Maple-Blueberry Upside-down Cake

This week’s recipe borrows from two chief inspirations: the form of a classic pineapple upside-down cake, and the flavor of a blueberry pancake. This recipe combines a simple stovetop blueberry topping sweetened with brown sugar and maple syrup with a super easy buttermilk-based cake. Just scrape the berries into the pan, add the batter on top, and you’re done! The result is a cake that looks like it took a lot more effort than it really did and tastes even better than it looks. Top it with more maple syrup, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or nothing at all.

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History

Upside-down cake is a dessert without a clear origin. What I mean by that is not so much that its origin is mysterious, but rather that the idea of baking fruit with some sort of sweet pastry on top is very old. What exactly qualifies as the first version of an upside-down cake? Frankly, I don’t know. What I do know, however, is where the pineapple variation comes from and some of the historical desserts that may have inspired it. The original recipe for pineapple upside-down cake was published in 1924 under the name “pineapple cake glacé.” It was featured in a cookbook titled “Ninety-nine tempting pineapple treats,” published by the Dole company as an effort to bring their canned pineapple into more American kitchens.

This cake was likely inspired by other recipes published around the same time, such as one from the prior year that featured prunes rather than pineapple. Upside-down cakes aren’t the only “upside-down” desserts though. My personal favorite is the Tarte Tatin. Created in late 19th-century France, the Tarte Tatin consists of apple halves cooked in caramel, topped with a pastry crust, and baked. The whole thing is then inverted onto a serving platter.

The Recipe: Maple-Blueberry Upside-down Cake

Ingredients:

For the topping:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

50g (¼ cup) brown sugar

70g (¼ cup) maple syrup

A pinch of salt

2 cups blueberries, frozen or fresh

The juice of one lemon

For the cake:

150g (1 ¼ cups) all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon Morton kosher salt or 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal

6 tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, softened

50g (¼ cup) granulated sugar

50g (¼ cup) brown sugar

70g (¼ cup) maple syrup

1 large egg + 1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

113g (½ cup) buttermilk

To make the cake:

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch cake pan and line with a circle of parchment paper.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter until it starts to sizzle. Add the maple syrup, brown sugar, and salt and cook, stirring occasionally with a heatproof spatula, until the sugar has melted and the mixture has thickened a bit. A spatula dragged through it should leave a slight trail for a second or two before closing. This should take about 5 minutes. When the mixture is cooked, add the blueberries and lemon juice and stir to combine. Immediately scrape the blueberry mixture into the prepared pan and spread into an even layer. Set aside while you make the cake.

For the cake:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl with a hand mixer) cream the butter, both sugars, and the maple syrup on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the whole egg, mix until combined, then mix in the yolk and the vanilla. Turn the mixer down to low, add half of the dry ingredients, mix for a few seconds, then add the buttermilk, mixing for a few seconds longer, and finish with the remainder of the dry ingredients. Give the batter one last fold with a spatula to make sure everything is homogenous, then scrape it into the prepared pan, on top of the blueberries. Use a spoon or an offset spatula to very gently spread the batter into an even layer.

Bake the cake just until it springs back when poked with a finger and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, 25-35 minutes. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about an hour before inverting onto a serving plate (you may want to do this over your sink, it might be juicy!). Slice and serve.

Resources:

Parks, Stella, Santos Penny de los, and J. Kenji López-Alt. Bravetart: Iconic American Desserts. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2017.

Beranbaum, Rose Levy, Maria Guarnaschelli, and Vincent Lee. The Cake Bible. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1988.

Mainguy, Julien. “Tarte Tatin: The Story behind the Iconic Pie and the Recipe: Best of France.” RSS. Best of France, September 27, 2022. https://www.bestoffrance.ca/post/tarte-tatin-the-story-behind-the-iconic-pie-and-the-recipe.