Cornmeal upside down cakes
My friends, who grew up with Southern-style, white, sugarless cornbread, like to make fun of Midwest cornbread. "Why don't you just have cake?" they ask deridingly. And it's true, with just a little more sugar than most people put in cornbread up here, you can make a really good cornmeal cake. This particular cake is a great way to use up any softer, end of season apples that are hanging out in your fruit drawer or fresh rhubarb which will be with us in just a few months.
This cake calls for baking powder for leavening. If you have done any baking in recent years, you know that many brands of baking powder now have a metallic taste. This is because aluminum sulphate is more shelf stable than calcium phosphate. However, if you are making milder flavored breads like pancakes, biscuits, or corn bread, the metallic taste from the aluminum can be overpowering. Since this is not a highly spiced cake, you'll want to use aluminum-free baking powder. Rumsford is a very reliable aluminum-free brand. Alternatively, you can make your own baking powder by combining 1/ 4 c cream of tartar, 2 T baking soda, and 1 T cornstarch and sifting or sieving the mixture three times to remove any lumps. You can use a mesh strainer if you don't have a sifter.
The balsamic vinegar helps to give the cake balance and keep it from being too sweet.
Apple Cornmeal Upside Down Cakes
- 2 T butter
- 3 medium apples, peeled and chopped into fine dice or equivalent amount of rhubarb similarly chopped
- 1/4 c brown sugar
- 1 T balsamic vinegar
- 3/4 c all-purpose white flour
- 1/2 c stone ground organic corn meal
- 1/3 c granulated sugar
- 2 t Rumsford or homemade baking powder
- 1/4 salt
- 4 T butter or solid vegetable shortening
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 cup milk
Butter or oil pan 2, 6-cup muffin pans lightly. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Heat 2 T of butter in a heavy, non-reactive skillet. When foaming slows, add apples and sugar. Saute apples for five minutes or rhubarb until it just softens. Stir in vinegar. If you are using rhubarb, check for tartness. Add sugar 1 T at a time if necessary until mixture is sweet-tart. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Meanwhile, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Cut in butter or shortening until mixture resembles coarse meal with occasional pea-sized lumps of butter. In a separate bowl, beat egg. Combine with milk.
Divide fruit mixture between muffin cups.
Add wet ingredients to dry. Stir until just combined. Top fruit mixture with batter. Ideally, use a spoon or spatula to leave the batter in the middle of the pan or cup slightly lower than the edge. Bake muffins for 15 to 20 minutes. Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center, comes out clean.
Remove cakes from the oven. While still warm, use knife to loosen the edges. Unmold onto plate or cool baking sheet. Serve warm alone or with a dollop of whipped cream, strained yogurt, or crème fraiche.
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The Alan Partridge lookalike on the right in the first small photo has nothing to condescend to anyone about. AH HA!
Snell and the little Hitlers of the neighborhood association need to chill out. Legitimate businesses should have the freedom to exist without having to endure the slings and arrows of ignorant and misguided opposition.
represent, Matt.
Yeah, I’d agree that Transporter Room 3 is the worst house venue I’ve ever seen.
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Not so much far-right Tea Party as a balanced, moderate viewpoint between letting businesses succeed and protecting society with reasonable regulations. In spite of what the city reps are saying, the interpretation of policy on this issue certainly has changed. Letting a business start up under one…
I think it’s neat that SP has turned rightward, now espousing a Tea Party-style frustration with government regulations & taxes.
This makes me so sad. (Happy to live in Urbana, though!) Crave Truck has been a GREAT addition to the food choices in C-U, and it’d be a travesty to chase them away. This town should be supporting small businesses. I’m glad to hear that they’ll still…
*slow. clap.* Still offering no threat of intelligence…. I know I said I thought you should just write this whole column yourself next year, Isaac, but now that you’ve gone and taken a “part deux” run at it, I’d like to modify my request: Best Music 2013,…
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What? Echo! (Echo!) Where’s the dischord and dissent?
This weekend will mark the first appearance of Kayla Brown’s Fire Doll Candle booth at the Market. Check it: http://www.facebook.com/firedollcandles
And without bloodshed. Sounds like the Savoy trustees aren’t as narrow-minded as some of their whiny pants constituents. Do you think quack Snell is already planning an asinine counterattack or is he still laying low after those “threats” against his person?
hey, if hair ain’t gon’ be over your head, my jokes may as well be.
Okay, almost 24 hours later and I finally got Issac’s Summer joke. I’m an idiot.
Excellent. I am glad sometimes American dreams are encouraged, rather than stifled.
Swap the dog for a fire pit and it sounds like you’re writing about my back yard. Very nice.
funny, as your summer begins, another Summer ends.
@Dan - Wow. Unfortunately, I have to refrain from further comment due to a previous employment relationship. But with that brief context you might be able to imagine possible comments or responses I could have.
Oh, by the way, the “Champaign County YMCA” no longer exists. The official name is now the “Stephens Family YMCA” (the website has not been updated, but check out the latest program guide). And no, it’s not just the name of the building. It’s the name of the organization.
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Food trucks are the start-up, small businesses of the future for those unable to afford real estate. No surprise, that merchants who pay rent, utilities, and maintenance on a property would despise the traveling competition. Or developers who build more empty retail spaces would want to close…