Upside-down plum cake

At least once every plum season, an upside-down fruit cake is a must! This upside-down plum cake, delicately scented with orange zest, is a delicious bake that certainly won’t be making its last appearance on our table. Moist, soft and wonderfully rich, it pairs beautifully with sweet plums and captures the unforgettable flavours of a Polish summer.

Ingredients for upside-down plum cake:

• 800 g plums (such as damsons or Italian prune plums)
• 65 g butter
• ⅔ cup caster sugar
• ½ packet vanillin sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup kefir or cultured buttermilk
• finely grated zest of 1 orange
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Additional:

• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon melted butter

All ingredients should be at room temperature. Sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and set aside.

Place the butter, caster sugar and vanilla sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and orange zest and mix until fully combined. Add the kefir in three additions, alternating with the dry ingredients, folding gently with a spatula until just combined. Do not overmix.

Line the base of a 23 cm round cake tin with baking paper. Pour the additional melted butter into the base of the tin and spread evenly. Sprinkle over the additional tablespoon of sugar. Halve and stone the plums. Arrange them over the base of the tin, cut side facing upwards, slightly overlapping. Spoon the cake batter over the plums and level the surface.

Bake at 170°C for approximately 50–60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool briefly. While still slightly warm, invert the cake onto a serving plate and carefully peel away the baking paper from the plum layer.

Slice and serve, ideally with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Note: If using a springform tin, some plum juices may leak during baking. To prevent this, wrap the outside of the tin base securely with aluminium foil before baking.

Enjoy!