33 | 52 Nectarine Upside Down Cake

During our last trip to the grocery store, I picked up a 1 kilogram basket of nectarines.

They're so good when they're in season, all sweet and juicy, right?

At the cash register, I noticed that 2 nectarine baskets landed back in our cart.

It turned out that the hubby had the same idea as me :)

While we really like to eat the nectarines, 2 kilograms at once seemed a bit of a stack...

So what does a person who likes to bake do? 

Turn the fruit in question into something baked.

And since I have never made an Upside Down Cake before, I thought it was time.

Let's see if it was worth it!

Nectarine Upside Down Cake

From Add A Pinch

113 g (1 stick) butter, melted

100 g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
5 nectarines, peeled and sliced
240 ml (1 cup) buttermilk
2 eggs
200 g (1 cup) sugar
280 g (2 cups) flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

• Preheat oven to 175ºC (350ºF).
• Pour half of the melted butter into a round springform pan. Move pan around until bottom and sides are coated with butter.
• Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the melted butter.
• Put nectarine slices on top of the brown sugar.
• In a bowl, combine buttermilk, the other half of the melted butter, eggs, sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together until combined. Pour evenly over the nectarines.
• Bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Allow to stand for about 5-10 minutes before transferring to a plate or cake stand.
• Remove the outer ring of your springform pan, then place your plate or cake stand on top of the cake, carefully flip so that the nectarine bottom is on top.

My modifications:

I made three small cakes, instead of one big one. Don't ask me why - just felt like it ;)

Also, I didn't have any buttermilk at home so I made my own (for the first time): 4 1/2 teaspoons vinegar (or lemon juice) plus 1 cup of milk. Stir together and let sit for about 10 minutes et voilà: you made your own buttermilk!

The taste:

Somewhere between okay and good. The nectarines didn't turn out very caramelized from the sugar (like it usually looks in the pictures of recipes) - maybe my pan was too non-sticky so I should have omitted the butter? And the cake part was too dense for my taste (which you can see on the right picture above). All in all, it didn't turn out very pretty, not at all special from the taste but of course still edible and not bad. I wouldn't make it again though.

Have you ever baked an upside down cake? What fruit did you use and how was it?