Cherry Upside Down Cake

I had a desire to bake and wanted to use fruit. I had cherries around the house. I settled, eventually, on cherry upside down cake, because that was the right amount of cherries I had left. I am used to pineapple upside down cakes, with canned pineapple and maraschino cherries. And that is tasty! But this tastes like fresh fruit and is exceptionally delicious.

Cherries, amaretto, very simple cake. You could replace the cherries with any fruit. And the amaretto is totally optional, I am just a huge fan of amaretto mixed with stone fruit.

A word of warning about this cake: it is a very thick batter and needs to be spread out over the fruit. It also comes out a little dry, adding whipped cream was delightful.

Upside Down Cherry Cake

yields one nine inch cake

Topping (or the bottom?)

1 cup of fruit

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup amaretto (optional)

Cake

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon amaretto or vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9 inch round cake pan.

Melt the butter and brown sugar together. I melted them in the microwave, you can use a stove if you are averse to microwaves. Mix in the amaretto. Stir in the fruit, and pour into prepared cake pan.

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in amaretto/vanilla, then eggs. Add in dry ingredients.

Pour over fruit and glaze mixture.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. The brown sugar mixture will caramelize and bubble up the sides. Let cool in pan. Loosen the sides with a knife and invert onto a plate, bringing the caramelized glaze and cherries on the top.