Fresh cranberry cake: Mastering the art of upside-down baking

Initially, we were unsure about baked goods with fresh cranberries. We considered them a beautiful, colourful addition. Cranberries in a cake? They're too sour—my friends were surprised not long ago. That was before they tried this dessert.

Kinga Paruzel, whom we know from the first edition of "MasterChef," has written several cookbooks and actively promotes her recipes on social media. She published this cranberry cake recipe on her blog in November 2012. So, I baked it for the first time over 10 years ago. And I must admit, it always turns out well.

"I decided to relax in the kitchen and made a delicious cake with fresh cranberries. It's perfectly sweet, the cranberries provide a great tangy taste, and their juices perfectly soak the cake, which is fluffy and buttery," Paruzel wrote on her blog.

Indeed, making this cake can be called relaxing. Additionally, the aroma that fills the room during baking lifts the mood. Although cranberries have a tangy taste that some people fear, they're delicious when combined with sugar and cinnamon, and the cake doesn't have a bitter note.

This cake is a version of upside-down baked goods. It all started with tarte Tatin, now a classic among French desserts. Its name comes from the Tatin sisters — Stéphanie and Caroline, who created this pastry. The tart originated accidentally at the end of the 19th century in Lamotte-Beuvron in France, where the sisters ran their hotel. Legend has it that one day, Stéphanie Tatin, making a traditional apple tart, took her eyes off the pan with apples and sugar. As a result, the apples started caramelizing. To save the dessert, she covered them with a layer of pastry and put the whole thing in the oven. Thus, the first tart was created, which needed to be flipped after baking.

The process for the cranberry cake is similar but without pre-frying. The cranberries are placed on the bottom of the pan, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, and then covered with a layer of buttery cake. The tangy fruits "bake" in the sugar and cinnamon. After flipping, their layer looks spectacular.

Ingredients:

• 8 tablespoons butter,
• 1 cup sugar,
• 1 egg,
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon,
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract,
• 1 ½ cups flour,
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder,
• ¼ teaspoon salt,
• ½ cup milk,
• 1 ½ cups fresh cranberries.

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Spread two tablespoons of butter on the bottom and sides of a 9-inch round baking pan, then evenly sprinkle half a cup of sugar mixed with half a teaspoon of cinnamon across the bottom.
3. Pour in the fresh cranberries, previously washed and dried.
4. Beat the remaining six tablespoons of butter with the remaining sugar until fluffy. At the end, add the egg and vanilla extract and mix well.
5. Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder in a separate bowl.
6. While continuously mixing the butter mixture, add in three parts alternately: the flour mixture and milk.
7. Pour the batter over the cranberries into the prepared pan. (You can protect the bottom of the pan with aluminum foil to prevent the melting butter and cranberry juice from spilling into the oven.)
8. Bake for approximately 40-50 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean).
9. When the cake is ready, remove it from the oven and let it cool on a rack for about 20 minutes. After this time, place a plate over the pan and flip it so that the cranberries are on top.