PLUM-SIDE DOWN CAKE

    When life is turned upside down, I bake, and what better a cake to bake than an upside down cake. I made this Plumside Down Cake with these marvelous plums from the Union Square Farmer's Market. 

    This ended up being a real miracle cake because making it was one of those out of control baking experiences. I was in a rush and after I started preparing it I realized the recipe I found was for meant for 4 mini cakes. I wanted a regulation size cake. The brown sugar butter topping was not forming properly so I had to do some major adjusting then half way through decided to double the recipe and made some other tweaks with a trusted pineapple upside down cake recipe from the recipe tin. I became utterly confused not knowing what I doubled and what I hadn't, then I realized instead of measuring out with a 1/4 C. I was using a 1/3 C. measuring spoon. Then I almost used almond extract instead of vanilla. The mishaps go on and on. 

    What a mess my head was and what a mess the kitchen was. But things aren't interesting unless you sometimes throw everything up in the air and hope something edible lands on the counter. Then comes the flipping part. After all that work you can flip it and the cake can truly turn out to be a bust, but it somehow ended up looking and tasting absolutely lovely. The cake was very light and had a nice cinnamon flavor, and the plum topping was perfectly sweet and a gorgeous color.

PLUMSIDE DOWN CAKE
8-10 small plums, thinly sliced

1 1/2 Sticks of butter

1 C. brown sugar

2 eggs

1 C. granulated sugar

zest of 1/2 orange

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 C. buttermilk 

1 1/4 C. cake flour 

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350. In a pan, melt 1/2 stick of butter with 1 C. of brown sugar until it mixes to form a caramel appearance. Pour this into a greased 8 or 9 in. cake pan. Arrange the plum slices on top of the caramel mixture. Set aside. 

In a large bowl, beat 1 C. sugar, 2 eggs and 1 stick of butter. Add the vanilla and orange zest.

In another bowl sift the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Alternate beating the flour mixture with the buttermilk into the wet mix. Bake for 35-45 min.

Remove from the oven, let the pan cool slightly then invert it, lightly tapping on the bottom of the pan to make sure the topping comes out evenly.