Cranberry Upside Down Cake

I hosted Mother's Day breakfast this year and I obviously have no regard for the fact that it's Spring.  Besides an incredible egg casserole with biscuits, sausages and fruit salad, I made this amazing Cranberry Upside Down Cake and Sweet Potato Donuts (the donuts will appear in a future blog post).  I suppose my menu would be more appropriate at Thanksgiving.  Ah, whatever...

Back in...the Fall...I found this recipe in Parade Magazine.  Olympic gold-medalist Lindsey Vonn's friend came up with this recipe.  They bakes theirs in a 9" cake pan; I baked mine in a bundt cake pan.  I also glazed mine in the photo where as the cake they show on their link is not. 

I really like how it came out.  Being that cranberries are not in season I used frozen cranberries from Whole Foods.  I also used pecans instead of walnuts because I have a ton of them in the freezer (ya know, because nut go rancid). 

Here's a photo of my work in progress.  I used a scoop to evenly distribute the cake batter.

I would definitely make this again.  I'd probably used the bundt pan again too.  I really like the way the juice from the berries and the glaze seep down the sides of the cake.

Recipe slightly adapted from http://www.dashrecipes.com/recipes/sunday-dinner/cranberry-upside-down-cake-lindsey-vonn.html

Ingredients

• 1½ cups fresh or frozen cranberries
• 2 tbs chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1 tsp grated orange zest (rind)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened, divided
• 1/2 cup packed, dark brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (fat-free is okay)
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar 
• 1 tsp melted butter
• 4 tbs freshly squeezed orange juice, divided

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9-inch square, a 9- or 10-inch round, or bundt baking pan with cooking spray and dust with flour.
2. In a small bowl, combine cranberries, walnuts, and orange rind. In a small saucepan, melt 2 Tbsp butter over medium. Stir in brown sugar, orange juice, and cinnamon. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour into pan. Sprinkle with cranberry mixture.
3. Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl.
4. In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer set on medium, beat granulated sugar and remaining butter until creamy. Add vanilla, egg, buttermilk, and flour mixture. Spoon over cranberries.
5. Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Invert onto a rack to finish cooling. Beat glaze ingredients. Drizzle over cake. Serve.