It took me years to understand upside down cakes. When I first heard the term upside down cake, I had never actually seen one. I must have been about eight years old, and I remember picturing a pineapple cake that was flipped upside down. In my head it was always pineapple upside down cake. I imagined all sorts of scenarios including floating cakes, and cakes with the frosting at the bottom, but the idea of baking a cake and then flipping it to reveal a lush fruit layer never occurred to me.

So when I saw Vegan Yum Yum’s Plum Kuchen I knew it was time to make my own upside down cake.

I went to the local Tesco’s and was delighted to find sweet, juicy blackberries. According to VYY almost any fruit can be substituted for the plums so I dove right in…

This recipe calls for yeast. I’ve never used yeast before (discounting the times when I helped decorate yeasted pizza dough as a little kid) so I was nervous/ excited to try it out. Unfortunately, my dough did not rise that much. Fortunately, I don’t think it matters much with this cake. I will be experimenting more with yeast in the future and will be sure to report back!

Blackberry Upside Down Cake (Adapted from Plum Kuchen of VYY, originally adapted from Gourmet Magazine)

1 Pack Active-Dry Yeast (2 1/4 tsp)

1/4 cup Warm Water

1 3/4 cups Whole Wheat Flour (plus 2 Tbsp for sprinkling)

Pinch Salt

1/2 cup Sugar (plus extra to coat the bottom of the baking pan)

3/4 cup blended Tofu and Soy milk OR Soy Yoghurt

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp Coconut Oil or Butter

2 Packs Fresh Blackberries

1 1/2 tsp Lemon Zest

1. Combine Yeast with Water and set aside until foamy (approx. 10-20 min)

2. In a mixing bowl combine Yeast with Flour, Yoghurt, Sugar, Salt, Zest, and Vanilla.

3. Mix for 5 minutes, adding in Butter one tablespoon at a time. Mix until very shiny and sticky.

4. Sprinkle flour on top of dough (don’t mix in). Set aside to rise for 2 hours, covered with paper towels.

5. After the first rise, mix the dough to combine the flour on top.

6. Grease a cake pan with extra Butter or Oil. Sprinkle the bottom of the pan with enough sugar to lightly coat it.

7. Cover the bottom of the pan with the fruit before pouring the dough on top.

8. Cover with an oiled plastic wrap and let sit for 90 minutes.

9. In a Preheated oven (190º C) bake the cake for 35 minutes, until golden brown.

10. Remove from heat and let sit 10 minutes.

11. Pass a knife around the cake pan before flipping cake onto a cooling rack. Let cool before serving.

12. Devour.

I’ve MOVED  to HTTP://GREENBEANSANDJAM.COM

I will be working on transferring recipes, adding things, etc., etc., but I will also not be updating here anymore. So, if I am on your google reader, etc., please re-add me (or if you are linking to me somewhere on your blog).

I also want to say a big thank you to all my super kind readers and commenters and invite all you lurkers to say hi.

I hope you guys enjoy my story and love feedback.

Berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, kiwiberries)

Grapes

Peaches/ nectarines

Tomatoes

Bananas

Apples (fuji, pink lady, granny smith, honey crisp)

Veggies

Kale

Collards

Yams

Squash

Lettuce/ Arugula

Corn

Other

Kimchee

Tofu

I’m often prone to mindless eating. If I am bored, tired, watching TV, avoiding (studying, etc) then I will eat. It is a coping mechanism, I guess, and sometimes I don’t realize it until I have already eaten my weight in cashew butter, jam and bread….har har…

My problem lies in this: once I start eating (say it’s kimchee), I will have a salty/ garlic taste in my mouth…so then I will eat something sweet (say chocolate, dried bananas and a Larabar) to get the taste out of my mouth….then I will feel sickened by the sweetness and eat something salty….yaddah yaddah…the cycle repeats. Problem is, I don’t often realize it until I am too full to keep eating.

Reading various books on mindful eating has been helpful but in times of stress or when I am simply tired I can easily slip back into this pattern. Thankfully, I am pretty tuned into what my body has to tell me, so I never eat enough to make myself physically sick, but I hate the feeling of being uncomfortably full/ sickened by food.

Do you guys ever fall into these patterns?

If so, what do you do to combat it?

One reason it takes me long to make posts is the pictures: if there isn’t anything “worthy” of taking a picture, I won’t. The reasons I blog include: 1) helping busy people with little equipment 2)sharing fun and tasty vegan recipes 3) venting (sometimes haha). So, when my eats are repetitive or I have blogged about X food already, I usually stave off. So I was wondering: would you guys prefer long blog posts every week or so, or long posts with short what’s-going-on-in-my-life posts interspersed more frequently? I’m pretty ambivalent right now, since I have my journal for personal venting needs, but if you guys are interested I could do a “day in the life” post, or a “Vegan in the school cafeteria” post.

Also, if you guys want to learn anything specific or if you have any ideas for future posts, please tell me. I’m happy for any and all suggestions.

Onto more exciting things: I am going to NYC this weekend. Yay! I will be getting a haircut (long overdue haha), seeing my dad, looking at a few colleges (I’m taking a gap year to all who don’t know), eating at great places (Pure Food and Wine, Peacefood, etc) and just chillin’. Exxxxccccciiiiiittttteeeed. More pictures soon, promise.

Also, there is a Glass Straw Giveaway at Raw on 10. Check it out!

…

No?

It’s a meaty looking pancake!!

It was semi-sweet, crunchy-on-the-outside, gooey on the inside, patty.

I made it using chia meal, So Delicious strawberry coconut kefir, oats, flax meal and mashed bananas. (Basically a cornucopia of strange vegan delights…)

Frying up the batter.

I basically mixed the ingredients and poured the batter onto a pre-heated griddle. Turn the heat on low because these cakes are thick and the middles won’t cook fast enough – if it’s too hot the outsides will burn first.

Then, what’s left but to eat up? It’s truly delicious! Chewy, crunchy, ooey-gooey.

Nom nom nom…

Scarlett O’Hara from Gone with the Wind

My, what big teeth you have…. guess who?

Audrey Hepburn in Charade

I also want to wish everyone a happy Easter. I spent Easter with a friend in Boston – we had a lovely brunch at the Four Seasons (I had the creamiest steel-cut oatmeal with soy milk and sliced bananas and she was ripped off by chose to go with the buffet).

A long recipe-filled post soon.