Spring is the most beautiful season for making fruit cakes, so celebrate with this A Real Spring Treat: Upside-down Cake with Rhubarb and Strawberries. Spring will bring us the first strawberries and tender leaves of rhubarb. And a lot of other fruits... That’s why we suggest this sweet and refreshing treat for this time of year: an upside-down cake with rhubarb and strawberries.
Why This Cake?
Many of you (the older ones in the States) enjoy upside-down cake and have fond memories of eating it as children. It’s a sweet, syrupy, sour, or tangy cake made with brown sugar. We’re eager to discuss the origins of upside-down cake in greater detail because it has a fascinating American history. In the meantime, we wanted to create our own while utilizing a more contemporary approach, so we reduced the sugar and amplified the seasonal flavors of rhubarb and strawberry in this refreshing strawberry-rhubarb cake while also enhancing their natural, fresh flavors and health advantages.
This recipe might make you cry “Summer!” or “Spring!”; however, you can prepare it whenever you want. During the season when they grow and are picked, strawberries can be bought fresh or ordered in such a shape via Dinnerly, which has a variety of ingredients and supermarket products available in their separate Market website section. But don’t worry if you can’t find your fruits fresh: foods that are frozen maintain their flavors quite well and are just as healthy as fresh foods. Simply use frozen to make a wonderful substitution any time of year when you want some delicious strawberry-rhubarb sweetness.
History of Upside-down Cakes
Everyone who grew up between the 1950s and 1970s in North America is most likely to have grown up with the recipe for an upside-down cake. The 1920s appear to be when pineapple upside-down cake first gained popularity, according to early adverts in the USA. Think of avocado toast by today’s standards when you think of the time when pineapple was in vogue as an ingredient. Soon afterward, people were also using peaches and apricots to make upside-down cakes. We’re currently preparing it with our new fav fruit: fresh strawberries and rhubarb.
The fact that upside-down cakes are so easy to make is one of the reasons they have become a beloved all-American comfort dish. It’s a simple treat that even inexperienced home cooks can make. This recipe gives a traditional dessert a healthy makeover by adding anti-inflammatory ingredients while retaining the comforting elements.
Making this recipe was a lot of fun and really simple. It makes the ideal dessert, or if you add yogurt for extra protein, it also works as a breakfast or snack. For breakfast, you could try mixing your favorite low-sugar, high-protein yogurt (Siggi’s is what we prefer), and it was the ideal beginning of the day. The mix of nutrients and fiber in rhubarb and strawberries was ideal.
Key Ingredients for Fresh Upside-Down Strawberry-Rhubarb Cake
This cake has a lot of nutritious components even if it isn’t a “health food”, and we’re all about the anti-inflammatory ingredients. Such as...
Strawberries
Fresh strawberries are substituted for the usual maraschino cherries in this recipe, which frequently have extra sugars and artificial colors. Strawberries are a good source of potassium, manganese, folate, and vitamin C. A trace mineral called manganese aids in the formation of collagen. It deteriorates with age, but it’s essential to the wellness of our skin and joints. Moreover, strawberries are a wonderful source of polyphenols, which are antioxidants that support healthy blood sugar levels and heart health.
Rhubarb
Gardeners in the Northwest and Northeast of the US are more familiar with the rhubarb plant than those in the rest of the world. Rhubarb is recognized for its sour flavor and needs cold winters to grow. This plant provides tannins that promote digestive secretions and improve digestion. According to recent studies, rhubarb supports the liver, which aids in our body’s cleansing process. It’s a very unusual dish, but be careful not to eat the leaves—they contain poison!
Lemon Juice
Lemon juice is a valuable source of vitamin C, as are other citrus foods. Immune system health depends on vitamin C. Lemons also contain flavonoids, a kind of antioxidant that can lessen body inflammation. Regular consumption of citrus flavonoids has also been found to increase fat metabolism and glucose tolerance. We adore adding lemon zest and juice to our dishes to enhance flavor and nutrients.
The Recipe
This cake requires various components to be put together. A stand mixer, an 8-inch (20 cm) round cake pan, a pot, and a few mixing bowls are required.
Cut the rhubarb stalks, which should be about 200 grams, into pieces about 2-3 cm long. Leave the strawberries whole, which should also be 200 grams.
Prepare a cake mold with a diameter of 23 to 25 cm. Cover its bottom with baking paper. If you use a mold with movable edges, line it with aluminum foil on the outside so that the caramel doesn’t leak into the oven during baking. Turn on the oven to heat it to 180 ºC.
In a pan with a thicker bottom, melt 100 g of sugar with lemon juice, the amount of one tablespoon, to get a light caramel. During melting, don’t stir the sugar too much, and melt it at a moderate temperature. Pour the caramel into the prepared mold and spread it out on the bottom as much as possible. Spread the fruit over the caramel.
Pour 120 grains of softened butter into a bowl. Add the remaining 100 g of sugar, one spoonful of vanilla flavoring, and a pinch of salt, then beat everything for 2-3 minutes with a mixer at the highest speed to create a creamy mass. Add two eggs, one at a time, mixing constantly.
In this mass, sift 180 grams of flour mixed with one teaspoon of baking powder and add one deciliter of milk. Mix at the lowest speed until the mixture comes together.
Spread the dough over the fruit with a spoon. It will seem to you that there’s a little dough in relation to the size of the mold, but it’s quite enough to keep the cake juicy. Flatten the surface of the dough.
Bake the cake in a preheated oven for about 50 minutes. If you notice that the surface is too dark, cover the cake with aluminum foil. Take the cake out of the oven and leave it in the mold for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a serving plate. Carefully remove the baking paper.
This upside-down cake is best when it’s warm, but it’s also delicious and completely chilled. Serve lightly whipped sweet cream (or yogurt as we suggested) with a piece of cake.
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