Stewed Fruit Upside Down Cake, Roast Plums & Queijo Fresca - As Served At The Slow Food Feast, Ludlow Food Festival 2025
Cakes, Bakes & Breads; Dessert
Feeds 8-10
Cook Time: 1.5 Hour
Difficulty: Easy
This was the pudding I served at The Slow Food Feast at Ludlow Food Festival. Made up of entirely surplus ingredients from The Shrewsbury Food Hub without any compromise on flavour.
There wasn’t any butter available at the food hub, or regular oils that you might make a cake with, so I had to opt for some dreaded Palm Oil!!!! I had never made a cake with palm oil, had zero idea how it would come out but figured it must be ok if this is what commercial bakeries are using.
A large scale bakery that supplied cakes to the Sainsbury’s bakery stands had shut after Saino’s had shut all their in store ‘bakeries’ - there is around 50kg of palm oil with no home, so I thought I would have a bash at it.
Actually what resulted was fantastic! The palm oil gives it proper stability and structure but also makes the cake super light!
The base cake recipe is a pretty standard and universal cake recipe that can be used for all sorts, not just upside down cakes.
About three months ago we stewed down a load of blackberries and apples at The Shrewsbury Food Hub. These were on their last legs in the freezer so I figured they would make a great upside down base/topping for the cake. This is another part I had never tried before - I was concerned it may be too wet but actually it complimented the stable palm oil cake brilliantly!
You can use fresh sliced apples and blackberries if you prefer but this was a great way to use up some leftover stewed fruits.
I used soft brown sugar as this was all the food hub had available - caster sugar would be fine.
As part of a massive gleaning project, the food hub go out and pick apple, pear and plum trees around this time so the hub is packed with amazing locally grown plums from peoples gardens and orchards.
Roasting fruit is one of my favourite things to do. Let all those juices seep out, add plenty of yummy aromats and you create a beautiful and really universal mix that can go with anything, from cakes to breakfast toppings! Or just stick them in a bowl with some yoghurt and you’re off!
Queijo Fresca was new to me. It’s a Portuguese very soft cream cheese. The texture is somewhere between natural yoghurt and creme fraiche with a really light fresh cheese flavour. You could easily use ricotta, creme fraiche or yoghurt to serve with this. Think light and fresh!
INGREDIENTS:
For The Cake:
200g Palm Oil (or butter or veg/olive/rapeseed oil)
200g Light Soft Brown Sugar (or caster sugar)
200g Self Raising Flour
Pinch of Salt
3 Large Eggs
1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
4 Tbsp Stewed Fruits or fresh fruits, sliced appropriately
1 Tbsp Light Brown Sugar
For The Roast Plums:
6 Plums
2 Tbsp Honey or Maple Syrup
3 Sprigs Rosemary
1 Orange
1 Star Anise
1 Cinnamon Stick
5 Black Peppercorns
To Garnish:
4 Tbsp Queijo Fresca
METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 160C
Melt the palm oil in a saucepan then set aside to cool slightly
Add the sugar and whisk really well until dissolved
Add the eggs and vanilla extract and continue to whisk until the mix is homogenous and emulsified. Keep whisking for around 1-2 minutes after the mix first emulsifies
Fold in the flour and the pinch of salt
Line a 8 inch cake tin or brownie tray with greasproof paper
Spoon the stewed fruits or scatter the fresh fruits over the bottom of the cake tin - remember this will be the top of the cake so work neatly if you can
Scatter 1 Tbsp sugar over the fruits before covering with the cake mix and spread out evenly
Bake in the preheated oven for 45-60 minutes until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake
Remove from the oven and leave to rest in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and leaving to cool
For the roast plums, turn the oven temperature up to 180C
Halve and de-stone the plums and lay them flesh side up on a roasting tray
Drizzle over the honey and scatter the rosemary, star anise, peppercorns and cinnamon stick
Use a vegetable peeler to take the rind off the orange and add to the tray, halve the orange and juice with your hands over the plums. Add the juiced orange halves to the tray before placing in the middle shelf of the oven
Roast for 20-25 minutes until the plums are soft and there is a good amount of roasted plum juice in the tray - set aside
When you are ready to serve, slice the cake, top with a spoon of the Queijo Fresca and a generous amount of roasted plums and their juice
