Cherry and brown butter upside down cake
If you haven't tried cherries with brown butter, here is your moment
Kent cherries just aren’t going to get any better than they are this month, shimmering from their displays at our local green grocers, plump to bursting with their sweet flesh and inky purple juice. We are privileged here in the sense that our green grocers work with local orchards to keep the town’s residents and visitors fully stocked with the stone fruit while the season is here, and Kent really does live up to its ‘garden of England’ rep during this special time.
We’ll stock up on a weekly, sometimes twice-weekly basis, and I love to finish a long lunch or supper with nothing more than a big bowl of beautifully ripe cherries sitting on some ice, perhaps served with little frozen shot glasses filled with good limoncello, something I picked up in Puglia a few years back. But as much as I love them on their own, eaten like sweets until my lips (and inevitably, thanks to the roaming hands of my toddler, clothes) are stained and splattered, I also find cherries a particularly wonderful fruit to bake with, and I wanted to share this old favourite of mine from the archives: a delectable and truly elegant cherry and brown butter upside down cake for you guys here.
For anyone who’s made this recipe before, here’s a reminder to make it again while cherries are at their best, and for anyone new who hasn’t seen this recipe before, let me gently nudge you to make it for your next summer bake, because I’ll bet it is not like most cherry cakes you made or tasted. I’m all about upside down cakes as a vehicle for summer stone fruit - I particularly love how these fruits infuse sponges with their flavours and juices as they bake, and there’s another, brand new fruity upside down cake (with bells on) coming for you before the summer is out, so watch this space.
Brown butter is an ingredient I turn to in both my savoury and sweet recipes, thanks to the added depth, nuttiness and butteriness it brings to anything you use it in - and the fact that it’s such an easy flavour elevator - you just take your regular butter, and brown it up, and hey presto - taste sensation! Here, we’re talking about a very tender, light, almost madeleine-esque sponge that’s extra buttery and nutty, thanks to the browned butter, vanilla and almonds we use, and studded with gorgeously squishy, burstingly juicy baked cherries, whose fragrance, sweetness and acidity play so perfectly with the cake. It’s a bake I return to year after year, and I hope you will too. Please drop me a comment to let me know your thoughts on upside down cakes as well, do you love them like I do?
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Cherry and brown butter upside down cake
In this recipe, cherries bleed their juices into a light, buttery almond cake - not dissimilar to a madeleine sponge in terms of lightness. Butter is browned until nutty and caramelised, and a shot of brandy further enhances the flavours. It’s quite a delicate sponge, thanks to the amount of fruit and butter I use, so be sure to let it cool and settle before you attempt to cut it. This is an ideal make ahead dessert if you’re having people round, and also works brilliantly for picnics or summer teatime treat.