cranberry sour cream upside-down cake

I found this wonderful recipe for cranberry upside-down cake on Moveable Feasts, a great foodie blog that we’ve been following and enjoying for a while. Right now, Barbara, with a group of other blogger friends, is in the middle of this really engaging series called “Gourmet’s 50 Women Game Changers in Food,” where she’ll post a biographical sketch of one famous woman chef/entrepreneur at a time with one of her recipes which she prepares as part of the story. It is truly amazing to learn about these talented folk and all the interesting ways that they’ve made food their passion and life. Follow this link for the recent story about Nancy Silverton from La Brea Bakery, among other places.

Anyway, back to the cranberry cake. I’ve been on the hunt lately for an appropriately Thanksgiving-ish dessert that seems original. I’m not too into chocolate (I know, it is a real flaw) and I’ve already been asked to prepare classic pecan pie, so another pie’s out. So what could be better than a cake with cranberries?

In her post, Barbara warns about the caramel spilling out of the dish while baking. I used a deep 10-inch glass baking dish and placed mine on top of a baking sheet covered with foil to catch any spillage. There was a bit though really not much at all. Because my dish was larger in diameter, I needed more cranberries to cover it. Also, her recipe specifically calls for “unsulphured molasses,” but I’m not sure what that is. I had some date molasses at home already, so used that instead. Otherwise, the recipe is essentially the same.

The cake had a dense almost poundcake texture that was really complimented by the sour sweetness of the cranberries, caramel and sour cream. It makes a wonderful dessert and is excellent for breakfast, too. This yummy treat is well on its way to becoming a holiday classic in my home.

cranberry sour cream upside-down cake

2½ cups fresh cranberries
2/3 cup light brown sugar
12 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp date molasses
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream

Pre-heat oven to 375F. Thoroughly grease baking dish with butter. Then cover base of dish with wax paper cut to size.

In a small pan, add 4 tablespoons melted butter, brown sugar, molasses, and ¼ cup water. Bring to boil, mix then pour into base of prepared cake dish.

Next fill base of cake dish with cranberries, making sure to lay them evenly and cover caramel sauce as much as possible.

Sift together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. In a separate bowl, beat eggs together with sour cream. Add remaining butter to egg mixture and combine. Add flour mix to egg mix and beat until smooth.

Gently cover batter over cranberries. Bake 50 to 60 minutes. Test for doneness with a clean toothpick. Remove from heat and let rest for 15 minutes. Then run a small knife around the edge of the cake and gently invert into a serving dish.