Bake Along #91 – Caramel Orange Upside Down Cake

I have always been inspired by the upside down cakes, but I have never got down to making one of them. It used to be one in my wish list to make upside down pineapple cake, the times when I have seen the upside down cakes for the first time. So I went ahead and tried to figure out one of the best upside down cakes that can make an entry in our bake along!

While orange has always been my flavour of choice, I have been restricting the use of orange in most of my bakes to deliberately avoid the obsession that I have for orange , so when there were just a little more than couple of choices for the upside down cakes, why not get back to my obsessed oranges and combine them with the heavenly caramel. The thought of it, just got hooked me to it. No looking back

While there were quite a few recipes that had the oranges with the skin and pith of it, I wanted to avoid using them to cut down the bitterness if any that the skin and pith would infuse into the cake. So this version is going to be only the best flavour of fresh oranges and freshly made caramel. Well, that is one match made in heaven.

The nutty almond meal, with the juicy orange and the divine caramel all come together in a single bite and these are totally irresistible for anyone, and that you may call, love at first sight .

Next time you might want to impress your family/guests, or even take it to a stall where you want to carry a best seller, then this is it!

Ingredients:

Recipe adapted from – CulinaryGinger

For Caramel –:

Granulated white sugar – 2/3 cups plus 2 tablespoons
Water – 1/3 cup
Salt – 1/2 teaspoon
Butter – 1 tablespoon

For Cake –

Orange – 3 large
Unsalted butter – 115 gms
Granulated white sugar – 2/3 cup
Eggs – 2
Zest of orange – 1 tablespoon ( 1 orange’s zest)
All-purpose flour – 1 1/4 cup
4/19Almond meal – 1/2 cup
Baking powder – 3/4 teaspoon
Baking soda – 3/4 teaspoon
Salt – 1/4 teaspoon
Milk – 1/2 cup

Method:

1. Butter your 9 inch cake pan and dust with flour. Line the bottom of the pan with butter paper. Add sugar, water and salt in a heavy bottomed saucepan and bring it on medium flame.

2. Let the sugar syrup come to a boil in medium flame. Do not stir, keep swirling the pan.

3. It will start coming to a rolling boil, Do not stir, but bring down the flame to low and keep swirling the pan, paying attention for the colour of the sugar syrup, to change to caramel.

4. Once the colour starts to change, take care that it does not smoke. Keep swirling continously until the colour gets a little deeper.

5. Once the deep amber colour is reached, before the sniff of the first smoke, remove the pan from the stove.

6. Add butter immediately and briskly stir for the butter to combine quickly. ( I do not have a picture of what it looks like after the butter, because the caramel sets very quickly after this and you might have to act quick )

7. Pour the caramel into your prepared pan by quickly scrapping off your saucepan. Now quickly swirl up your baking pan so the caramel is coated on the entire pan evenly. Well sometimes you might end up having something like what I have.

You dont have to worry if the pan is not completely coated with the prepared caramel. Bake the pan with just the caramel at 180 degrees for 5 to 10 minutes until the caramel melts again and you are able to swirl it up to coat the entire pan evenly.

8. Use a knife to peel off the orange skin like how you peel off apples. Get rid of even the pith.

9. Cut them into smaller wedges.

10. Arrange the oranges on top of the caramel in a nice pattern. Once the oranges are arranged, spread out some butter on the sides of the pan and line the sides with butter paper.

11. Add all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and almond meal in a bowl.

12. Use wire whisk and mix well. Set aside.

13. Add butter and sugar in the bowl of your electric beater. Beat on medium high speed for 5 to 7 minutes until the butter-sugar mixture becomes creamy, pale and fluffy.

14. Add the eggs one at a time and beat for 1 minute for each addition on medium speed.

15. Add the zest of orange and beat on medium speed until the zest is combined well.

16. Add 1/3 rd of the flour and beat on low speed for 30 seconds until the flour is just incorporated.
Do not over beat.

17. Add 1/2 of the milk and beat on low speed until the milk is just incorporated. Do not over beat.

18. Continue to add the second and third parts of the flour alternating with the remaining milk. Beat on low speed after the addition of each parts of flour and milk, just until they are incorporated. Do not over beat.

19. Transfer the batter into the cake pan on top of the oranges that are arranged. It is a thick batter, so scoop it evenly across the pan.

20. Use an offset spatula or the back of a spoon to evenly spread the batter. Do this gently. Do not apply more pressure or it might move your orange slices away from their place. Whereas if you do not apply enough pressure, there will be air pockets locked inside. Tap the pan on your counter few times to let the batter settle down completely.

21. Bake in pre-heated oven for 25 minutes at 180 degree C or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack for 5 to 10 minutes. While it is still warm, invert the cake onto a serving plate/cake board. In most of the cases the cake comes out leaving the butter paper lined at bottom of the pan. You might have to peel off the butter paper on the sides.

You can do the same with sweet lime.

In case you do not have almond meal, you can process almonds with a tablespoon of granulated sugar and make your own almond meal. You can also add any nut meal of your choice depending on your palate.

If you are using oranges which has the seeds in it, try to remove them before arranging them in your pan