Lynn’s Cooking Blog

Apart from one having sponge, and the other having pastry, is there any real difference between an upside down cake, and a tart tatin? You smear the bottom of a pan (either a frying one or a 23cm baking one) with butter, you add sugar and fruit, you put the ‘bottom’ on top, you stick it into an oven and then, once it’s finished cooking, you have to invert the whole lot onto a serving plate. And the only reason I’ve notice the difference was that I’d watch American cook Ina Garten make a plum tatin with a sponge base and I though, ‘mmm, wish I had some plums to have a go at that’. Then remembering that I had apples and cherries in the freezer and wouldn’t they do just as well? So I made it and when I brought it out, Andy said ‘Oh, you haven’t made upside down cake for ages, yum’.  I suppose that calling it a tatin sounds a little posher – and I need all the help I can get!!!!!

Apple and Cherry Upside-Down Tatin

1. 100g frozen apples
2. 100g frozen cherries
3. 220g caster sugar
4. 220g butter or margarine
5. 220g self-raising flour
6. 2 tsp baking powder
7. 4 large eggs
8. 1 tsp vanilla extract
9. a large knob of butter and 0.25 cup of sugar

A 23cm (9 inches) pie tin – I used a glass Pyrex flan dish.

• First of all, smear the knob of butter all over and around the base of the dish that you are going to bake the tatin in. Sprinkle with the 0.25 cup of sugar. Spread the frozen apples over the base and scatter the cherries into the gaps between the apples until you can’t get any more on, but try to keep the fruit in a single layer.
• Make the sponge by first of all creaming together the butter and the sugar. Once the colour has paled, add the eggs one at a time and beat well into the mixture. Then all the flour, baking powder and vanilla extract and make sure that it’s all incorporated.
• Spread the sponge mixture over the frozen fruits and put into a pre-heated oven at 180C for 25 to 30 minutes.

It should be a golden brown colour, and well risen. Insert a skewer into the centre and if there’s no sponge mix clinging to it, then the sponge is cooked. If it doesn’t come out clean, return it to the oven for another couple of minutes and try with the skewer again. Leave it to rest for 5 minutes and then comes the fun part. Place a large serving plate over the tatin  (make sure that it’s bigger than the baking pan) and then, holding the pan and the plate together, flip everything over. Yes, just like making a sandcastle at the beach.

You can sprinkle a little icing sugar over it for appearances sake, but it really doesn’t need it – remember that the sugar that you sprinkled over the bottom has caramelised into a sweet, sticky glaze.

A spot of pouring cream might just make this into heaven on earth.