plum & vanilla upside-down cake with vanilla mascarpone

Mike's mum Barbara recently gave me some Heilala Vanilla that came with a recipe handout. I've never made an upside down cake before, but this one look appealing and given that plums are in season and I had most of the ingredients in the cupboard, I decided to give it a go. I made two of these; the bigger one was shared when we had friends over for dinner and the slightly smaller version was for my friends Lewi & Kate who were in need a pick-me-up. It was simple to make, and the vanilla mascarpone was delicious on the side. The recipe suggests you can use any fresh fruit for this cake, so I must play around with other fruit too.

Plum & vanilla upside-down cake

20g butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

6-8 black or red plums

125g butter

1 cup caster sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1/4 cup milk

Vanilla mascarpone

250g mascarpone

1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or vanilla extract)

2 teaspoons icing sugar

preheat oven to 180C. Line a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper. Melt the first measure of butter and the brown sugar in a small pan. Pour it into the base of the cake tin and spread evenly. Cut the plums in half and remove the stones. Arrange the plum halves, cut side down on the butter and brown sugar mixture. Put the extra butter, caster sugar and vanilla in a bowl and using an electric beater, beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold the flour into the creamed mixture alternatively with the milk. Spoon the cake mixture evenly over the plums. Bake in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave the cake in the tine for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the mascarpone, vanilla paste and icing sugar. Turn the cake out onto a platter and serve with the vanilla mascarpone.