More Blackberries

We've been lucky this year. A number of the mornings have been foggy, so getting out early and picking blackberries has worked and saved me from picking them in the blazing sun. Too much time in the sun isn't good for me anymore, so 'Yay!' for foggy mornings. I used some blackberries picked this morning to make a cake to take to a celebration dinner.

Blackberries always remind me of our son Max. When he was tiny he would go with Sweetie to walk our black lab, Shogun, around the block in the morning. When the blackberries were ripe, he would return home with his face and hands stained purple with the juices, having eaten his fill from the community garden that was in the first part of the walk. Later, when we moved north, he and his friends would make 'feasts' on grape leaves, with ripe blackberries, the first Gravenstein apples, and any walnuts that had ripened, although there were few of those and even less walnut meat once they had broken the shells by stomping on them! Max would have been 41 today. Happy Birthday Max!

This recipe is a variation of one I tried a few years ago. It's for a fruit upside-down cake baked in a skillet. Last time I baked it in the early spring with rhubarb and strawberries. Now we are in late summer, so the berries are mostly local blackberries plus some raspberries from Costco. The last time it seemed like the recipe was skimpy on the cake part, so this time I adjusted it to work in a 10-inch cast iron skillet, but kept the original ingredients in the recipe below because this time there was too much cake...although it's good cake! You can bake this up fairly quickly...about 25 minutes in the oven. The key is to have room temperature butter and eggs for the cake so harder to do spur of the moment.

You can use any kind of fruit for the topping. At this time of year you might want to use figs, or plums, peaches or nectarines, late fresh apricots or early pears, plus any kind of berry...they would all be delicious! There is also nothing stopping you from including chopped nuts as part of the topping, or even un-chopped nuts as part of the design you make with the fruit. Get creative!

No fresh fruit? Frozen berries would work, too, although they might break down a bit more. Canned peaches or apricots would work, too, as well as the old standby, pineapple. I didn't get a photo of the cake cut, but I can tell you that is was delicious with the two kinds of berries.

You can always leave a comment with a URL linking to your own post if you try something wonderful and want to share!

Double Berry Upside Down Cake

recipe by Elle - sponge recipe from The Baking Explorer

Serves 8

Topping:

4 oz. butter or margarine, melted 
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
Most of 1 pint fresh blackberries
1/2 pint fresh raspberries

Cake:

8 tablespoons or 107 oz. butter or margarine, soft 
107 oz. (about 3/4 cup) granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
107 oz. (about 1 cup) self-rising flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
1/4 teaspoon lemon oil or extract

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or grease a 8 or 9-inch cake pan, line the bottom with parchment and butter it lightly OR use a seasoned cast iron skillet as is.

Place the melted butter, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon corn syrup in the bottom of the pan and stir gently to combine. Place the berries in a nice arrangement on top of the butter mixture. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar and beat until light in color and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. This can be done by hand, with a hand held or stand electric mixer or in a food processor. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until fully incorporated. Scrape beaters (or spoon) and bowl often. Add the flour and vanilla and lemon, if using, and beat gently/on low, just until incorporated. If you beat too much you might make the cake tough.

Dollop the batter over the arranged fruit in the pan and use a small offset spatula or the back of a large spoon to smooth the batter into an even layer.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, turning 1/4 turn about half way through the baking time, until golden brown. Center will spring back if lightly depressed with a finger. Sides of cake may be starting to pull away from the pan. As you can see in the photo below, because I used a wide skillet, the batter barely covered the fruit in some places.

Let sit about 2-3 minutes on a wire rack, then cover pan with serving plate and, carefully, turn plate side down. Let the pan sit over the plate a minute, then remove the pan. If any of the fruit stuck to the pan, use a small spatula to scrape it off the pan and return it to the fruit pattern. Serve warm or let cool to room temperature to serve.