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Cherry-Nut Topsy-Turvy Cake
Part 1--Heat 1/3 cup butter or margarine in frying pan, sprinkle with 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup chopped pecans, 2 cups canned and drained cherries. Part 2--Cream 2/3 cup shortening with 1 1/2 cups sugar, add 2 eggs unbeaten, beat mixture well. Combine 2 1/2 cups sifted flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt, add with 2/3 cup milk to the creamed mixture. Pour the batter over the Part 1 mixture in a frying pan, bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) 3/4 of an hour. Turn out onto large plate, and while cooling, make the sauce to serve with it.
An upside-down cake built and baked in a single skillet, from the era when "frying pan" meant a heavy cast-iron one that went straight into the oven. Two details decide whether it works: the pan must be ovenproof and deep enough, and the cake must be turned out while still hot.
- The panThis needs a heavy ovenproof skillet, cast iron for preference, with no plastic or wooden handle. The recipe gives no size; a 10-inch pan with straight sides about two inches deep will take this quantity of batter and fruit, and a 12-inch will give a shallower, faster-baking cake.
- Turn it out hotThe instruction to turn out and then cool is the hinge. Let the cake sit more than five to ten minutes and the butter-sugar layer sets into a glue that keeps the cherries and pecans welded to the pan. Loosen the edge, invert onto the plate while the caramel is still fluid, and scrape any stragglers back into place.
- Drain the cherries thoroughlyTwo cups of canned cherries carry a great deal of syrup, and any that stays behind will dilute the caramel into a soupy layer. Drain in a sieve for several minutes and blot on paper towels. The recipe does not specify a type; canned sour (red pie) cherries balance the sugar better than sweet dark ones.
- Oven and timing350F is stated outright, which is helpful. Three-quarters of an hour means 45 minutes; start checking at 40, and look for a skewer coming out clean from the cake layer, not the fruit.
- Shortening and creamingTwo-thirds cup shortening means solid vegetable shortening or lard, not oil. Butter works and tastes better, though the crumb will be slightly less tender. The eggs go in unbeaten and the mixture is then beaten well, which is standard practice for a creamed butter cake of this type.
- Adding flour and milkThe recipe simply says to add the combined dry ingredients with the 2/3 cup milk; many bakers would add them alternately and mix only until combined. This is a fairly stiff batter; spread it over the fruit with a spatula rather than expecting it to pour level.
- YieldA 10-inch cake, eight to ten servings. Best served warm the day it is made, as the caramel layer stiffens on standing.
- The sauceNo sauce recipe accompanies the cake. A soft custard, sweetened whipped cream, or the reserved cherry syrup thickened with a little cornstarch all suit it.
Upside-down cakes of this kind were a common feature of American home cooking from the 1920s onward, when canned fruit was cheap and reliable and a heavy iron skillet that could go from stovetop to oven was common kitchen equipment. The pineapple version is the one that became famous, but cherry, peach and apricot also appeared in community and manufacturer cookbooks, sometimes under names such as "topsy-turvy," "skillet cake," or simply "upside-down." The method is often linked to earlier skillet-baked fruit cakes and cobblers cooked over coals, in which butter and sugar laid down first produced a caramel glaze, though that line of descent is not documented. The proportions here -- 1/3 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar and a single layer of drained fruit -- are in line with other published recipes of the period.