This plum and lemon upside down cake is the perfect easy dessert recipe for summertime entertaining. It’s baked in a cast iron skillet, then topped with an amazing homemade lavender whipped cream. Delicious!
Plums, Lemon, and Lavender
I had a bowl of little yellow and red plums sitting on my counter for almost a week. I gleaned them from a tree down the street from my house, with the owners permission, and I could take as many as I wanted.
They were not quite ripe when I picked them, so I was letting them ripen while trying to decide what I was going to do with them. Eating them fresh was an option, and don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of that happening.
But, I wanted something more (don’t we all?). The problem was that these plums were difficult to pit, so that left out a good number of options, such as plum cobbler, tart, or galette.
I could have done plum jam, as the pits can be sieved out after cooking, but I would have needed a lot more plums to make that worthwhile. So, I thought about it for days before coming up with this yellow plum and lemon upside down cake recipe!
I was listening to a cooking radio program the other day called The Splendid Table, which only super nerdy cooks can appreciate, and there was a woman on the show who was talking about flavored whipped creams. This I needed to try!
Since the plums were a little bit tart already, I decided to add some lemon as well, and we all know that lemon and lavender is a match made in heaven – so lavender infused whipped cream it was!
Plum Upside Down Cake with Lavender Whipped Cream Recipe
I actually had two kinds of plums, yellow and red. The red ones were very much cling stone, meaning the pit would not easily come out. I may decide to go get more of them and make plum jam, but that’s a whole other post.
The yellow ones were what I would call semi-free stone – they came out ok, but not super easily. So, I only had enough patience to do as many as was needed for this cake, rather than the large amount required for a cobbler or crisp.
If anyone has tips for taking pits out of small plums without completely destroying them, please let me know! I think I did alright, though.
Start the Lavender Whipped Cream
Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s talk about this lavender whipped cream, as it needs a bit of advance planning.
The lavender must be steeped in the cream, then chilled for several hours, so I would start this in the morning.
Combine the heavy cream and lavender in a small pot. Heat just to boiling, stirring often, then remove from heat. Let steep until cooled to room temperature.
Strain out lavender flowers and refrigerate cream for several hours, until completely chilled.
Make the Plum Upside Down Cake
Ok, now that you have your infused lavender cream chilling, let’s get back to the plum cake.
Of course you can use any variety of plum that you would like, or any other fruit that your heart desires. If you are using big plums or other bigger fruit like peaches or nectarines, I would cut them into slices or dices, rather than halves.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Liberally grease a 9- or 10- inch cast iron skillet, or other pan of similar size, with half of the butter. Yes, you heard me right, half of the butter. It would be sad if your cake stuck to the pan!
Sprinkle the bottom of the buttered skillet with the brown sugar and lemon zest, then add the plums in a single layer, cut side down.
Whisk together the remaining butter, yogurt, eggs, sugar, and lemon juice. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture, and stir gently to combine. Pour the batter into the skillet, on top of the plums, smoothing and leveling the top.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean. Let cool for only about 5 minutes.
Now it’s time to flip… don’t be scared! Put a plate that is larger than the skillet over the top. Using hot pads (I highly recommend the hot handle holder you see in the picture above), carefully flip the cake over and gently lift the pan off the cake.
This is the moment of truth. But really, all that butter should have helped! It’s common for some of the fruit to stick to the pan. As long as your cake is intact (I’m sure it will be), you can do a bit of fruit repair and no one will ever know.
And just like that you have a gorgeous upside-down cake!
Whip the Lavender Cream & Serve
While the cake is cooling, whip up your lavender whipped cream.
Combine the chilled lavender infused cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a mixer fitted with a whisk, and whip for several minutes until soft peaks form.
You can alternatively make your whipped cream by hand with a whisk or in a mason jar if you don’t have a mixer.
This cake is fairly easy to make, if you can get over the flipping part! I’m always scared to flip it, but I’ve actually never had an upside down cake disaster.
I used to make a pineapple upside down cake in huge pans when I worked in a commercial kitchen, and it took two people to flip! They always came out beautifully, though.
Sit down and enjoy a piece of this delicious plum and lemon upside down cake with lavender whipped cream!
Have you ever made an upside down cake?
Seasonal Farm Fresh Dessert Recipes
Looking to do a little extra baking with fresh, seasonal fruit? Try some more of my favorite recipes!
- Rhubarb Upside Down Cake
- Blood Orange Upside Down Cake with Rosemary
- Skillet Peach & Blackberry Cobbler
- Blueberry Cornmeal Skillet Cake
- Skillet Pear & Blackberry Crisp
Plum Upside Down Cake with Lavender Whipped Cream
Equipment
- Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer for whipping the cream
Ingredients
Lavender Whipped Cream
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 Tbsp dried lavender flowers
- 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Plum Upside Down Cake
- 30 small yellow plums cut in half and pitted
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp lemon zest a microplane makes this job much easier
- 1 cup full fat plain yogurt or buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
Lavender Whipped Cream
- Combine the heavy cream and lavender in a small pot. Heat just to boiling, stirring often, then remove from heat.
- Let steep until cooled to room temperature.
- Strain out lavender flowers and refrigerate cream for several hours, until completely chilled.
- When you are ready to serve the cake, combine the lavender infused cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a mixer fitted with a whisk, and whip for several minutes until soft peaks form.
Plum Upside Down Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C)
- Liberally grease a 9 or 10 inch cast iron skillet, or other pan of similar size, with half of the butter. Yes, you heard me right, half of the butter. It would be sad if your cake stuck to the pan.
- Sprinkle the bottom of the skillet with the brown sugar and lemon zest, then add the plums in a single layer, cut side down.
- Whisk together the remaining butter, yogurt, eggs, sugar, and lemon juice.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture, and stir gently to combine.
- Pour the batter into the skillet, on top of the plums, smoothing and leveling the top.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.
- Let cool for only about 5 minutes.
- Put a plate that is larger than the skillet over the top. Using hot pads, carefully flip the cake over and gently lift the pan off the cake.
- It’s common for some of the fruit to stick to the pan. As long as the cake is intact, you can do a bit of fruit repair and no one will ever know. Serve with the lavender whipped cream.
Notes
- This recipe is loosely based on Plum Rosemary Upside-Down Cake from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman (an awesome cookbook!).
- You can alternatively make the whipped cream by hand with a whisk or in a mason jar if you don’t have a mixer.
What lovely plums!! I grew up on a peach farm in the Southeast and every summer our house was filled with peaches. I mean one year we literally had to fill a bathtub with peaches there were so many. I do not know if this would work for your lovely plums but we would have these big pots of boiling water and pounds of peaches and we would put them in and let them boil a couple minutes- for some reason, not only did the peel come off but they were also very easy to pit. Perhaps that was just the peaches though… Anyway best of luck on your lovely adventures!!!
We had plum trees on our farm when I was growing up. We didn’t know they were Green Gage, so they rotted before we could use them, until dad did some research. We used them a couple years – & then a.blight hit them & they all died! We all have a.lobe for fresh plums now though ;).
I intend to try this soon. It sounds wonderful!
This cake look purely heavenly and the Lavender topping sounds just divine—can’t wait till the plums come in season. Will certainly make it!
Thank you for this recipe!!!!!
Yvonne
You’re welcome, Yvonne! I hope you enjoy the cake!