Fluffy vanilla bourbon cake topped with upside-down caramelized brown sugar and jammy plums is a nearly effortless yet elegant summer dessert idea!
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 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 and Summer Stone Fruit Salad.
What does it taste like?
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.
Texture wise, it is like a cross between light and fluffy vanilla bourbon cake and bread pudding!
What You'll Need for this Recipe
All of the ingredients for this fluffy vanilla bourbon cake are common. Here are a few of the items to add to your grocery list.
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 color plums, 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 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!
Tips & Tools
Grab a cutting board and sharp knife to slice up the plums into thin slices that them stay in place under the cake batter. You'll also need a mixing bowl and one round cake pan.
Can I use any other fruit in this recipe? Absolutely. Just about any kind of stone fruit works. Sliced fruit, crushed fruit, and even berries work.
Try my Key Lime Pineapple Upside Down Cake with crushed pineapple!
More Favorite Boozy Dessert Recipes
Cake Donuts made with Strawberries & Champagne
Pear Sorbet made with Riesling
Strawberry Sorbet made with Red Wine
Sweet Potato Pie made with Bourbon
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 away.
I hope you'll make this plum and bourbon upside down cake before stone fruit season ends. Let me know how you enjoy it in the comments below. And sharing is caring so be sure to pin this unique upside down cake idea on Pinterest. Thanks for reading!
Bourbon Upside Down Cake with Plums Recipe
Bourbon Plum Upside Down Cake
Equipment
- 1 knife
- 1 mixing bowl
- 1 9-inch round cake pan
Ingredients
Upside Down Topping
- ¼ cup butter
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 fresh plums thinly sliced
Cake Layer
- 1 cup flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- ⅔ cup sugar
- ⅓ cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons bourbon
Instructions
- 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 a couple of minutes.
- Meanwhile, thinly slice plums and set aside. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and sea salt in a large bowl.
- In another bowl, mix together butter, sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and bourbon until uniform. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir well so that no dry pockets remain.
- 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.
- Carefully pour cake batter into pan with topping. Place in 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 and refrigerate any leftovers.
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!