I used to make an upside down cake all the time. I found the recipe in Southern Living magazine and after I made it once I knew it was a keeper.
The original recipe called for apricots, and I’m sure that would be tasty, but I never have apricots on hand. I used to make it a lot with peaches and that was especially good. Once my blueberry bushes started producing I’d make it with them too.
I like the recipe because it yummy, but also because it makes one layer or pan of cake which is easier to eat up.
For some unknown reason I went from making the cake all the time to not making it at all for at least the last ten years.
Over the weekend I was flipping through my dessert cookbook and happened to see the recipe. I thought “Where have you been old friend? I need to make you today.”
Summer Upside Down Cake
- 3/4 cup butter (1 and 1/2 sticks)
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- Enough of your favorite fruit to cover bottom of 9 inch cake pan (I use a cast iron pan)
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup sour cream
Melt 1/4 cup butter in pan and stir in brown sugar. Swirl pan around to make sure the mixture spreads around evenly.
Add fruit to bottom of pan.
Melt remaining butter and mix with sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat on high two minutes. Add flour, baking powder, and salt mixing until just combined. Add sour cream and mix till combined.
Pour batter over fruit, bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or till done. The original recipe calls for an hour, but in my oven it usually takes about 45 minutes. Cool for five minutes and then turn out on serving plate or cake stand.
It’s a fairly easy dessert to whip up and it looks pretty too 🙂
A couple of folks have asked how often I publish new videos on YouTube. I post new content on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights at 6:00 p.m. To make it easier for people who want to find the content, I’ll start sharing a direct link here on the Blind Pig and The Acorn if I’m not sharing the actual video.
To see the video from last night go here: Cooking Fresh Green Beans Like Granny – in Appalachia.
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Each time I re-visit the Upside Down Blueberry Cake article, it seems that more and more of the cake has been eaten. Are you sure that a Bueberry “cake monster” hasn’t been let loose on your site?! Joking, of course. That cake just looks too delicious to last long
Thanks for this recipe, Tipper. I love blueberries but usually just make blueberry pancakes or put them in cereal. This cake looks simple and delicious. I might have to cut back on some of the sugar, but I know it would still be good.
Have you changed the format? Seem to be bigger better pictures. Or maybe they’re better because I can see them better. What ever it is I like it!
I had a piece of that cake and it was EXCELLENT, but then everything you bake is wonderful…it’s amazing you all are not fat at little pigs with all the wonderful thing you and the Deer Hunter cook up!
I will sure try this. My husband sure love blueberries and my oldest daughter. It looks delicious.
This looks like it would be an easy recipe to convert to one serving size & I think it would work well substituting low carb, low sugar substitutes. With a type 1 diabetic in the house we often have to make these kinds of changes…..but for me! goodness I want it just like it is.
Tipper, I have a lot of blueberrys and your recipe sounds really good so I am going to try it.
I watched your video on preparing and cooking green beans. It brought back a lot of good memories, as I used to sit on my grandparents porch and break green beans. I don’t remember removing strings but maybe I did. My Mother always cooked the green beans with some type of pork and like you cooked them till they were soft. That makes them delicious for me. Nothing taste better than green beans, onions, and cornbread out of the oven.
Looks delicious! I will make this for sure! Thanks so much.
Glad to see I am not the only “all or nothing” kind of person! There are a lot of foods I use to make at least weekly that I haven’t in the last five years. You have inspired me to make them again. My current meal repertoire feels pretty much like I am in a rut that I need to break free from. Today is an off-from-work day, so far this morning I have been leafing through cookbooks trying to think of something exciting to liven up my life, at least the dining table at mealtimes. You can only eat out so much before even the restaurant food becomes boring. I like to make my meals and my table feel like I am eating out, so some days they are imitating a high end steak dinner (made on the cheap at home!), and other days nothing is better than grilled brats with homemade potato salad (and praying the Nationals or Atlanta game is not blacked out because they are playing my San Diego Padres and I want to watch it!). Some days when I have the time, I will make the entree and side dishes all from recipes, and other days I only make one thing in the meal from a recipe and the rest as easy standards (for example – I would pan fry a steak in lots of butter and add spices, bake a potato, have a salad, and make dessert from a recipe). I think ambiance really makes a meal feel more satisfying, too. When I sit in front of the tv or a book, and eat without really tasting, I feel like I never really had my meal. When I can slow down and set a nice table for myself, I do. Having some good music on, like The Blind Pig and The Acorn Family, really makes a meal more enjoyable, too! Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin are always good for an Italian meal. Your upside down blueberry cake sounds like the perfect dessert for any meal! Thank you for sharing the recipe!!
Donna : )
Wish I could give you our blueberries. I picked somewhere around 3 quarts the other day and we two do not really have a good plan for them. Sharon made 9 jars of blueberry jelly with the juice from previous pickings. Lord knows how long they will last if we don’t just give them away. I guess I could just let the birds have all the berries but it just goes against my grain to do that.
My Grandma on my Mom’s side made a pineapple upside down cake that was really good. But we just don’t eat much sweets. Right now we have part of a cinnamon cake using your recipe. It is one of our few dessert favorites, partly because of not being very sweet.
Blueberries are just a great treat no matter how you fix them. I have not cooked with blueberries since a pie boiled over in the oven. and I had to take a scraper to remove it. This cake sounds so very good I just must try it, and just maybe I am a better more cautious cook than I was back in those days. We always are going to have a mishap now and then in cooking if we are not a drive through queen. I like your simple recipes that sound so tasty, as I am often intimidated by recipes that call for all kinds of exotic ingredients. I looked up a simple lemonade recipe, and it called for things I have never even had in my kitchen before. Your videos are such a hit, and we are so blessed to have them to see Appalachian living at its very best.
Tipper–Since I’ve got scads of blueberries, I’m going to give this a try. It looks quite simple and pretty much anything with blueberries tastes good.
Jim Casada
I read your blog for July last night and wanted to comment on the colonoscopy story. Maybe you’ll think my experience is also funny. My first one was done by a Dr. Hiener.
I think I got a peek of the cake last evening on Celebrating Appalachia, looks delicious. Blueberries are good and good for you, not many days go by without me eating blueberries. I so much enjoy Blinb Pig and the Acorn, along with Celebrating Appalachia and The Pressley Girls.
Papaw made a comment on Celebrating Appalachia a couple weeks ago,about he thought his internet had a hole in it.LOL Well I think I’ve developed a hole too,or my YouTube has went flat,losing comments and replies,oh well that’s part of technology.
Great summer cake idea and I’m certain mixers, oven heat, and the tink tink of a large spoon are about to occur in kitchens across your blog. The cake looks wonderful and refreshing! Thanks for the share!
We picked lots of wild berries in Wise Co. VA. …ALWAYS made cobblers with blackberries and huckleberries , fresh and canned . Both these berries grew in profusion on the strip jobs all around us. Daddy said after they took out the coal, all that those places were good for was to grow blackberries and copperheads.
We never saw blueberries in our mountains.
I have fresh peaches I just bought….been making cobblers….today I will make your cake with peaches.
Anything with blueberries is my favorite! I’ll have to try your recipe, which I’m sure will be very good, thank you for sharing!!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, Tipper! Sounds and looks delicious!! With dear friends coming for an extended visit this coming weekend, my plan was to surprise them with their favorite Pineapple Upside Down Cake. It’s been a sold out favorite of mine in several bake sales and makes a wonderful Christmas gift. But, it’s a rather “heavy”, albeit very moist cake as it calls for a box of instant vanilla pudding and a splash of bourbon (my secret ingredient). With it being so hot here in Florida, I think I will change the menu to include your Upside Down Blueberry Cake instead!! Seems like it would be a much lighter and refreshing cake – and who doesn’t love all things blueberry – LOL!! Thanks again – – LOVE your Blog and Videos!!