Cherry & Pineapple Sour Cream Upside-down Cake
Although I scour garage sales at this time of year in search of vintage cookbooks, and love flipping through them, recipes of a certain vintage tend to be less than appetizing, laden with Spam and cocktail wieners, pineapple rings and glace cherries. Some creations don’t deserve the ingredients they were born with – but it’s generally an easy upgrade. Real cherries for the candied ones (seriously – who thought turning a naturally red, juicy fruit brilliant green and solid with sugar was a good idea?) and fresh pineapple for the canned rings is an easy but extreme(ly delicious) makeover.
There’s no pressure to make proper caramel – you just whisk the butter and brown sugar – and a squirt of honey or syrup to get things going – until it’s smooth and bubbling. As the pineapple cooks it releases its juices and helps things along. And why, especially in summer, would someone opt for neon Christmas cherries when there are fresh Bings available?
Isn’t peach upside down cake a thing too? Really, any fruit can be tossed into caramel, topped with batter and baked into a pretty fab cake. It seems like a good thing to have in my summer recipe box.
The sour cream batter was – as usual – a means of using up a tub of sour cream that had outstayed its welcome in the fridge. Or maybe I’m just digging for excuses to bake a cake on a Sunday night.
Cherry & Pineapple Sour Cream Upside-down Cake
AuthorJuliePreheat the oven to 350°F. Set a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium-high heat and melt the butter with the brown sugar and honey, whisking until smooth. Meanwhile, cut the pineapple slices into quarters. Remove the pan from the heat and place the pineapple pieces on the bottom of the pan, fitting them tightly in concentric circles. Tuck cherries into any spaces.
In large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sour cream or yogurt, eggs, milk and oil; add to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
Spread the batter over the fruit and bake for 40 minutes, or until golden and springy to the touch. Let cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then run a thin knife around the edge and invert onto a plate while it's still warm. If any pieces of fruit stick, simply pull them out and put them back on the top of the cake.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Set a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium-high heat and melt the butter with the brown sugar and honey, whisking until smooth. Meanwhile, cut the pineapple slices into quarters. Remove the pan from the heat and place the pineapple pieces on the bottom of the pan, fitting them tightly in concentric circles. Tuck cherries into any spaces.
In large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sour cream or yogurt, eggs, milk and oil; add to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
Spread the batter over the fruit and bake for 40 minutes, or until golden and springy to the touch. Let cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then run a thin knife around the edge and invert onto a plate while it's still warm. If any pieces of fruit stick, simply pull them out and put them back on the top of the cake.
It’s early here in NS but for the life of me I can’t find where you use the strawberries/blueberries listed in the ingredients. Maybe it was late when you posted…..?
Thanks for pointing that out June! I had made the batter as muffins, too – with strawberries! and wrote it down as such, and then when it worked so well as cake batter I cut and pasted the ingredient list. And yes, it was late…
I’ve tried 3 other recipes and thought to give this one a try because it looked fast and easy. But I’m sorry to said the end product taste like pineapple on biscuits/shortcake. Not the sour cream cake consistency I was hoping for. Maybe if I had used butter in the cake batter instead of oil?
That might make a difference to the taste – oil makes for a moist cake, perhaps a combination?