Its a Topsy Turvy World!!!

Some of you would have watched this sci-fi series on Netflix called ‘Stranger Things’. For those of you who haven’t, its a thriller series that talks about another parallel universe that exists in the upside down and that isn’t normal. While watching that series, a thought struck me that there is an upside down world in baking as well and that is absolutely normal, delicious and desirable! Yes I am talking about the Tarte Tatins and upside down cakes of the sweet world! Some baker out there thought out of the box and created this absolute delicacy called the upside down cake! After all what philosopher Edward De Bono said is so true, “ Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way”.

An upside down cake can be defined as a cake baked in a cake tin with its topping, usually a fruit, at the bottom of the pan. After it is baked, the cake is inverted so that the fruit side comes up. The cake is usually a yellow cake that takes on the flavours of the fruit juices that are released while it bakes. The most popular one in this category is the pineapple upside down cake. The other fruits that could be used are apple, pear and peaches. Every mango season, I bake the mango upside down cake and it is absolutely delicious! I prefer using firm mangoes, preferably alphonso. But don’t restrict yourself, use any seasonal variety of mango available and the cake turns out  just as fabulous! Mango being a tropical fruit, coconut pairs very well with it and hence my  version of the upside down cake replaces a part of the flour with dessicated coconut. Here is a recipe to this finger licking delicacy.

Ingredients

For the cake :

1. Caster Sugar – 85 g
2. Eggs – 1
3. Plain curd – 62.5 g
4. Sunflower oil – 62.5 g
5. Grated Lemon zest – 1 tsp
6. Vanilla essence – 1/2 tsp
7. Flour – 100 g
8. Baking Powder – 1tsp
9. Dessicated Coconut – 15 g
10. Mango – 1 large
11. Icing sugar for the glaze

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 ° C. Grease a 7 inch round cake tin and line it with baking paper. Peel and cut the mango into thin slices and arrange the slices on the bottom of the greased cake tin in a decorative manner.
2. Sift together flour and baking powder. Mix in the desiccated coconut.
3. Lightly beat together eggs, oil, sugar and the curd. Stir in the grated lemon zest and vanilla essence.
4. Fold in the flour mixture into the above mixture gently without over mixing.
5. Deposit this batter onto the mangoes in the cake tin.
6. Bake at 180 ºC for 45-50 minutes or till done. Un-mould the cake with the mango side up, while it is still warm.
7. Just before serving, dust the mangoes on the cake with icing sugar and warm the cake in an oven preheated to 200 degrees very close to the top grill for about 5 minutes till the icing sugar melts over the mangoes and glazes it golden. Serve a warm slice of the cake with a dollop of  vanilla or tender coconut ice-cream by the side.

Not only does this cake look gorgeous, but it tastes great as well! So get going and bake this cake  before the mango season gets over!