Pick a fruit to go with upside-down cake
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By Elaine Magee
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Q. I've been seeing recipes for upside-down cake all summer on various Web sites and wanted to know if you've lightened one up.
A. Here's a recipe for a lightened upside-down cake that features any fruit you desire. I figure some of you have some fresh fruit you are dying to use right about now. I baked up a peach pecan upside-down cake using the recipe below because I had a bag of rapidly ripening peaches sitting on my kitchen counter. Got plums or apricots? They work well too, along with the traditional pineapple rings. Or even bananas, available year-round.
Instead of 12 tablespoons of butter, I used 3 tablespoons of less-fat margarine for the syrup that is poured into the bottom of the pan and 4 tablespoons of less-fat margarine for the cake batter. The brown sugar was also cut in half in the syrup and the white sugar for the cake batter was cut by a third. Whole-wheat flour replaced half of the white flour, and egg substitute was used for one of the eggs.
Original recipe contains 435 calories, 19 grams fat, 9 grams saturated fat, and 79 milligrams cholesterol per serving. This recipe has twice the fiber and a third fewer calories, half the fat and saturated fat.
ANY FRUIT UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE
For the syrup:
For the cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-inch cake pan with 2-inch high sides, with canola cooking spray.
Add syrup ingredients to small nonstick saucepan (3 tablespoons less-fat margarine, 3 tablespoons brown sugar and 6 tablespoons reduced-calorie pancake syrup) and cook over medium heat until mixture begins to bubble (about 2 minutes). Pour the syrup into the prepared cake pan. Sprinkle nuts over the top. Decoratively lay sliced fruit over the nuts or place fruit cut side down (if using fruit halves).
In large mixing bowl, beat together 1/4 cup less-fat margarine, 2 tablespoons fat-free sour cream until creamy. Add egg and egg substitute and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts.
In medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add dry ingredients and fat-free half-and-half to mixing bowl and beat just until blended. Spoon batter evenly over the fruit and nut mixture. Bake until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean (about 40 minutes). Transfer cake to rack and cool in pan. Using a knife, cut around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake. Invert cake onto a serving plate and let stand like this for about 5 minutes. Lift off pan to reveal the upside-down cake. Top each serving with a dollop of light vanilla ice cream or light whipping cream if desired.
Makes 10 servings.
Elaine Magee is a registered dietitian. Her latest book is "Food Synergy." Learn more at www.recipedoctor.com.
