Plum and Cherry Upside Down Cake

I woke up early this morning, made the kids breakfast then immediately started baking. I didn’t really have a plan, since it was originally going to be a cobbler.  Cobblers are easy.  Fruit on the bottom, some pastry on top.  Bake until golden and you’re done.  Then my mind started wandering and landed on lemon pound cake and whipped cream.  I know you’re thinking, “That always happens to me too!”..or maybe not.

Anyway, I smashed the ideas together and came up with this.

Sweet plums and some slightly sour cherries to highlight and balance the taste of the plums; topped with delicious buttery lemon pound cake, flipped upside down and served with slightly sweetened vanilla whipped cream.

 Plum and Cherry Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 stick + 1 stick butter (half pound total)
• 1/2 cup  +3/4 cup  granulated sugar
• heavy whipping cream (2 tablespoons plus 1/3 cup)
• 1/2 teaspoon + 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1/4 cup chopped pitted fresh cherries (slightly sour in taste)
• 1/2 pound ripened sweet plums (about two and a half plums)
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups sifted flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

In small saucepan, melt one stick of butter and half a cup of sugar until lightly bubbling.

Remove from heat and add two tablespoons heavy cream, 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest and cherries.

Set aside to cool while preparing pie plate.

Butter a nine inch pie plate and slice plums into thin, translucent slices.

Arrange in overlapping concentric circles in the bottom of prepared pie plate.  Pour melted butter, sugar & cherry mixture over the plums.  Set aside while preparing pound cake batter.

Preheat oven to three hundred fifty degrees F.

Whisk together: eggs, 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream, vanilla, the raining lemon zest, juice and sugar.

Sift or whisk together flour and baking powder.

Add dry ingredients to the wet and mix until well combined.

Top prepared pie plate with the pound cake batter and smooth over the fruit evenly. Bake in preheated oven for about thirty minutes, or until golden brown and springs back to gentle pressure.

Cool to slightly warm or room temperature and flip onto serving plate.  Slice and serve with whipped cream (recipe below).

Whipped Cream

• Heavy Cream
• Sugar to taste
• Vanilla Bean Seeds (optional)

Whip one cup of cream with optional dash of vanilla bean seeds with electric mixer or by hand with whisk until stiff peaks form.  Add sugar to taste.