cranberry upside-down cake

It’s funny what kids pick up. While watching TV last week a commercial for Ocean Spray cranberries came on. The ad depicts cranberry farmers waist-deep in a pool of floating cranberries and Owen was mesmerized. He then turned to me and said, “Cranberries, I love cranberries! They are so delicious! Can I have one?” Now, he eats raisins so I decided to oblige him by offering him some dried cranberries. But I couldn’t pull the wool over his eyes and he immediately noticed that they weren’t the same asking for the big round ones. So I went to the basement freezer and grabbed a bag of frozen cranberries. For a short moment I considered offering him a defrosted cranberry on its own for the sheer entertainment of that ‘tart face’ us parents love so much. But it dawned on me that I’d been wanting to make this Cranberry Upside-Down Cake from Everyday Food Great Food Fast for ages so now was the perfect opportunity.

After using copious amounts of sugar for the topping alone along with the defrosted cranberries it was time to make the cake. Owen helped me add and the mix ingredients into the batter which felt like a perfect old-timey cake with a beautiful silky batter. Once complete the outward appearance of the finished cake didn’t come close to being as beautiful as the photo which appears in the cookbook. Our cranberries were the deepest shade of crimson, almost brown.

But slicing into the cake showed a beautiful and rich texture. The cake part was very mellow offsetting the intense jammy sweetness of the cranberries. And looks didn’t seem to bother Owen who ate 2 slices and proclaimed, this time with actual experience and conviction, “I LOVE cranberries! Thanks for making this cake mommy.”