Nectarine Upside-Down Gingerbread

I’ve had a copy of David Lebovitz’s Ready for Dessert on my cookbook shelf for well over a decade, probably longer, and you can tell it’s much-loved because of all the flour, cocoa powder, and melted butter streaked across its pages. The fresh ginger cake is so iconic that I’m convinced one of the hottest restaurants in NY uses David’s recipe for its own.

So imagine my delight when a package arrived the other day with a brand-new, completely refurbished version of David’s book.

Seeing this new version of the book is like having a beloved sculpture suddenly come alive before your eyes. The new pictures are so vivid and colorful; and as enticing as everything looked before, the new versions are positively drool-worthy. As I made my way through its pages, I was immediately struck by the recipe for Nectarine Upside-Down Gingerbread — mostly because I had several nectarines from the farmer’s market sitting on my counter.

Here at the end of September, summer fruit is ready to go bye-bye and the apples and pears are like: “Umm, hello?” But my CSA box is still bringing the stone fruit and these nectarines were still in top form. To make the cake, you melt brown sugar and butter in a cast-iron skillet. (Hot tip: I sprayed the skillet with Pam before I melted the butter just to make sure it wouldn’t stick.)

Then you artfully arrange your nectarines in a circle. Confession: this recipe is actually for a nectarine-raspberry upside-down cake but I didn’t have raspberries on hand and it worked totally great with just the nectarines.

The batter here is quite intriguing in that it’s not a plain old ordinary cake batter; it’s gingerbread. Not David’s fresh ginger bread (which would probably overwhelm the nectarines with its potency and heat) but a simple one with ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and molasses.

The batter gets poured over the fruit….

And into a 350 oven it goes for 50 to 55 minutes.

The best part about an upside-down cake is that it brings the drama. Once it comes out of the oven, you wait fifteen minutes, run a knife around the perimeter, grab your oven mitts, and pray to the baking gods that the cake will come out unscathed.

Huzzah!

As you can see, I un-molded it right on to my cake stand (Jadeite from Food52) and then when it cooled it was like having a work of art right there in my kitchen.

To serve, I hand-whipped some cream with a little sugar and dolloped it on top. (You could put some rum in there too, if you want a naughtier version.)

Talk about the perfect transitional cake from hot weather to cold weather; this has you reminiscing about summer on the beach while dreaming of sipping hot cocoa in front of the fireplace. And if this looks good to you, wait ‘til you see the other recipes in David’s updated book. I can’t wait to cover it with more baking stains.

Nectarine Upside-Down Gingerbread

From David Lebovitz’s Ready for Dessert

Makes one 9-inch cake, 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients:

Topping:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted or salted butter

• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

• 1 1/4 cups raspberries (optional; I left these out and it worked fine!)

• 4 medium nectarines ( 1 1/2 poudns), halved, pitted, and cut into 1/2-inch slices

Gingerbread:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 2 teaspoons ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup mild-flavored molasses

• 2 large eggs, at room temperature

• 1/4 cup whole milk, at room temperature

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. To make the topping, put the 4 tablespoons of butter in a 9 inch round cake pan or cast-iron skillet (I sprayed mine first with a little Pam, especially on the sides). Set the pan directly on the stovetop over low heat until the butter melts. Add the brown sugar and stir until the sugar is thoroughly moistened. Remove from the heat and let cool briefly.

3. Distribute the raspberries (if using them) over the brown sugar mixture. Arrange the nectarine slices over the raspberries or directly on to the sugar in overlapping concentric circles. Set aside.

4. To make the gingerbread, in a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.

5. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the 8 tablespoons butter and the granulated sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy., 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in the molasses. (The batter may look curdled, which is fine.) Add the eggs one at a time, beating until completely incorporated. Gradually mix in half of the flour mixture. Stir in the milk, followed by the rest of the flour mixture, and mix until ljust combined.

6. Scrape the batter on top of the fruit in the pan and smooth it into an even layer. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. (Start checking around 40… mine cooked faster!) Let cool for about 15 minutes.

7. Run a knife around the sides of the cake to help loosen it from the pan. Invert a serving plate over the pan. Wearing oven mitts, grasp both the pan and the plate and turn them over together. Carefully lift off the pan. Cool completely and serve with homemade whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.