Upside Down Maple Syrup Cake for Maine Maple Sunday

Our first daffodil bloomed today - about two weeks earlier than usual but I can't say I wasn't thrilled to see it!

Not a very thick cake but still a very good cake - chewy, syrupy goodness abounds!

This year the maple syrup tapping started early and I wasn't aware I should have my buckets out until a couple of weeks ago - as soon as I realized I was missing the sap boat I put my little buckets out and garnered myself about 2 pints of the Maine liquid gold!!

This coming Sunday is Maine Maple Sunday when many of the sugar houses are open to the public and you can buy all manner of delightful Maple Syrup products as well as seeing how the syrup is produced in the 'sugaring down' process.

In honour of this day and in order to make something somewhat British with my stash of Maine gold I decided to make a Maine Maple Upside Down Cake I have been eyeballing for a while from a very old issue of British Country Living. The recipe turned out to be a little odd once I started using it in that it didn't give me an oven temperature and the cake part was kinda flimsy and I think in retrospect should have been twice the amount they stated - but with recipes you live and learn - so many recipes don't come out right the first time and you have to tweak them so bear that in mind the next time a recipe doesn't work well - it may not be you but the recipe itself!!

Always read the recipe through first to make sure you know in what order to do things!!

MAINE MAPLE SYRUP UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

Topping: MAKE THIS FIRST!

2oz/60g butter

2oz/60g sugar

6 fluid ounces/18cl of maple syrup

2oz/60g of walnuts, or pecans if you prefer, broken into good sized pieces.

Pinch of salt if you like that tangy flavour

1. Melt all above ingredients together on low heat in a pan until it foams as below - not a very good photograph but the steam kept fogging up my lens.

2. Pour this sugary goodness into a glass dish about 21/2" deep and 7" across - I bet you could do it in an 8" round also - then crumble the 2 oz of walnut over as below - allow to cool.

Now make the cake part: Pre-heat oven to 350F

CAKE INGREDIENTS: This is the amount I used in accordance with the magazine recipe but if you want more 'cake' then do double this part of the recipe.

1oz/30g butter

3 rounded tablespoons of sugar

1 large egg beaten

5oz/125g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 fluid oz/10cl whole milk

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add beaten egg in 3 goes and beat well in between - if it curdles a little that's OK - it will come together again with the addition of the flour.

3. Sift dry ingredients together - add a third of the flour to the butter mix - then half of the milk then another third of the flour then the other half of the milk and finally the last of the flour and stir well between each of these additions until you get a smooth batter like this -

4. Now gently dot the batter over the maple and nut mix being careful not to push it down into the maple mix thus:

5. Gently smooth over with a wet palette knife or back of a spoon thus:

6. Now pop into your pre-heated oven and bake for about 35 minutes (the recipe said 25-30) but mine took a good 35 - start checking at 25 for doneness - recipe is done when the top is pretty evenly browned:

7. Remove from oven and allow to sit for a couple of minutes before turning upside down on to a plate and there you have a sticky, glistening maple delight.

Happy Maine Maple Sunday and let me know how your cake came out - Patricia :)))