Blueberry Upside Down Cake with Yogurt Sauce

This happened to be one of the books I bought sight unseen. I had drooled (and bought) Roland Mesnier's other book, "Dessert University," after a visit to my local library. Come to think of it, this was also during the dreaded cake phase I was going through where I felt I had to have cake books. All of them. Now.

Fortunately, my wallet did not agree with the decision to buy all of the available cake books. So, I had to make do for a few weeks while this stage lasted by checking out books at the library. But on impulse, based on my love of "Dessert University" I bought his other book sight unseen over at Amazon. And since this book was the opposite of what I normally go for in cookbooks, I didn't do much with it. We're talking no glossy pages or full color photos. In other words, no visual string pulling on my culinary heartstrings. So I tucked it away on my bookshelf and left it there for a few years. Until I had one of my rare, "I must have cake and bake it myself moments" that inspired me to finally crack this open again and give it a second chance.

As recipes go, this is a slightly complicated simple recipe. There's a minimum of ingredients which is always a plus with a baking technique that I've had very little experience with. But I would still give this a enthusiastic thumbs up for flavor and texture. The cake was very light, with the blueberries playing a big role in providing sweetness. I wasn't terribly fond of the yogurt sauce recommended to go along with the cake and would prefer a lightly sweetened whipped cream instead. It's a cake that would be very easy to overbake (as I did) so start checking your cake early. After a few hours of sitting, the juice from the blueberries will soak into the cake making it very tender and melt in your mouth. I would prefer this as a dessert although the recipe also recommends it for breakfast and brunch. Be warned - it's a dessert/brunch/breakfast with a short life span...it was great the day of, but it had definitely gone slightly stale by the next day.

My only substitution was to use frozen blueberries instead of the fresh recommended which worked out well. I also skipped the step of melting jelly and glazing the berries, mostly for convenience.


Blueberry Upside Down Cake with Yogurt Sauce
From: Roland Mesnier's Basic to Beautiful Cakes 

3 cups blueberries
4 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp all purpose flour
pinch salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups plain yogurt mixed with 1/4 cup honey 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease cake pan. Line bottom with parchment paper and grease paper. Arrange blueberries in even layer on bottom of pan.

Pour 2 inches of water into medium saucepan and bring to bare simmer. Combine eggs and sugar in bowl of stand mixer. Place bowl over simmering water and whisk constantly until egg mixture is lukewarm and reads 86-90 degrees ( I went by touch).

Return bowl to stand mixer with whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed for 5 minutes. Reduce speed to medium and whisk until mixture is cool, thick and creamy, approximately 12 minutes.

Using rubber spatula, fold in flour, salt and vanilla. Pour batter over blueberries, Tap cake pan on counter 4-5 times to eliminate any large air pockets. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, approximately 40 minutes.

Remove cake from oven and let cool in pan 5-10 minutes. Invert onto plate, berry side up. Allow cake to cool completely. Serve with yogurt sauce if desired.