Sunday, March 29, 2015

Cran-Raspberry Upside-Down Cake


I love butter cakes.  And somehow baking a cake seems more like real baking than baking cookies or even baking a pie.  That feeling is probably something I developed when we were Heavenly Cake Bakers, and a cake came out of my oven once a week.  Now I never know what's going to emerge.


Because I noticed all the frozen cranberries when I was looking for frozen sour cherries, it didn't occur to me that other people's supermarkets weren't similarly prepared for people making cranberry upside down cakes in spring.  Cranberries freeze very well and defrost without leaving puddles of liquid, so I think there was no real difference in flavor.


I bought a white silicone spatula just for such caramelizing occasions.  The mixture starts out so light and lemony-looking that it's hard to believe it's really going to caramelize in just a few minutes.


But it does.  I actually think mine got a little darker and thicker than it should have.  I seem to have the best luck when I take the caramel off the heat when it's about 10 degrees lower than specified.  Maybe my thermometer is off or maybe my pan holds the heat too well or maybe I don't move quickly enough--whatever the reason, the caramel ended up so dark that if I'd put the pan on the baking stone I think I'd have had blackened berry upside-down cake.  

Ha.  I just realized that I was using my old recipe that says to cook the caramel until it's "deep amber" in color, and the final draft says until it's "light amber."  I just hate to use my good cookbook to cook, but I may have to give in.  "


I had some raspberries that might not have lasted another 24 hours, so I mixed them in with the pretty red cranberries.  Raspberries that are soft to start with sort of bake down to mush.  When the cake was flipped over, there were no discernible raspberries.  


I wonder why people like to eat cookie dough, but don't have a hankering for cake batter.  I'd be happy to eat this, but I guess I'd rather have it as cake, especially since the cake layer seemed a little thin anyhow.  


I LOVE it that Rose warns us that the cake will come out of the oven with "what appear to be many hillocks."  Only Rose would use the word "hillocks," even though it's the perfect word.  


I held my breath when I pulled to cake pan off the cake, but almost all of the fruit stayed with the cake and not with the pan.  I do see discernible raspberries in the photograph, which makes me wonder why I didn't notice them in real life.  Maybe it's an optical illusion, like the black and blue or gold and white dress.


Here it is with the raspberry glaze brushed on.  I see another raspberry.


I will confess that I didn't make the meringue, even though it was Italian, and that nationality is usually enough to tempt me, but it looked like it would taste like regular meringue, which is too sweet and too airy for my taste, although I'll tolerate it on a lemon meringue pie for obvious reasons.  I put the rest of the jar of seedless raspberry preserves in it, but it wasn't quite enough, so I added a little sugar too.  Adding seedless preserves to whipping cream is genius.  I notice that we'll do it again next week, except that it won't be cheating to do it.  And it will also be strawberry.


You can see that the whipped cream barely has a pink tinge, but the raspberry meringue has only one tablespoon of preserves, so it probably doesn't get very pink either.  The strawberry jam has 1/4 cup of jam, so it should be pretty and pink.  

After I tasted the cake, I immediately sent half of it to our neighbors because I didn't want to have it around the house or I'd have to try to do 20,000 steps on my FitBit.  If you do 20,000 steps, when do you have time to sit down and relax?  Oh, I suppose that may be the point.

19 comments:

  1. This was an absolutely wonderful cake! The meringue was way better than regular plain meringue. Totally caught me off guard. I have enough cranberries left to make another one but wouldn't dare. Don't want to get publicly flogged by a Fitbit.

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    1. Vicki, I passed on the meringue, but yours looks so good it almost makes me wish I'd tried it. Maybe for catch-up week.

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  2. Such a great idea to use raspberries! I love how tall your butter cake looks!! I'm reading the Polish Princess....and it has a LOT of butter... ! I think I'll be making half recipe for that cake...

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  3. The Polish Princess looks like an all-weekend cake!

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  4. I'm dreading the Polish Princess. We haven't had super long cake recipe so far. I'm definitely making 1/2 (aren't I always? :)) or maybe less!

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    1. Jenn,
      I'm dreading it too! But if I'm going to make it, I want to have a big cake for my work. I'd better check to see if I can freeze it.

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    2. Rose recommends not freezing it as it will change the texture of the buttercream. I think I am going to make a very small cake. It will challenge my math skills :).

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    3. LOL! Jenn, can you please share your maths calculation.. cos I am going to make a small cake for polish princess.. as small as possible..LOL!

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    4. I will look at it this weekend and email you!

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  5. No meringue for me either. Your cake looks wonderful and I bet the addition of the raspberries made it taste pretty darn good!

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    1. The cake itself was fabulous, but the fresh raspberries were overpowered by the cranberries. I may try it just as a raspberry shortcake sometime.

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  6. Hi Marie, Your cake looks really pretty and the cake part seems to be very very tender. Mine was denser than yours. For me, the texture of the Italian meringue was a perfect compliment and offset the sourness of the cranberry. I found it was the saving grace of the cake.

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    1. Kim,
      That's what Evil Cake Lady said too! I may have to re-think my anti-meringue stance.

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  7. It looks great! Lucky you that you were able to find the cranberries.. I gave up on the 5 place we looked and came out empty. I will hold off until the fall or if I find them before then - which ever comes first and put it on my Free Choice list. I have not even read the Polish Princess.. but now you all got my curiosity peaked.

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    1. Monica,
      It caught my eye when I first got the book. Then I started reading it, and turning pages, and turning more pages, and giving up on counting the components. Even Woody calls it a pain to make (although he also says it's very good).

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  8. Marie, your cake dissipates all fear about cutting into this cake and actually eating it. Of course, yours looks supremely appealing. The nicely caramelised fruit is a bonus.

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  9. "even though it was Italian, and that nationality is usually enough to tempt me" - LOL! I couldn't find any frozen cranberries at any of my local grocery stores, but guess what I found in my basement freezer about an hour ago? Yep. I don't even remember putting them in there, but there they were. So I guess I'll be making this one after all.

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  10. I was so tempted to take a taste of the cake batter...the smell was out of this world. I also agree that taking the caramel out 10 degrees lower than specified. The Italian meringue had added so much to the cake. Not too sweet at all, just right to compliment the cake and I will always make the cake with the meringue. I know its extra work and time, but oh so worth it!

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  11. Hi Marie: I loved this cake! I had frozen fresh cranberries back in December so they were at hand. I will make this again, and definitely will try the rhubarb version. Smitty doesn't like cranberries (crazy guy!) so I shared this with friends who all raved about it. Can't get my blog post to work, but hope to get it online soon.

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