Greengage upside-down cake

Certainly someone could have come up with a better name than “greengage”!? Finicky to grow, the greengage fruit is of the plum family and rarely found in the US (select farmer’s markets have them in the summer) and available in some UK supermarkets for a few weeks as well. Originating in France, the greengage is a pale greenish and slightly tart plum. I first happened upon them last week when I opened my front door to a surprise package. A friend had left a whole bag from his parent’s back garden at my doorstep. Apparently the greengage is typically used to make jam and not much more, and as my friend mentioned - no one is his family has successfully baked anything wonderful with the greengage. My mission, if I chose to accept, was to make something "wonderful".

Firstly, I tasted them on their own to see what I was up against. Quite nice I must admit – tarter than the average plum – and a nice little summer shnack. I first looked around for greengage recipes online - um yeah, didn’t find too many of those. Alternatively, I decided to doctor-up a plum recipe, keep my fingers crossed, and hope for the best.

On epicurious.com I found a recipe for a plum upside-down cake. Whilst I used this recipe as a baseline there are a few alterations below which I’ve bolded.

Greengage upside down cake
2/3 cup brown sugar
140 grams (about 10 Tbsp) butter
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup or Honey
1 dozen greengages, halved, pitted, each half cut into 4 wedges
1/4 cup blueberries (coolin’ out in my fridge so figured, why not)?
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F).

- Stir 4 tablespoons butter, brown sugar and maple syrup in pan over low heat everything is melted and a smooth sauce forms.

- Transfer to 9-inch-diameter cake pan with 2-inch-high sides and arrange plums in overlapping circles atop sauce. (I started out making some fancy design and then realised is was going to be a disaster…stick with the circles)

- Mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt

- Beat the rest of the butter in large bowl until light. Add sugar and beat until creamy. Add eggs and beat until fluffy. Add vanilla extract.

- Combine sour cream and buttermilk.

- Add dry ingredients alternating with wet ingredients to butter/sugar/egg mixture, until combined. Spoon batter evenly over plums.

- Bake cake until golden and tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool in pan 30 minutes (don’t be tempted to skip this step – have patience)!

- Using knife, cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Place platter atop cake pan. Invert cake; Voila!

Note: The epicurious recipe calls for serving it with whipped cream. I didn't think this was necessary, if you make it don't add much sugar as the cake is particularly sweet.