Beautiful Summery Fruit and Cornmeal Cake

Fall and Winter are my favorite seasons---candied ginger with walnuts is my heaven. But the fruit is so determined though! Apples, pears, citrus. To vary it up, there are the dried fruits and candied fruits...its all the dark I love but I long for the circus of summer!

Because we've had a ten-month winter here, watermelons and corn, tomatoes, cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums, grapes, all exploded in a riot of plenty! I got a case of loose figs! Can you imagine?! Pillow-soft-delicate-easily bruised-figs all dumped in a big box! I was stunned by total wonder at the sight!

At just this right time, I discovered a recipe for an easy and beautiful cake that can be made with any fruit whatsoever. I'll come back to it over and over again, and I'm sure you will too! Happy summer! XOXO

Peach and Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake
marthastewart.com

Serves 8

Butter, softened, 1 stick plus 3 Tbsp
1 C Sugar
3 ripe peaches (about 1 1/4 pounds), pitted and sliced into wedges
1 Cup course yellow cornmeal or polenta
3/4 Cup Flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp chopped fresh lavender (1 1/2 tsp dried)
1 1/4 tsp course salt
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 Cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Melt 3 Tbsp butter in 10 inch skillet (I like a non-stick pan)

Brush butter up sides of pan as it melts

Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar evenly over bottom of pan and cook till sugar starts to bubble and turn golden brown (about 3 minutes)

Arrange fruit on top of sugar, starting on the outside ring, in a pleasing pattern. Reduce heat to low and cook till juices are bubbling and fruit is beginning to soften

Whisk cornmeal, four, baking powder, lavender, and salt in a medium bowl

Beat remaining stick of butter with 3/4 cup sugar with a mixer on high, till pale and fluffy (about 3 minutes)

With mixer on, add eggs one at a time, beating well after additions and scraping sides of bowl often.

Add vanilla and cream, reduce mixer speed and beat in cornmeal mixture in two additions.

Drop spoonfuls of batter over peaches and spread carefully and evenly with an offset spatula.

Bake until golden and tester in the center comes out clean (20-22 minutes)

Set skillet on a rack to stand for 10 minutes. Run a knife or spatula around edges of cake and quickly invert onto a large plate or cutting board. Cool slightly before serving.

NOTE: I increased the cream to 3/4 cup. It spread much more easily and did not change the consistency of the cake...in fact it was more nicely moist.

You can substitute any kind of fruit---I look forward to making this with red pears in the fall.