Cranberry Upside-Down Coffee Cake (Light)

Submitted by Redsie

"Looks yummy! From Cooking Light."

 

• Ready In: 55mins
• Ingredients: 20
• Yields: 1 cake
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• Cake

• cooking spray
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1⁄2 cup coarsely chopped pitted dates
• 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
• 1 teaspoon grated orange rind
• 1⁄2 cup butter, softened and divided
• 1⁄2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 large egg
• 1⁄2 cup fat-free buttermilk

• Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To prepare cake, coat a 9-inch square baking pan with cooking spray; dust with 1 tablespoon flour. Combine cranberries, dates, walnuts, and rind in a bowl. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar, 2 tablespoons juice, and cinnamon; cook 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour brown sugar mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle cranberry mixture evenly over brown sugar mixture.
3. Lightly spoon 1 1/2 cups flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Place granulated sugar and remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add vanilla and egg; beat well. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to granulated sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Spoon batter over cranberry mixture.
4. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes on a wire rack; run a knife around outside edges. Invert cake onto a plate; cool.
5. To prepare glaze, combine powdered sugar and remaining ingredients in a small bowl, stirring until smooth. Drizzle over cake. Cut cake into squares.

Reviews

[ShaGun]

I really enjoyed this cake. It is beautiful and delicious! My children did find the fresh cranberries to be rather tart, but that's not surprising. I used a cooking spray that contains flour in lieu of oiling & flouring the pan. The cake came out fairly nicely, though some of the topping did stick. This is probably something I'll start making every November when I have fresh cranberries to use.

 

[Maito]

Great flavors. But I did have the same problem with the topping. I am pretty sure it is because the flour from greasing the pan absorbed all the melted brown sugar mixture. I have made other upside down cakes without a problem (greased only, no flour). I did not make the glaze, since it was very sweet with the scraped up topping scooped on top. Otherwise, this was quite good (and would be excellent if you didn't flour the pan).

 

[LARavenscroft]

Made for Newest Zaar Tag. This was pretty good. I did have trouble with the topping - most of it stayed in the pan, but that may have been because I tried to convert this recipe to gluten free and my flour may not have been compatible with this recipe and it had to bake quite a bit longer than the actual time stated on the recipe. I will try this again with a different flour mix. Thanks for posting this Redsie!