw in the middle. There is luke warm cake batter in the center of the cranberries after I flip it over. I don't think it is cooked all the way. The only thing I did differently is that I used salted butter and reduced the amount of salt in the cake batter and I did not sift he flour etc. Help.. The cake is so delicious. What am I doing wrong. One time I cooked it for 1 hour and 10 minutes and it was still not done in the middle. Valerie

[Julie]

Valerie -- My first thought is that your oven temperature may not be accurate. Are the other signs of the cake being fully baked there? Are the edges pulling away from the pan and is the toothpick coming out clean?

[Tashia]

I just made this for Thanksgiving and it's gorgeous! Thanks for the recipe, I looked all over on line and even tried a recipe from the NY times- yours is WAAAYYYY better. Easier, and more balanced. I didn't have sour cream, and substituted cream cheese and a little milk in it's place. The tangy-ness still came through as I suspect the sour cream is intended to do, and I love it! I also added a bit of allspice; I love the way allspice plays into food. Thanks again- keep the great recipes coming!

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[Janet Monsen]

I just put this cake in the oven in a regular 9 inch round pan....sure seems like a lot of cranberries compared to cake...can't imagine being able to flip it. I'm thinking I should leave it in the pan...wrong side up. What do you think?

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