Fruitcake Upside Down Cake
Christmas Cookie Extravaganza – 2021
This is certainly not your typical fruitcake. This one is SOOOO much better. Fruitcake Upside Down Cake uses fruitcake mix with an extremely moist upside down cake that has a little fruit cake mix in the batter. I thought this cake was sensational! No kidding. Every bite was absolutely drool-worthy.
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Paradise Fruit Company sent me several different mixes and candied fruits to try out. I’ve never been a traditional fruitcake lover. In fact, I don’t like it at all. But I love, love, love the three recipes I made with Paradise’s Extra Fancy Fruitcake Mix and their Old English Fruitcake Mix. The Fruitcake Balls, Holiday Sour Cream Pound Cake (baked in miniature bundt cake pans) and this lovely Fruitcake Upside Down Cake were all top shelf. Truly, we salivated over all of them.
Even people (like me) who don’t do traditional fruit cake, will enjoy this moist and delicious cake. The flavors and texture are just awesome. The key is to make sure you spread this into a large enough cake pan. An eight-inch baking pan simply will not do! You must use a 10-inch tart, cake or cheesecake pan so the cake mixture spreads and doesn’t get too thick. Otherwise, the cake will take too long to bake and becomes dry. Yikes!
If you’re looking for a “knock your socks off” dessert for this holiday season, Fruitcake Upside Down Cake is it! This cake will wow even the most picky dessert eater, and everyone will want to taste a bite. Merry Christmas.
Fruitcake Upside Down Cake is sensational.
This lovely cake has almond flavoring which makes every other flavor that much better.
This cake includes sour cream so it is very, very moist.
Here’s what I did.
I used these ingredients.
Cut parchment paper to fit into a 10-inch tart pan, cake pan, or cheesecake pan. Grease bottom of baking dish, then grease the parchment paper. Spread part of the fruit cake mix into the bottom of the dish.
Over medium heat, bring sugar, vanilla extract and water to a boil. Start a 15-minute timer immediately.
Allow mixture to come to a boil and cook exactly 15 minutes. Do not stir during cooking time.
Ladle mixture quickly and evenly into the dish with the fruit cake mix.
It’s important to spread the mixture evenly over the cake so all the surface area is covered.
Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, add softened butter, eggs, sour cream, sugar, and almond extract.
Beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
In a separate mixing bowl, combine UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour (bleached flour toughens baked goods), salt and baking powder.
Add flour mixture and remaining fruit cake mix to cake batter.
Stir mixture to combine.
Spoon mixture on top of fruitcake mix in baking dish. Spread evenly.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Invert cake immediately onto a serving plate. If any fruitcake mix adheres to the parchment paper, gently remove it with a knife and place back on top of cake.
We really enjoyed how moist this cake turned out.
We gave pieces of this cake to several neighbors and without exception everyone loved it!
We drooled over every bite of Fruitcake Upside Down Cake.
Here’s the recipe.
FRUITCAKE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE
(My own concoction)
Fruitcake Upside Down Cake
Equipment
- 1 10-inch tart pan or round baking dish (nothing smaller)
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 1 wooden spoon
- parchment paper
- 1 small sauce pan
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- 1 medium mixing bowl
- 1 small mixing bowl
Ingredients
- 1/4 lb. unsalted butter softened (1 stick)
- 12 oz. container Paradise extra fancy fruit cake mix divided use
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar divided use
- 2 tsp. real vanilla extract no substitutes
- 1 1/2 cups UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour bleached flour toughens baked goods
- 3/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 tsp. almond extract
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place a 10-inch round cake dish on top of parchment paper.
- Cut a round from the parchment paper that will fit the cake dish.
- Butter the 10-inch round cake dish or tart pan.
- Then butter the parchment paper as well.
- Arrange 8-ounces of the fruitcake mix on the bottom of the cake dish.
- Combine 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and ½ cup water in a small saucepan.
- Cook over medium-high heat until the mixture turns amber, about 15 minutes.
- (Do not stir while the mixture is cooking but you may have to remove from heat occasionally and swirl the mixture).
- Remove from heat immediately.
- Pour caramelized sugar sauce evenly over the fruitcake mix in the cake dish.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
- Set aside.
- In another bowl, beat together the butter and remaining 3/4 cup granulated sugar, eggs, one teaspoon vanilla extract, almond extract and sour cream.
- Stir the egg mixture and remaining fruitcake mix into the flour mixture.
- Spread the batter evenly over the fruitcake mix and caramelized sugar sauce.
- Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until cake is set and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Remove cake from oven and set on a cooling rack.
- Immediately run a knife around the sides to loosen edges.
- Place a platter or large plate on top of the cake.
- Invert the cake onto the platter.
- If any of the fruitcake mix sticks to the pan, lift pieces off carefully.
- Then replace them on top of the cake.
- This should not be refrigerated before serving.
Notes
Fruitcake Mix provided courtesy of Paradise Fruit Company.
© Can’t Stay Out of the Kitchen
Nutrition
Grab a forkful and enjoy!
Fruitcake Upside Down Cake is a sweet lover’s delight.
Even those who don’t care for traditional fruitcake, enjoy this marvelous dessert.
You may also enjoy these delicious recipes!
Fruitcake Cookies
Fruitcake Upside Down Cake
Equipment
- 1 10-inch tart pan or round baking dish (nothing smaller)
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 1 wooden spoon
- parchment paper
- 1 small sauce pan
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- 1 medium mixing bowl
- 1 small mixing bowl
Ingredients
- 1/4 lb. unsalted butter softened (1 stick)
- 12 oz. container Paradise extra fancy fruit cake mix divided use
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar divided use
- 2 tsp. real vanilla extract no substitutes
- 1 1/2 cups UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour bleached flour toughens baked goods
- 3/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 tsp. almond extract
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place a 10-inch round cake dish on top of parchment paper.
- Cut a round from the parchment paper that will fit the cake dish.
- Butter the 10-inch round cake dish or tart pan.
- Then butter the parchment paper as well.
- Arrange 8-ounces of the fruitcake mix on the bottom of the cake dish.
- Combine 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and ½ cup water in a small saucepan.
- Cook over medium-high heat until the mixture turns amber, about 15 minutes.
- (Do not stir while the mixture is cooking but you may have to remove from heat occasionally and swirl the mixture).
- Remove from heat immediately.
- Pour caramelized sugar sauce evenly over the fruitcake mix in the cake dish.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
- Set aside.
- In another bowl, beat together the butter and remaining 3/4 cup granulated sugar, eggs, one teaspoon vanilla extract, almond extract and sour cream.
- Stir the egg mixture and remaining fruitcake mix into the flour mixture.
- Spread the batter evenly over the fruitcake mix and caramelized sugar sauce.
- Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until cake is set and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Remove cake from oven and set on a cooling rack.
- Immediately run a knife around the sides to loosen edges.
- Place a platter or large plate on top of the cake.
- Invert the cake onto the platter.
- If any of the fruitcake mix sticks to the pan, lift pieces off carefully.
- Then replace them on top of the cake.
- This should not be refrigerated before serving.
2 Comments
Karen
April 14, 2023 at 5:06 pm
Baking SODA ingredient did not match baking POWDER in instruction #12.
You did not indicate that the butter was to be SOFTENED, resulting in hard chunks when combining it with the eggs, sour cream, etc., in instruction #14. Made a splattered mess all over the counter. The butter could not blend in that mixture, so it was in chunks when combined with the flour mixture #15. It did, of course, melt in the pan in the oven.
#18 – set on cooling rack. For HOW LONG?
#19 & #20 – immediately when out of the oven? or must it first COOL?
Fortunately, I have lots of cooking experience, and was able to improvise and/or follow my hunches. The cake actually made it through your less than thorough instructions. It tastes good and, of course, looks very pretty.
In its current format, I will not share the recipe until the above deficiencies are corrected.
Teresa Ambra
April 15, 2023 at 4:11 pm
Hi Karen. First of all, thanks for trying the recipe! Unfortunately, some of those issues were explained in the directions (with pictures) but not on the recipe card. Sorry, I’ve made all those corrections. I usually take the cake out of the pan immediately after putting it on a cooling rack (sort of like those old timey pineapple upside down cake recipes.) I have just spent the last few months (hours each day) going through all the recipe cards (since not all the information was transferred from the initial recipe cards I installed when we had an electronic change/update.) I’m still finding weird stuff like baking time of 1 minute instead of one hour! So many of these recipes were given to me (decades ago) with very little direction. I’ve been trying to go back through each individual recipe card (over 1800 recipes) and take another look at them for just the kind of thing you noticed in this recipe. I’m really glad you brought this to my attention because my whole purpose in having this blog is so users can have a great experience. If you ever find another one that seems “off” or incomplete, please feel free to let me know. It is greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoy the Fruitcake Upside Down Cake. We really loved it.