February 3, 2018

NECTARINE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

nectarine upside down cake3

This is another cake made by Nick for a CCC meeting last year.  For a man who claims not to be a fan of cake, he’s a pretty good baker.  He follows the recipe to the letter – although equally is not averse to adding his own twist, which usually works out fine.

He used this recipe on the Good Food website, a recipe I have used before and adapted to make my pear and ginger and blackberry and chocolate upside down cakes.  For all these cakes the principal change on the recipe is to add a layer of jam between the sponge layers to enhance the fruit flavour of the topping.  In this case Nick used some apricot jam.

nectarine upside down cake2

This is a great little recipe, easy to make and successful every time.  I love recipes that are so adaptable and reliable, that you can trust not to let you down.

Summer9g

There were some truly magnificent cakes at the CCC meeting that day.  The theme was “the taste of summer” and the sun obliged and came out to play, giving us a beautiful blue sky and little fluffy clouds all day.  Nick’s cake looked very much the part on the table with all the other cakes.

Ingredients
For the cake
200g softened butter, or spreadable butter
200g self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
200g golden caster sugar
4 eggs
2tblsp milk

For the topping
3 ripe nectarines
75g light soft brown sugar

For the filling
2tblsp apricot jam
125ml double cream
1tblsp icing sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan / gas mk 4.  Grease two 20cm sandwich tins, line the bases with baking paper and grease again.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl.  Add all the other cake ingredients and whisk with an electric hand whisk (or use a food mixer) until fully combined and smooth.

Sprinkle the soft brown sugar evenly over the bottom of one of the tins.Cut the nectarines into half and remove the stone then cut each half into four thick slices  Arrange the slices roughly as in the picture, on top of the brown sugar.

Divide the cake mixture evenly between the two tins, being careful not to disturb the slices of fruit and remembering that the tin with the fruit on the bottom will inevitably look fuller.Bake for 20-25 minutes until the cakes are done.  The one with the nectarines on the bottom will take about five minutes longer than the other.

Allow to cool in the tins for a few minutes then turn out carefully onto a wire rack, remembering to flip the fruited cake so that the fruit is on the top!

Whisk the double cream with the icing sugar until spreadable.  When the cakes are cold, spread the apricot jam on the bare cake half.  (Warm it slightly in a small pan if necessary to make it runny enough to spread.)Spread a thick layer of whipped cream on top, remembering to let the jam cool completely first.  Put the fruited cake on top of that.

Cuts into at least 8 slices.