Vern's Orange Upside Down Cake
I just bought an electric pressure cooker. Played around with it and am beginning to like it a lot. This cake is my first in a pressure cooker. It was delicious with coffee. I also used Navel Orange, instead of just an orange, for a sweeter taste.
I just bought an electric pressure cooker. Played around with it and am beginning to like it a lot. This cake is my first in a pressure cooker. It was delicious with coffee. I also used Navel Orange, instead of just an orange, for a sweeter taste.
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup applesauce
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup raisins
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butte
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
- 1 large orange sliced into thin rings
- 1 cup carrots shredded
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
- Carbohydrate 111.692446666667 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 32.2547691666667 g
- Fiber 6.39816681581239 g
- Protein 4.03316916666667 g
- Saturated Fat 2.6963825 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (274g)
- Sodium 317.637916666667 mg
- Sugar 105.294279850854 g
- Trans Fat 1.70917133333333 g
- Calories 710 calories
Step-by-step
- Place the butter into the pressure cooker.
- Set pressure cooker to RICE and let butter melt with the lid off.
- Add the brown sugar and syrup to the pressure cooker; stir until smooth.
- Turn off the pressure cooker then top the sugar mixture with layers of orange rings.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and allspice; mix well.
- In a separate bowl, combine oil, carrots, applesauce and vanilla; mix well.
- Add the carrot mixture to the flour mixture and mix using a spatula; add remaining ingredients and mix well.
- Apply non-stick spray to the pressure cooker.
- Pour the batter evenly into the pressure cooker over the orange slices; secure lid.
- Set pressure cooker to RICE and timer to 28 minutes. The oringinal called for 30 minutes, i think that was too much.
- When cooking is complete, remove the lid and let the cake rest for 20 minutes inside the pressure cooker.
- Invert the cake onto a cake stand and serve.
Opting for a sweet navel orange instead of a standard tart variety transforms the fruit base of this upside down cake, yielding a deeply caramelized layer when cooked. Utilizing a countertop pressure cooker for baking changes traditional pastry methods entirely. Enclosed cookers trap steam, which prevents the exterior of a batter from browning through dry heat conduction. Instead, cakes cooked under pressure rely on moist heat, resulting in a dense, tender crumb reminiscent of steamed puddings rather than a dry oven-baked sponge.
Achieving structural integrity requires careful adherence to the resting phase. Letting the cake sit undisturbed inside the unheated cooker for twenty minutes allows the starches to set and the fruit juices to reabsorb into the crumb. Releasing this anchor too quickly causes the delicate orange slices to stick to the bottom insert, ruining the inversion. Coat the interior sides thoroughly with non-stick spray before pouring the batter to assist the eventual release.
Upside-down cakes trace their culinary lineage back to medieval skillet desserts, where whole fruits were arranged at the bottom of heavy cast-iron pans with sweeteners before being covered in batter and baked over open hearths. Translating this concept to a sealed electric basin requires building the sugar and butter caramel directly on the bottom heating element before layering the sliced fruit.
