Plum Upside-Down Cornmeal Cake
From Rustic Fruit Desserts by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson, recommended by my friend Duff. This dessert can be made in individual ramekins, or a 10″ skillet, which I used. It can be made with any small stone fruit, such as apricot, plum or pluot. I chose a local variety of plum, though mine were too ripe. Look for ones that DON’T resemble water balloons, the authors of this book say. This is the second dessert I’ve made from this book and both were very good. The recipes are well-written, as you’ll see below, and the baking is non-fussy–no need to remove skins!
Stone Fruit Upside-Down Cornmeal Cake
Baking time 30 min. for ind. cakes, 45 to 50 min. for 10″ skillet. Serves 8.
Fruit Topping
4 small stone fruits such as apricots, plums or pluots
1/4 c. (2 oz.) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 c. packed (3 3/4 oz) brown sugar
Preheat oven to 350F. Score the skin of the fruits with a few strokes of a knife, then slice them in half and remove the pits.
To prepare the fruit topping for individual cakes, distribute the melted butter among eight 5-oz. ramekins, brushing the butter up onto the sides of the ramekins. Sprinkle 1 Tbl. of the brown sugar in each ramekin, then place half of a stone fruit on top of the sugar, cut side down. Place ramekins on a baking sheet.
Alternatively, to prepare the fruit topping for a single large cake, melt the butter in a 10″ cast-iron skillet set over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves and blends with butter to form a caramel. Remove from the heat and arrange the fruit halves on top of the caramel, cut side down.
Cake
1 1/4 c. (6 1/4 oz.) all purpose flour
3/4 c. (3 3/4 oz.) fine cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. fine sea salt
1/2 c. (4 oz) unsalted butter, at room temp.
2/3 c. (4 1/2 oz.) granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3/4 c. buttermilk
To make the cake, whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a bowl. Using a handheld mixer with beaters or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture in three additions alternating with the buttermilk in two additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally.
Distribute the batter evenly among the ramekins (about 1/4 c. per cake) on top of the fruit, or transfer all of the batter to the skillet and gently spread it evenly over the fruit. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 30 min for ind. cakes or 45 min. for the skillet, or until the center of the cake springs back lightly when touched.
Allow the ind. cakes to cool for 5 min. before inverting onto plates; the large cake will need 20 minutes to cool before you flip it over.
Storage: This cake is best if eaten the day it is made, but any leftovers can be covered with plastic wrap and enjoyed the following morning for breakfast.
September 11th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I just recently purchased a cast-iron skillet (which foolishly, I am so scared of inadvertently ruining it that I hardly use it), so maybe this would be a good recipe to help break it in. Only without the breaking part, because that would be sad!
September 11th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Steph, you can’t ruin it. They’re always able to be reseasoned. Even the crustiest, rustiest ones, or the accidentally washed the patina off (oops, that was me) can be brought back to life. Cast iron skillets are awesome–nonstick without the creepy chemicals, and dead useful for so many things. Plus iron in your food!
September 14th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
How do you clean your skillet? I keep reading so many conflicting things - don’t use soap, just wipe it out, use salt to scrub (which I tried yesterday, and had no success with…), always reseason your pan after every use (this seems timeconsuming and really fussy for something that pioneers used)… what’s your way of maintaining your pan?
September 20th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
This isn’t a good recipe to start out with. I’d start with basic things like eggs and bacon if you eat that. My husband seasons our pan, so I’ll try to get him to respond, but as in most cooking things, we follow the advice from Cook’s Illustrated, which says that after regular use, rinse the pan thoroughly in hot water, wipe dry, and then coat with a thin film of vegetable oil, wiping off any excess with paper towels.
If there is crust in the pan, use a salt scrub in the water or a stiff brush (no soap!), then dry the pan over a burner for a few minutes (set a timer!) and then add the film of oil; we use canola.