Plum and Almond Upside-Down Cake
Caramelised plums over a tender brown butter almond sponge
Plum and Almond Upside-Down Cake
Ingredients
- 6 to 8 ripe plums, halved and stoned
- 50g unsalted butter (for the topping)
- 80g light brown soft sugar
- 175g unsalted butter, softened
- 175g caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 100g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 0.25 tsp fine salt
- 100g ground almonds
- 0.5 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Flaked almonds, to finish
Method
- Heat the oven to 170C fan and line the base of a 23cm round tin with baking paper.
- Make the topping: melt the 50g butter with the brown sugar in a small pan until bubbling and glossy, then pour into the lined tin.
- Arrange the plum halves cut-side down over the caramel in a snug single layer.
- Brown the 175g butter in a pan until nutty and deep gold, then cool until just soft but still spreadable.
- Beat the brown butter with the caster sugar until creamy, then beat in the eggs one at a time.
- Fold in the flour, baking powder, salt and ground almonds, followed by the almond and vanilla extracts.
- Spoon the batter over the plums and spread level, scattering with flaked almonds.
- Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean.
- Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then invert onto a plate and lift off the paper.
There is something quietly theatrical about an upside-down cake. You build it back to front, baking the fruit beneath a layer of batter, then turn the whole thing over to reveal a glistening, caramelised top you could not have arranged so prettily by hand. Plums are perfect for this treatment: as they roast in the caramel they slump and soften, releasing a jammy, slightly tart juice that seeps into the sponge below. The almond sponge is rich and tender, and the small twist that makes it sing is brown butter, which gives the whole cake a toasted, toffee-edged depth that ordinary creamed butter never quite reaches.
1 The long tradition of cooking fruit underneath
Upside-down cakes are far older than the famous tinned-pineapple version that swept mid-twentieth-century kitchens. Cooks have been baking fruit in the bottom of a pan and turning it out for centuries, long before purpose-built cake tins existed, using heavy skillets set over or near a fire. The technique was practical as much as decorative: arranging fruit and sugar at the bottom meant the heat caramelised it directly, and inverting the cake protected that delicate, sticky surface.
The pineapple upside-down cake became an icon in the 1920s and 1930s, when tinned pineapple was a glamorous novelty, but the method works with almost any fruit that holds its shape. Plums are a particular favourite in British kitchens, where a glut of them in late summer and autumn has always demanded inventive uses. Their natural acidity is exactly what a sweet, buttery sponge needs, cutting the richness and stopping the whole thing tasting one-note.
2 How it comes together
Begin with the topping, which is really a simple caramel. Melt butter with brown sugar until it bubbles and turns glossy, then pour it into a lined tin and nestle the plum halves cut-side down into it. As the cake bakes, this layer bubbles up around the fruit and sets into a sticky, burnished glaze.
The sponge itself starts with browning the butter. Cook it gently until the milk solids turn deep gold and it smells of toasted nuts, then cool it until it is soft enough to cream. Beating it with caster sugar and eggs gives an airy base, and folding in ground almonds alongside the flour keeps the crumb moist and dense in the best way, with a flavour that echoes the almond extract. Spoon the batter over the plums, scatter with flaked almonds, and bake until risen and golden.
The crucial moment is the turning out. Let the cake rest in the tin for ten minutes so the caramel firms slightly and the sponge settles, but no longer, or the caramel will set hard and stick. Invert it onto a plate while it is still warm, lift away the paper, and any plum that wants to stay behind can simply be lifted back into place.
3 Tips, make-ahead and variations
Choose plums that are ripe but still firm, because very soft ones collapse into mush. If your plums are small, use more of them; if large, fewer halves. Pack them in snugly, as they shrink as they cook and you want a generous coverage of fruit when you flip the cake over.
This cake is best the day it is made, while the top is still glossy and the sponge moist, but it keeps for a couple of days under a cover and is lovely gently warmed with a spoonful of crème fraîche or custard. If you want to get ahead, you can prepare the caramel and arrange the plums in the tin a few hours in advance.
For variations, the same method takes apricots, pears, apples or rhubarb beautifully; just adjust the bake for firmer fruit. A pinch of cinnamon or the seeds of a cardamom pod in the caramel adds warmth, and a splash of brandy stirred into the plum juices makes it feel decidedly festive. You can also swap a portion of the caster sugar in the sponge for light brown sugar to echo the toffee notes of the topping. Serve it just warm, with cold crème fraîche, custard or a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting into the caramelised fruit. Whatever you do, keep the brown butter, because it is the small step that turns a pleasant plum cake into one people ask you to make again.
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