This week saw my first foray into retail:
Panzer’s Delicatessen re-opened its doors last Thursday morning, newly renovated for the first time since 1944, and it is beautiful. As loyal customer for almost my entire life, it’s been an honour and a pleasure to switch sides and consult with Panzer’s on their new coffee bar and deli. While fewer hours were dedicated to the blog, many days were spent menu planning and sourcing the best artisan bakers London (and beyond) has to offer for my favourite specialist destination delicatessen. Finally, there is great coffee and sourdough available in the neighbourhood, as well as all the old gourmet staples for the loyal Panzer’s customers (like me) on a daily basis. What a thrill it was to serve rather than to buy on those first few days of trading in the new space.
The first BF products for sale (at the Panzer’s coffee bar):
Nestled amongst some of London’s baking great’s, daily specials and seasonal treats, you will find my seed clusters and some BRAND NEW double chocolate cinnamon cookies. so if you are in the neighbourhood, get them while you can. It is a dream come true to share a counter with some of my baking heroes including The Dusty Knuckle, Pump Street Bakery, Bread Ahead,The Good Egg, Karma Bread, and Babelle Caneles, and many more to come over the coming months.
Upside Down Plum (or Pear) and Ginger Cake
Warmly spiced and comforting, this is not a traditionally dark molasses-y cake, it is a light moist golden syrupy buttery nostalgic cake, delicious topped (or bottomed) with just about any autumnal fruit of choice. And it is simple as pie to make as you can just whip it up in a bowl with a spoon. No mixer required. Win win.
It works just as well with plums, apples or pears. Plums are in the ingredients list, but the note at the bottom will give you the quantities of apples or pears if you prefer.
Upside Down Plum (or Pear) and Ginger Cake
- 125g (4oz.) unsalted butter
- 350g (1 cup) golden syrup
- 175g (1 cup) soft brown sugar
- 180ml (3/4 cup) whole milk
- 250g (1 2/3 cups) plain flour
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 6 good size ripe plums, sliced in to 12 pieces
- (if you only have small plums available, use 8-10 and slice them into 8 pieces each. You don’t want the slices to be too thin)
Preheat the oven to 180C (350F)
Butter and line a 22cm (9 inch) springform pan with baking parchment
In a medium sized heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, golden syrup, sugar and milk and stir until it is all melted together and the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes
In a separate bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients and set aside.
While the butter/sugar mixture is cooling, slice the plums and arrange on the bottom of your baking tin. Feel free to be creative here and lay them out in any pattern of your choice, or simply scatter them in one layer.
When the warm butter mixture has cooled slightly, add the egg and vanilla extract and stir. Then carefully mix in the flour mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula until it is fully combined and no lumps remain.
Pour the batter over the fruit and bang the pan once on the worktop to level everything out before putting it in the oven.
Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and the cake has started to pull away from the edge of the tin.
Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then cool completely before turning upside down onto a serving plate.
Note: If you want to use apples or pears for this cake, I prefer Williams pears or a tart apple varietiy. Depending on their size, you should need 4, peeled, and sliced about 1cm thick (not too thin, not too thick if you really want to be technical…). This also works well with fresh cranberries (approximately 150g), although you might want to toss them with a little extra brown sugar and some orange zest before pouring them into the bottom of the pan.
Have you made this dish?
Let me know what you think, share your efforts and any tweaks you made to the recipe on Instagram, don’t forget to tag #BuildingFeasts or email me on info@buildingfeasts.com
