One of the many reasons I love the summertime is stone fruit. Peaches, plums, cherries, and the like--they can all get it! It's a personal mission of mine to find and eat the best plums every summer and this spiked plum upside down cake recipe transforms them into the best summertime dessert.
And if you enjoy this recipe, you'll love my pineapple rum upside down cake, spiced plum crumble, and summer stone fruit salad.
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❤️ Why You'll Love this Recipe
Easy and Elegant - This is a single layer cake with no frosting or fussing needed. But the result is stunning and lovely enough to impress guests at a summer gathering.
Sweet and Sophisticated Flavor - There are layers of flavor in this simple one-layer cake. Sweet and sour fruitiness from the plums mingles with buttery caramel notes. You'll also taste mellow vanilla, and subtle oak.
Not to toot my own horn but I'm kind of that girl when it comes to fruity summer cake recipes. Here are a few I highly recommend you check out next: honey peach pound cake, crushed pineapple upside down cake, strawberry swirl pound cake, and strawberry sheet cake with cream cheese frosting!
This cake was out of this world! The plums and bourbon make a really good duo and helped to keep the cake moist.
-reader review from Marcus
What You'll Need for this Recipe
Fresh Plums become soft and jammy in this unique upside-down cake idea. And the juices turn into a sweet kind of syrup. Use any kind of plums--including yellow, red or blood plums, damson, and black doris varieties--pluots, plumcots, or apriums.
Baking Powder helps the cake rise. If you don't have it on hand, combine baking soda with some kind of activating agent like vinegar.
Brown Sugar and Butter melt down into a caramelized and slightly crunchy brown sugar topping. Use light or dark brown sugar.
Vanilla Extract complements the vanilla flavor notes in bourbon and helps enhance all the other flavors here. I recommend using pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste over imitation vanilla or vanilla flavoring.
Bourbon adds nice counter to the sweetness in this cake. A note on baking with bourbon: be sure to choose a quality liquor that you would enjoy in a drink. As most of the alcohol will be baked out, you want good flavor to remain.
Check out the recipe card below for full ingredients list, measurements, nutrition facts, and step-by-step instructions!
Substitutions & Variations
No Bourbon - Want to skip the liquor? Just omit the bourbon. I recommend adding another teaspoon of vanilla extract, in this case.
Layer Cake - This recipe doubles easily to make a stackable version that I think is so much fun because you'll have caramelized plums on top AND in between the layers!
Spices - Add to the cinnamon in this recipe with other sweet warming spices like ginger, nutmeg or cardamom.
Other Fruits - Just about any kind of stone fruit works--like peach or cherry. Sliced fruit, crushed fruit, and even berries work, too.
How to Make a Moist Plum Upside Down Cake
- Step 1: Slice the plums no more than one half inch thick.
- Step 2: Melt butter in a round cake pan then mix in the brown sugar and arrange the plums in a circle over top.
Pro Tip #1
Make sure you press the plums through the brown sugar mixture and into the bottom of the pan so that they will show through once the cake is flipped.
- Step 3: Whisk together the dry cake ingredients.
- Step 4: Mix the wet ingredients then combine with the dry mixture to make the cake batter.
- Step 5: Pour the batter over top of the plums and brown sugar mixture then bake until golden brown.
Pro Tip #2
Use a toothpick to test the cake for doneness. When done, the toothpick should come out clean with no crumbs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. You can bake the cake up to three days in advance. Follow the storage instructions below.
Store this cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two days and in the refrigerator beyond that. It will keep for up to five days total.
To freeze this cake, wrap it snugly in plastic wrap then again in aluminum foil then place in the freezer. It will keep for up to one month.
How to Flip an Upside Down Cake
Not sure how to flip upside down cake out of the pan? Don't worry. I gotchu! Here are my tips that work every time.
- Use a non-stick pan. Upside down cake is very buttery so stickiness is rare unless it gets burnt but better safe than sorry, right?
- Let the upside down cake rest for about 10 minutes before flipping it over. Then run a butter knife around the edges of the upside down cake to release any sticky bits.
- Flip the upside down cake over by placing a plate on top then gently inverting the pan onto it. Let the pan sit on top of the cake for a couple of minutes so all the flavor of the topping seeps in.
- Tap the pan a couple of times then gently pull straight up and away.
More Favorite Boozy Dessert Recipes
Want more recipes like this one? Try these:
I hope you'll enjoy this simple plum upside down cake recipe soon and very soon. And sharing is caring so be sure to pin this unique summer dessert idea for later and follow me over on Pinterest. Thanks for reading!
📖 Recipe
Easy Plum Upside Down Cake
Equipment
- 1 knife
- 1 9-inch round cake pan or 9-inch cast iron skillet
- 1 whisk
- 1 silicone spatula or kitchen spook
Ingredients
For the Upside-Down Plum Topping
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 fresh plums thinly sliced
For the Vanilla Bourbon Cake
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 eggs
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup milk
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 2 tablespoons bourbon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
To Make the Upside-Down Plum Topping
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add butter from topping ingredients to a nonstick or prepared round cake pan and place in oven to melt for about two minutes minutes.¼ cup unsalted butter
- Meanwhile, thinly slice plums (no more than ½-inch thick) and set aside.2 fresh plums
- Carefully remove pan from oven and mix brown sugar in with melted butter to create the topping. Arrange plum slices in pan so that they slightly overlap and form a circle.½ cup brown sugar
To Make the Vanilla Bourbon Cake
- Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and sea salt in a mixing bowl.1 cup all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- In another bowl, mix together eggs, sugar, milk, melted butter, bourbon, and vanilla extract until uniform. Add this mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined and no dry pockets remain.2 eggs, ⅔ cup granulated sugar, ⅓ cup milk, 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, 2 tablespoons bourbon, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Carefully pour cake batter into pan with plum topping. Transfer pan to oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of cake comes out clean.
- Let cake sit for about 10 minutes then run a butter knife around the edges of the cake to release any sticky parts from the pan. Invert cake onto a plate by placing the plate on top of the pan and gently flipping.
- Serve warm. See notes for storage information.
Notes
- Use a non-stick pan. Upside down cake is very buttery so stickiness is rare unless it gets burnt but better safe than sorry, right?
- Let the upside down cake rest for about 10 minutes before flipping it over. Then run a butter knife around the edges of the upside down cake to release any sticky bits.
- Flip the upside down cake over by placing a plate on top then gently inverting the pan onto it. Let the pan sit on top of the cake for a couple of minutes so all the flavor of the topping seeps in.
- Tap the pan a couple of times then gently pull away.
Kaluhi says
The plum notes really stood out and went so so well with the flavor of the bourbon! Hands down the best dessert i'll have this summer
Immaculate says
The layers of flavours in this cake are amazing and the caramelised top was gorgeous. I enjoyed it with a glass of refreshing ice tea and it was the perfect summer combination.
Britney Brown-Chamberlain says
I love the plum and bourbon together, those flavors are so delicious! I will be making this again for sure.
Marcus Avery says
This cake was out of this world! The plums and bourbon make a really good duo and helped to keep the cake moist.
Robin says
Plums are one of my favorite fruits so I adored this update to the classic pineapple version.
Marta says
You combined my hubby's favorite fruit and spirit, so this was a must for our holiday weekend get together last week. The guests raved about how unique and delicious it was.
Meiko Temple says
I can't say that I've ever seem a plum upside down cake but I love the concept. Such a good idea!