Recipe: Zucchini Plum Upside Down Cake

Yesterday felt like a pretty slag day and I'm not sure what exactly lit my fire to make this cake, but I'm so happy I did. I went through a series of vintage cookbooks (Pioneer Potpourri, some random BC Council of Women cookbook from the 60s, and my newer version of the better homes and garden's cookbook Bridal Edition)...but NONE of them had an upside down cake recipe! I was so upset! Then I remembered I had Amy Sedaris' book, I LIKE YOU, that finethankyou gave me a few years ago for my bday or something. And she had a pineapple upside down cake recipe. So, I used hers as the basis and made this cake. My other inspiration was this chunk of white zucchini in the fridge for quite a while and it needed to be cooked into something. Anyway, this cake was a complete success! It's so delicious, not too sweet (tho a little salty, yum!), and was big enough that I froze half of it in the freezer for a later date and can cut the half I have into 8 pieces...though that's not what I did and there's only a little left. HA! (The other benefit is that I did this in stages between bouts of hands-on parenting...so if you're busy and can't do all the steps at the same time, don't preheat the oven until step 3 or 4).

Upside Down Zucchini Plum Cake
adapted from I Like You by Amy Sedaris

Preheat oven to 400degrees.

Step 1: Place a 9x13 cake pan on low burner. Melt 1/4 c butter in pan. Once melted add 1 c brown sugar and stir. Once dissolved remove from heat and add 4 tbsp lemon juice and mix well. Place 40 or so plum halves to cover the bottom of the pan, cut side down.

Step 2: Melt 1/2 c butter in a small sauce pan. Once melted remove and stir in 2 eggs, 1 cup milk (I used rice milk), and 2 heaping tbsp of honey. Beat well.

Step 3: Combine 1 1/2 c grate zucchini with 2 c all-purpose flour, 1 cup brown flour, 4 tsp baking powder, and 2 tsp salt in big bowl. Stir in butter-egg mixture and mix well.

Step 4: Pour cake mixture carefully and gently over the plums trying not to disturb their placement. Try to make the cake as even as possible.

Bake for 40 minutes. Wait 10-20 minutes after you pull it out of the oven and invert on a cookie sheet or fancy dish. xo