A Cherry Upside Down Cake

Cherry Upside Down Cake. cherries c/o Northwest Cherry growers.

When I think of cake, I think of the gym. But not for the reason you assume. I’m not thinking of burning off cake calories. Instead I have my gym playlist in my head and I’m jiving to “Cake By the Ocean” while doing dead-lifts. Which is more fun than calorie counting anyway.

We’re rounding off cherry season with this yummy cherry upside down cake. It’s like pineapple upside down cake. But not. I feel like no one makes these kind of cakes anymore. Everything these days is about buttercream and fondant and looking Pinterest worthy. The humble fruity cake for using up end of season fruit needs love too.

Cherry Upside Down Cake

ingredients:

45 fresh cherries, pitted
1 cup unsalted butter softened
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 and 3/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon sweet orange essential oil (food grade)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Instructions

First, pit your cherries and break them in half by hand. This gives you some lovely stained hands.
Mix cherries and a half cup of your granulated sugar in a bowl with orange oil and vinegar and set aside for an hour.

Heavily butter the bottom of your cake pan. Preheat your oven to 350°F

Take your remaining sugar and cream it together with the butter and vanilla using a hand mixer or stand mixer. Add your eggs one at a time and beat them in until smooth.
In a separate bowl mix your dry ingredients. Slowly incorporate your dry ingredients mix into your mixing bowl of egg/butter/sugar. Your batter will be thick. Add your milk into the mixer of batter a tablespoon or two at a time while mixing on low. Once the milk is fully incorporated, stop mixing.

Alternatively, take advantage of modern convenience and follow instructions on a box of cake mix!!

In a 9×13 in glass cake pan, lay the cherry sugar mixture on the bottom. Spread evenly.

Gently spoon the cake batter over the cherry layer. Don’t just pour it over quickly. We want the cherry layer and batter as separate as we can manage.
Bake on top rack at 350° for 50 minutes. A wood toothpick should come out clean. Add a few more minutes If not. If this cake is under baked, it won’t flip out of the pan right. That fruit layer makes it take much longer to finish baking. Don’t worry about it being dry. The extra fruit mostly prevents that.

Let fully cool. Gently separate edges with a knife. Place entire pan, uncovered, in fridge for at least three hours or overnight.

Remove pan from fridge. Place cake sheet or serving platter upside down over cake pan. Flip them over and remove cake pan. Your cake should now be upside-down or cherry-up. It will NOT look gorgeous in a fancy cake TV show way. It is gorgeous in an old school delicious way.

You can top the whole cake with whipped cream or add cream to individual pieces. Makes 12 servings. (Or nine better servings in my opinion!)

Since using up old fruit in an upside down cake is a little old fashioned these days, I of course want to serve it on my Great Grandmother’s old china. Love that blue pattern!