Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

  • Level: Easy
  • Yield: 10 to 12 servings
  • Total: 3 hr 25 min (includes cooling time)
  • Active: 20 min
The secret to getting the fruit sweet and caramelized in this glistening jewel-like cake is letting it bake and bubble in the cake pan before adding the batter. Since you use only one bowl, cleanup is a breeze.
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Ingredients

Cranberries:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the pan

20 ounces frozen cranberries

2/3 cup sugar

Zest and juice of 1 orange

Cake:

2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cups heavy cream

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

3 cups all-purpose flour (see Cook's note)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon honey

Whipped cream, for serving

Directions

  1. For the cranberries: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place a cooling rack in a rimmed baking sheet. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch round cake pan with butter. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment and butter the parchment.
  2. Mix the cranberries, butter, sugar, orange zest and juice in the prepared cake pan until well coated. (The butter will start to clump up from the cold fruit, and that is okay.) Bake until the cranberries are very soft and caramelized, 40 to 45 minutes.
  3. For the cake: Meanwhile, beat the butter, sugar, cream, eggs, vanilla and almond extract in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until well combined. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until combined.
  4. Reduce the oven to 350 degrees F. Pour the cake batter on top of the cranberries and smooth out the top with a rubber spatula (the juice from the cranberries will float on top of the cake a little). Tap the pan on the counter three times to evenly distribute the batter. Bake until the cake is golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 65 to 70 minutes.
  5. Cool the cake on the prepared rack for 10 minutes. Invert the cake onto the rack and remove the parchment. Put any cranberries that fall off or that stick to the pan on top of the cake. Let cool completely on the rack, about 1 hour. Brush the top with the honey and dollop whipped cream in the center of the cake before serving. 

Cook’s Note

When measuring flour, we spoon it into a dry measuring cup and level off the excess. (Scooping directly from the bag compacts the flour, resulting in dry baked goods.)

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Anonymous

The cake was too much, too thick...I should have used ONLY 2 cups of flour instead of 3!  all the wonderful tasting cranberry topping was overpowered by he thickness of the cake, even though I used TWICE THE CRANBERRIEScalled for.  I should have know better since similar ‘upside-down’ recipes called for from 1 3/4 cups flour to 2 cups flour.  No one liked the cake!  Since cranberries are now out of season, I am reconstituting dried berries and will try to cook down 2 lbs dried berries in orange juice to (hopefully) come up with a ‘second’ topping’.  The original cranberry topping was wonderful. . .just TOO MUCH CAKE.  I should have followed my instincts.<div>[I altered the rest of the receipe using 1tsp salt, 1 Tbl vanilla, 1 cube butter for topping...AND STILL THAT MUCH CAKE PROBABLY COULD HAVE USED 4 BAGS FRESH CRANBERRIES. . .somuch work for such DISAPPOINTING RESULTS.  </div>

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