I was tying to think of some deep and meaningful to say in this post but when I got down to the crux of it I realised I only made this cake because I am somewhat obsessed and had nothing else to do on this Saturday morning. The other girls on the flat had their significant others to distract them but not me, I had cake.
This is pretty much the story of my life. The unconditional love my Kitchenaid gives me however is all I need in this world and its gleaming complexion is a dream to wake up to. So until I can wake up to find a man in the kitchen making me a cake in the morning, Nigella (yes I named my cake mixer) will be my one true love.
Conveniently my excellent friend Liz is having afternoon tea at hers today so this cake could serve a purpose after all. It also saves the ladies of 5c from yet another cake. To be fair though, the last two cakes were not of my doing!
Luckily we don’t have a feijoa tree at our flat so we are not yet sick of the abundance of feijoas lurking around the place. So whenever I get given them I search for recipes like this one here in Ripe Recipes by Angela Redfern to use them in because as we all know, one does not simply get given just a couple of feijoas . . .
For those of you fortunate enough to be inundated with masses of fruit, give this delish wee cake a hoon. Also remember that you can scoop out the flesh and freeze it in snap lock bags so you can make the most of the end of season fruit later in the year.
I think it would have been nice to have had a few chunks of feijoa throughout the cake as well so I recommend chopping a couple of them up and stirring them in at the end. This will also help the cake remain nice and moist. If serving this up as a pudding I definitely think you couldn’t go wrong with a good dollop of whipped cream either.
Feijoa Upside-down Cake
Adapted from Ripe Recipes by Angela Redfern
Makes 24cm cake
Topping:
8 large feijoas, peeled and sliced lengthways
½ cup brown sugar
50g butter
half a lemon’s worth of juice
Cake:
60g butter, softened
½ cup castor sugar
1 egg
½ cup golden syrup
2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 ½ cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup milk
(a couple more feijoas, roughly mashed, to mix through the batter – optional)
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees on bake and line and grease a 24cm cake tin.
Topping:
Toss the feijoa slices in the lemon juice to prevent the fruit from browning. In a small saucepan, melt together the butter and sugar then pour over the lined base of the cake tin. Arrange the feijoa slices over the top.
Cake:
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat un the egg and mix until voluminous. Beat in the golden syrup and lemon juice.
In a separate bowl, sieve together the flour and spices. Warm the milk and dissolve the baking soda into it.
Alternate adding in the flour and the milk mixture to the creamed butter and sugar making sure you start and end with flour. Mix until combined.
Pour this batter over the feijoas in the tin and bake for 25-30 minutes. Place tin foil over the top of the cake to prevent over-browning then return to the oven for around another 10 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool for half an hour before flipping out onto a plate to serve. Make sure you run a knife around the edges of the cake tin before you try flipping.
Serve with whipped cream.
Enjoy!