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Over the weekend my family enjoyed the spoils of my dad’s recent fishing victory. He caught some delicious tuna and we had a giant party to celebrate. We ate melt-in-your-mouth tuna sashimi, homemade spicy tuna rolls, seared ahi with sesame seeds, and tasty poke. It was a feast, to say the least. My dad took care of most the cooking, or lack thereof, so I offered to bring dessert. But what to bring? I wanted it to be fairly light, but somehow stay within the Japanese theme of sushi. Then it hit me, plum upside down cake.

Had I had more time I would have soaked the plums in sake beforehand to fit our cuisine even more so, but regular old plums worked just fine.

After chopping up the plums and laying down the brown sugar and butter mixture, I arranged the plums in a cake pan in a spiral formation. It’s going to look absolutely beautiful baked on top of the cake.

And the final product. The plums soak up the sweet and rich flavor of browned butter and brown sugar while baking, and the cake is a simple yellow cake with hints of cinnamon.

Plum Upside Down Cake

2lbs plums
12 tbs butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350.

Slice plums and set aside. In a frying pan, melt 4 tbs of butter and continue to brown. Once browned, add the brown sugar and mix until the butter and sugar are incorporated. Pour your mixture in a 9 inch cake pan and spread using a spatula. Place your sliced plums in the cake pan in a spiral pattern. You should be able to get about three of four rows of sliced plums. Set cake pan aside.

Using an electric mixture, cream the remaining butter with sugar until you achieve a fluffy mixture with pale yellow coloring. Add eggs one by one and then the vanilla extract. In another bowl, whisk your dry ingredients together. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the milk to the butter mixture.

Spread the cake batter on top of the plums in the cake pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. To remove your cake from the pan, take a butter knife and run it along the edges of the cake pan to ensure your cake is not sticking. Grab a serving plate and, while the pan is still hot, quickly flip the pan over on top of the serving plate. Remove the cake pan and voila! You have yourself an upside down cake. Serve warm with ice cream or enjoy plain.