Tuesday 22 November 2011

Ginger-Spiced Upside-Down Cake


It’s half four in the afternoon and 100% black as pitch outside... it’s been raining and grey and that damp cold which really gets into your bones...  The perfect excuse to consume your own body weight in food I hear you say?  Exactly what I was thinking!

Looks like instead of heading to the climbing wall I’ll be cycling home as fast as possible, then attacking a small country's allocation of calories for dinner, followed by diving under a blanket and working through my food coma with some horrifically mind-numbing TV...

I found this recipe for a ginger-spiced upside-down cake a few weeks ago.  It's super moist with the perfect amount of spice for grey-day grumpiness... Now I’m thinking about it I might have to go and make another one this evening to double check that it really is as good as I remember! 

PLEASE NOTE: THIS RECIPE HAS NOW BEEN IDIOT-PROOFED!  My Dad tried making this last night (with very bizarre results - he's INCREDIBLY literal bless him) I've had to make a couple of tweaks to the way I've written the recipe to prevent anyone else from falling into the same (very unlikely) traps!  :o)

Preheat the oven to 160˚C. Grease and line the base (and up to approximately 1" up the sides) of a 9" spring-form cake tin.

Melt 25g of butter with ½ cup of the sugar and the cinnamon.  Pour over the base of the cake tin.  Lay the fruit over the mixture, trying to cover the entire base without leaving gaps.  Should you feel particularly artistic feel free to make pretty concentric circles...

Cream together 225g butter with ¾ cup of the sugar until pale and smooth.  Add the ginger and mix in.  Add the eggs one at a time fully mixing each in before adding the next.  Pour in the molasses/honey/golden syrup and mix. 

Whisk together the dry ingredients.

Alternate between adding small quantities of dry ingredients and buttermilk.  Mix until just incorporated.  Pour mixture over the fruit and bake in the oven for 1 and ¾ hours.

Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes then invert over a serving plate and release the sides of the cake tin.  Cool for at least another half hour before eating.

250g butter, softened
1¼ cups light brown sugar
4-5 medium to large ripe pears or apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thinly
2 tbsp ginger, grated
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
3 large eggs
2/3 cup molasses/honey/golden syrup
3 cups plain flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups buttermilk

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