TWD: Cranberry Upside-Downer

This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie selection is Cranberry Upside-Downer. I’d never made an upside down cake and this was a great one to start with. Not so great? The supply of cranberries in September. I’ve had the urge to bake cranberry desserts in early fall before and I actually talk about how Josh drove to five different stores to find cranberries for me in my very first post, almost two years ago (you can also read about my oh-so-scientific rating system in that same post). Luckily, I remembered the store where frozen cranberries are carried year-round and had no trouble finding them this time. Dorie also gives the option of a peach version, but after eating a terrible peach a couple weeks ago, I’m off them.



The recipe advised this cake is best served the day it’s made (though I can attest it’s still pretty good on day three), so I made a half recipe in a six-inch cake pan. Inspired by some fabulous sorbet I made during cranberry season last year, I added some vanilla bean paste to the butter/sugar mixture that went on the bottom of the pan. I was nervous about flipping the cake, but it came out of the pan seamlessly – must be all the butter in it! The one thing I would think about changing in this recipe is the cinnamon in the batter; I thought the flavor was a bit strong. If I were to make this again, I would omit it and possibly add some orange zest to the batter. This would be an excellent holiday dessert if you are looking for some variety and are short on time.

We thought this cake deserved a 7.5 for Deliciousness and I gave it a 2.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 3. Many thanks to Sabrina of Superfluous for choosing this lovely cake. You can find the recipe here on Sabrina’s site. There was a lot of chatter about using different fruits, so I can’t wait to see what variations the creative bakers came up with.