plum and rosemary upside-down cake

 

Happy Royal Wedding... weekend! Hurray! William and Kate are married and everyone is happy. I'm sure everybody is sick of hearing about it - except me. I spent hours watching the Royal Channel's rebroadcast of the ceremony last night. When Adam came home from work, he went on immediate alert because there I was, sitting on the couch, fixated on the screen, all red-eyed and stuffy. But no... there was no need to escalate threat levels. It was just my typical response to anything even vaguely emotional happening on tv.

So, in order to celebrate this momentous occasion (and because all I need is an excuse), I baked a cake! One made with plums, which are purple, which is the colour of royalty... right? Ok, maybe I'm stretching it.

First off, I want to say one thing: EPIC flavour combination. Plum and rosemary works. It's incredible. It was kind of odd when I was chopping the rosemary, because my kitchen smelled like I was preparing roast chicken. That sensory experience, however, was just narrow-mindedness and after baking this cake, I am well on my way to broadening my herbaceous horizons. The second thing to note is this: if you bake this in a cast iron pan, you probably won't have to cut the bottom off like I did. Why don't cast iron pans ever show up at Winners? I always balk at the $60 price tag at my local kitchen supply store, then complain about not having one.  Perhaps it is time to bite the bullet.

plum and rosemary upside-down cake

From How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman 

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar

1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves

3 or 4 ripe plums, cut into wedges

1 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Melt half the butter (1/4 cup) and use it (yes, all of it) to grease a 9" pan, preferably cast iron. Stir the brown sugar into the butter and use a spatula to spread it around evenly. Sprinkle the rosemary over the sugar and place your plum wedges on the bottom of the pan in a single layer.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.

In a medium bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs and granulated sugar. Melt the other half of the butter, and whisk it in.

Make a well in the dry ingredients then add the wet and stir until incorporated. Carefully spoon the batter over the plums. Spread with a spatula to ensure that everything is even.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.  Once it is ready, allow it to sit in the pan for 5 minutes before turning it over onto a plate. Serve and enjoy!