Upside down raspberry & pear cake

I don’t know what it is about upside down cakes but I am mad about them! The original upside down cake involved a pineapple, however, I have used all kinds of fruit and the results have been the same juicy, caramelized and sometimes stunning displays of fruit placed delicately on a light sponge (see plum upside down picture).

Give it a try and I guarantee the taste will put a smile on your face J

Preparation: 15 minutes

Cooking: 45 minutes to 1 hour

Oven temperature: 180C (160C fan oven)

Deep Pyrex dish: 28 cm

Ingredients

6 oz self raising flour

6 oz butter softened

6 oz sugar

3 eggs

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons golden syrup

1 teaspoon extra butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large pears peeled, cored and sliced

1 punnet raspberries

Method

• First prepare the dish – rub the base roughly with one teaspoon of butter and drizzle one table spoon of golden syrup on top. Sprinkle with brown sugar and then place the fruit in any design you fancy.
• Put the flour, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and 2 tablespoons of golden syrup into a mixing bowl and whisk/mix on a medium speed till all ingredients are well combined.
• Pour batter over the fruit mixture, level the top and put in the oven to bake, checking after 30 minutes.
• The cake is cooked once the middle springs back once lightly touched or cake tester comes out clean when the centre is pierced.
• Cool for about 5 minutes in the dish then turn upside down on a plate. As you can see from the pictures, the sugar and golden syrup give a nice glaze to the fruit.
• Enjoy warm with a large scoop of ice cream or cream or pour custard on a generous slice once cooled.