So, there has been about half a bag of fresh cranberries sitting in the refrigerator since Thanksgiving, mocking me every day. They really stay fresh for a long time, and this lazy baker desperately wanted to do something with them before they went bad, but hemmed and hawed for obviously a long time, before deciding on an Upside Cake.
See, the problem is, there are not many recipes out there for fresh cranberries, besides cranberry sauce, and everything else sounded pretty boring. But then I came upon a recipe for Cranberry Upside Down Cake, and had an inspired visualization of how it would look as a bundt cake, and laziness be damned, the cranberries were finally going to have their day.
The recipe I found was not vegan, of course, so I gleaned what info I could from it, before embarking on my own Cranberry Upside Down Cake adventure. The end result was ok taste wise, not great, but with the potential to be quite amazing, with a few more tweaks. How it looked in the bundt pan, however, was fantastic (look at the pictures!), and with a little extra playing around, the taste will match the picture and the world of vegan cranberry upside down cakes will be perfect.
This is the recipe I came up with, along with notes about what I would change next time.
For the topping:
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 4 tbl butter substitute
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
The recipe I was basing this on said to melt the butter and sugar together in a saucepan until the butter was melted and then let it simmer for a minute. From the looks of their photograph, the sugar melted into the butter creating a caramel. I did not have this experience at all. The sugar did not melt all the way and I think I burnt it a little while trying to get it to melt. I am wondering if it’s because it was all brown sugar, or if the sugar to butter ratio was off, and maybe if I used a combination of brown and white and less of it, whether it would melt easier. I need to do some research into this. I assume it is how Pineapple Upside Down Cake is made too (haven’t made it in a long time and don’t remember), so there will hopefully be some good variations and thoughts about it.
That being said, once you have the butter/sugar melted, you pour it into a bundt pan that has been very liberally sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, and then you layer the fresh cranberries on top.
Next step – vanilla cake:
- 1 3/4 cup ap flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch salt
- 1 cup non dairy milk (I used almond)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbl apple cider vinegar
In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mix until well combined. Pour batter over cranberries in bundt pan, bake at 350F for 45-55 minutes, or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Let cool for 5 minutes, then invert cake over a serving plate.
Many may notice that this cake recipe is one of the most basic vegan cake recipes out there, and can be found all over the web, in varying forms. I decided to use this as my base because, well it’s easy, plus I have made it before and it is a wonderful simple cake that should match the tart cranberries nicely.
The cake texture was perfect for the cranberry topping, and came out of the bundt pan beautifully (I wasn’t sure if it would or not, sometimes bundt pans hate me and I end up pulling a cake out in unappetizing hunks because the bundt refuses to let go!).
The cake flavor wasn’t quite right for the cranberry topping though. The vanilla was too overpowering, so I think next time I will omit it entirely. In its place, I think I will add orange or lemon zest to make the cake more unique and stand out a bit compared to the cranberries. I was also contemplating adding cinnamon, but I worry that it will overpower the taste of the cranberries, and for this cake I really want the cranberries to stand out. The other taste problem was the caramel topping, as mentioned earlier. It tasted burnt and really upset the balance of the cake.
So, next time, definitely will be making it in a bundt pan, will be changing the cake flavor a bit, and working on that caramel like topping!! If anyone else has made anything like this, or wants to improve upon this recipe, please feel free to do so and let me know how it comes out!
