Hi friends! Y’all know my kitchen is far from perfect and I love trying new recipes and learning new techniques, right? So, I feel safe sharing with you that I’ve never made an upside down cake. This is because most of my family are not pineapple fans. (Freaks! I love Pineapple! Mushrooms too, but that’s another story.) Pineapple seems to be the most popular kind of upside down cake, so it wasn’t something I thought to try. All that changed however when I got some gorgeous Blood Oranges from Melissa’s Produce. I knew I wanted to do something with them and a quick Google search revealed a recipe for individual Blood Orange Upside Down Cakes. Score! Time to try something new!
These cakes are full of orange flavor. They have blood orange zest, a slice of blood orange on top and a sweet and sticky blood orange syrup for garnish! I am on orange overload here!
To start, I zested two large oranges. This came out to almost two tablespoons worth of zest. When you make these, your amount may be different depending on the size of your oranges. That’s Ok! Just throw it all in the batter. It’s there for extra orange flavor.
After your oranges are zested, cut them in half and juice them. Save it all! You will need it for the syrup.
The batter goes together very easily and since it’s an upside down cake, you’re going to need to slice up two more oranges. That’s where the upside down part comes in! The orange slices (along with a teaspoon of brown sugar) line the bottom of each cavity of a 12 cup muffin tin.
After the sugar and orange slice, the batter gets scooped on top. Slide it into the oven to bake for 25-30 minutes. While the cakes are baking, make the blood orange syrup!
When the cakes are done, remove them from the oven. Wait just two or three minutes, then flip the cakes over on a cooling rack.
Here is where my imperfect kitchen kicks in! See how the cakes are puffed out over the edges of the muffin cups? Well, I flipped them over without cutting off their muffin tops. Do not do this! You want the cakes to have nice flat bottoms so they will sit nicely on a plate. I admit it! I was anxious to see if the orange slices looked cool and if the cake set up properly. They turned out great, except the bottoms. They are more like weeble-wobble Blood Orange Upside Down Cakes. Look at the extra edges of cake at the bottom. Not so pretty! They still tasted delicious, but they won’t win any beauty contests.
Once the cakes are flipped and released from the pan, pour a tablespoon of blood orange syrup over each one. Let the syrup soak in, then pour another tablespoon of syrup over them. YUM!
Recipe adapted from Drizzle and Dip
Ok, I have to admit, I was really excited (even with the weeble-wobble bottoms) at how these came out! The blood oranges are so pretty and these would make a gorgeous dessert for a baby shower or tea party! I get the whole “upside down” thing now! It’s a lot easier than I thought it would be. So, don’t be afraid to try new things, friends. Next time I’m going to try a whole cake. I’m even going to do a traditional pineapple and pray someone will help me eat it.
Until next time! Live life deliciously! And remember to cut the bottoms… tops (?) off your Blood Orange Upside Down Cakes!
If you do a pineapple upside down cake, I will definitely help you eat it! I have an obsession with blood oranges, so I’ll help you eat those too. ;-)
Those are absolutely stunning, weeble-wobble bottoms and all! I love blood oranges and can’t wait to try this.