All the fresh fruit flavours of summers past shine in this fluffy cake and caramel-ly sauce combo.
Today is Food Day Canada, which is the day chefs and home cooks coast-to-coast celebrate the food culture of Canada and share what they are making in their neck of the woods. In honour of FDC, I'm sharing a few recipes I love and hold some good memories for me.
This cake is a version of the upside-down cake that I and a lot of kids of the 70's grew up with. The one that was made with tinned peaches or pineapple, and that we ate off of pretty china plates, or just grabbed out of the pan with our hands. This was my favourite cake, so much so that one year it was my birthday cake, and is so easy to make that you can go from zero to eating cake in under an hour.
I've used sweet Niagara cherries today because I had them from a recent trip and they are outstanding this year! Get yourself a cherry pitter and you can blow through the 3-cups needed for the recipe in about 5 minutes. The cherries make for a bit of a juicier cake, sort of a cross between a cake and a pudding. You can also use halved fresh plums, apricots, or peaches. If you're using fresh peaches, just drop them into boiling water for 30 seconds or so to slip the skins off. And make sure you use freestone peaches or you'll drive yourself insane. If all you have is canned or jarred fruit, use it! The important thing here is to make and eat some cake! I seldom use vegetable shortening in my kitchen, but I do for this cake, because I want the flavours of the fruit and the butter-sugar topping to come through, and the sponge to be snowy white. It's only 1/4 cup for the entire recipe, so unless you're really watching what you eat, it's a very small amount. By all means use butter if you're dead set against the stuff.
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