Baking for Christmas: a cranberry upside down cake

Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess is probably one of my most cherished cookbooks – though having acquired a number of delicious books recently, it has quite a few competitors. I’ve already written about the delicious yet simple Chocolate & Orange Cake and delicate Pistachio Macaro(o)ns, and I’ve tried her recipes for Norwegian Cinnamon Buns, Nigellan Flatbread, Snickerdoodles – some once, some more often. A South African friend of mine swears by Granny Boyd’s Biscuits, also in the book. Another favourite of mine in that book is the Cranberry Upside Down Cake.

I tried the cake some 2 years ago. Although I remember it tasted lovely, it was slightly sad looking affair. I had used one of those cheap square cake tins, which obviously did not distribute the heat evenly and burnt half of my cranberries. Judge yourself:

Determined to give it another go, I bought a Silverwood tarte tatin dish in early December. I still had some cranberries left since I made a cranberry orange loaf few weeks ago, and the rest of the ingredients are typical store cupboard stuff anyway.

Cranberry Upside Down Cake
(Jõhvika pahupidikook)

Cranberry layer:
4 Tbsp butter
150 ml sugar
200 ml cranberries

Batter:
200 ml self-rising flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
125 ml sugar
125 ml butter, cubed
2 large eggs
50-100 ml milk

You start by melting the butter on the hob. Add the sugar and stir, until sugar has dissolved. Now stir in cranberries and mix, until cranberries are covered with a lovely glossy sugar and butter mixture.



Now mix the batter ingredients and pour over the cranberries. Nigella uses a food processor - then you need much less milk. I rely on muscle power, so I mixed the dry ingredients, chopped in the butter and then added the eggs and milk.

Bake in the middle of 180˚C oven for about 30 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and well risen. Can you see the pink hue of cranberries at the edge of the cake?

Cover the tray with a serving plate and flip the tatin dish around – carefully, so you wouldn’t burn yourself!


Serve. Isn't it pretty and oh so Christmassy in colour!?



UPDATE: Gracianne of the French-language Un dimanche a la Campagne baked this cake in March 2006.