• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Cardamom and Tea
  • Blog
  • Recipes
  • Cookbook
  • About
  • Subscribe

upside-down plum cake + A Dish for All Seasons (my book!)

plum upside down cake, shot from overhead

May 29, 2022 by Kathryn Pauline 6 Comments

Exciting news! My cookbook, A Dish for All Seasons is available for preorder wherever books are sold! 🎉 I am so excited to share it with you. Preorders are a huge help to new authors, so if you reserve a copy, please do message me so that I can thank you. 😊

This book flips the script on seasonal cooking. It’s made up of adaptable base recipes, like frittatas, grain bowls, and (you guessed it!) upside-down cakes. You can adapt each base recipe to feature whatever produce you’ve got. And each one comes with four beautiful seasonal variations.

So go to the market without a plan and just see what inspires you. Or choose a recipe and rest assured that you’ll actually be able to find the ingredients. (I mean, ever gone to the store hoping to find persimmons in spring or good tomatoes in late fall? Just me?).

plum upside down cake, shot from the side
A Dish for All Seasons, opened to the upside down cake section, with cake off to the side

For instance, here are the four seasonal upside-down cake recipes (pictured above):

  • chocolate apricot raspberry cake (summer)
  • fig semolina honey cake (fall)
  • pineapple gingerbread cake (winter)
  • strawberry rhubarb chocolate cake (spring)

Or if you don’t feel like following a recipe, you could come up with something else entirely. Like this cinnamon plum cake! Or a cherry chocolate cake *or* semolina peach cake *or* vanilla blueberry cake, or really whatever’s on your mind! Just use the seasonal produce charts and base recipe, and you’re all set.

plum upside down cake, shot from overhead, just the plums in the bottom of the pan before batter is poured on
plum upside down cake batter being smoothed out

Since I make so many things over and over again while recipe testing, I never like making the same thing more than once when I’m just cooking for fun. So instead of making one of the seasonal variations from the book, I thought I’d have fun using the base recipe to make something totally new.

I love the combination of cinnamon and plums, which work beautifully in this upside-down plum cake. I tweaked the cake batter a little to incorporate olive oil instead of butter, and brown sugar instead of granulated. Plums are on their way out of season here in Australia, but you should start seeing them in supermarkets in the northern hemisphere in the next couple weeks. Eek! Very exciting.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this one, or reserve a copy of A Dish for All Seasons and make your own upside-down cake, or your own whatever! And if you do, let me know what you come up with!

plum upside down cake, baked
plum upside down cake, flipped over and the pan being removed to reveal the cake underneath
Print

upside-down plum cake

plum upside down cake, shot from overhead
Print Recipe

adapted from A Dish for All Seasons

  • Author: Kathryn Pauline

Ingredients

For the fruit:

  • 3 Tbsp [40 g] extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 cup [100 g] dark brown sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 3 cups [300 g] 1/2-inch thick plum slices

For the batter:

  • 1 1/2 cups [195 g] all purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3 Tbsp [40 g] extra virgin olive oil
  • 3/4 cup [150 g] dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup [60 g] milk
  • 1/4 cup [60 g] plain, unstrained yogurt*

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F [180°C]. Butter a 9 in [23 cm] round cake pan. Cover the bottom with a parchment round.
  2. Prep the fruit: Combine the olive oil, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl. Stir together until completely combined. Pour into the prepared cake pan. Use an offset spatula to spread everything out evenly until the bottom is covered. Arrange the plums in a single layer over the buttery brown sugar. Set aside.
  3. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
  4. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and olive oil together until very well incorporated. Then add the brown sugar, milk, and yogurt, and beat to combine well.
  5. Pour the wet mixture over the dry mixture and stir together just until everything is combined. It won’t be completely smooth, and there might be some tiny lumps; this is completely fine. Don’t overmix!
  6. Carefully pour the batter over the plums, smooth out the top a little bit with a spatula, and bake for about 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  7. Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes in the cake pan. Then trace around the edge with a butter knife to make sure it’s loosened from the pan. Invert onto a serving plate, let cool for at least 30 minutes more, and serve.

Notes

* In A Dish for All Seasons, I use buttermilk, which you can use here in place of the yogurt and milk (just use 1/2 cup [120 g] buttermilk in place of both).

find us on instagram and let us know what you made!

Filed Under: every recipe, recipe writing, sweets, weeknight Tagged With: buttermilk, cakes, cinnamon, fall, summer, yogurt

Previous Post: « red velvet brownies
Next Post: warak enab (Lebanese grape leaves) »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kathi

    August 31, 2022 at 3:53 am

    I didn’t try out this cake, BUT i wanna say thank you for your recipes! I got a lot of compliments for my cooking because you sharing this great ideas. I definitely will order your cookbook, since it’s available in germany 🥳. Can’t wait to try out more 🤗

    Reply
    • Kathryn Pauline

      September 12, 2022 at 9:42 am

      Aw thank you so much for your support!! Hope you get a chance to build your *own* upside-down cake once you receive the book. It’s so fun getting creative with it!

      Reply
  2. Nadine

    June 10, 2022 at 10:23 am

    This was great! The color was beautiful and taste great and I loved the use of olive oil instead of butter (especially just coming from Lebanon).

    Reply
    • Kathryn Pauline

      June 23, 2022 at 10:55 am

      Yay I’m so glad you enjoyed it!! It’s been so fun coming up with further variations to the recipes from my book and posting them here. I’m so curious if anyone will try out a cross-over recipe, using this batter + the upside-down base recipe from the book! I’ve been getting more into olive oil baking lately too, so it was really fun coming up with this one.

      Reply
  3. Akiko Kurachi

    May 31, 2022 at 2:23 pm

    Hi Katherine, So excited about your cookbook, I pre-ordered it a couple weeks ago. I have enjoyed reading, cooking and getting inspired by your blog. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Kathryn Pauline

      June 1, 2022 at 12:42 pm

      Aw thank you so much!! That seriously means the world to me!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

Primary Sidebar

photo of Kathryn Pauline holding A Dish for All Seasons cookbook

Welcome! I’m Kathryn Pauline, recipe developer and photographer here at Cardamom and Tea, where I hope you’ll find something delicious to make.

I love creating recipes inspired by seasonal produce, community, and the Middle Eastern food I grew up with.

Browse my recipe archives, where you’ll find hundreds of delicious and reliable favorites.

My first cookbook, A Dish for All Seasons is now available wherever books are sold!

cookbook a dish for all seasons, on a blue gingham table cloth

Footer

read our privacy policy

© 2017 - 2022 Kathryn Pauline