This idea all started with half a bag of cherries being left in the fridge for too long. They were a day away from being no good, so I saved them from a rotten death and turned them into pretty treats! Sometimes, unplanned recipes have the best outcome. These upside down cherry vanilla almond cakes are living proof!
These are perfect to pop in your mouth when a sugar craving hits. I have yet to try it, but I imagine a dollop of coconut whip on top would make these even more decadent (if that's even possible...)!
You could make this even easier and use a box cake mix, but here's the deal from scratch.
upside down cherry vanilla almond cakes
These sweet treats are bursting with cherries and have a light vanilla cake made with almond flour.
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Servings: dozen
Ingredients
- 1 C all-purpose flour
- ¼ C almond meal/flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 C soy milk
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- ¾ C granulated sugar
- ⅓ C coconut oil, melted
- ½ teaspoon vanilla powder (or inside of ½ a vanilla bean)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 C cherries, pitted & halved
- ¼ C granulated sugar (1 teaspoon per muffin cup)
- ¼ C toasted almond slices
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Combine apple cider vinegar and soy milk together and set aside for 10 minutes to thicken.
- In another bowl combine flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.
- Whisk sugar, coconut oil, vanilla powder, and vanilla extract into the thickened soy milk mixture. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined, being careful not to over mix!
- Prepare a muffin pan by greasing each muffin cup with coconut oil. Place cherry pieces at the bottom of each so there is little space and sprinkle each with 1 teaspoon of sugar.
- Pour cake batter into the muffin cups and bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean from the center.
- Meanwhile, toast the almond slices in a pan on low heat with some sugar (optional) until brown.
- Allow the cakes to cool for at least 15 minutes before turning them out onto a cooling rack upside down. Tap the bottom of the muffin pan with a wooden spoon to loosen. The cakes may not all come out at once. Use a knife to scrape the edge of the cupcake from the muffin pan and gently turn out any cakes that got a little stuck. Sprinkle each cake with almond slices and serve immediately. You can store any leftovers in a container in the fridge and consume within 2 to 3 days.
Chef Dennis
those are some great upside down cupcakes......don't you just love it when things come out like you hope they will!!! I just hold my breath, when I try to turn out anything I bake....
Thanks for sharing!
wannafoodie
So pretty! I love the idea of mini upside down cakes and have been planning one myself (with the abundance of rhubarb that there seems to be already!). Thanks for sharing...
laurentoyota
thanks! Rhubarb sounds yummy. I've never baked with it before. can't wait to see!
james5555
Wow, for having never baked before, you must have some natural talent in the kitchen! Here is a resource for more vegan recipes if you are interested.
Keep up the great work. Your photography is incredible. Love your site/blog!
laurentoyota
thank you, that's very nice! I will check out the raw food repair. I'm wanting to incorporate and experiment with RAW more too.
sheiny68
Made these this afternoon and had a couple of surprises (baking is NOT my forte).
1) When the melted (cooled to room temp) coconut oil hit the (fridge-cold) buttermilk (I used real buttermilk) mucho clumping resulted. Stuck the bowl of wet ingredients into the warming up stove until clumps dissolved. 2) You have to really really oil or butter up those muffin cups! I am now left with all my cakes stuck in the muffin tin and getting them out is a disaster. Good thing this was just a test run and we can gobble them up ourselves. The batter is really good but the result it bit too crumbly and delicate to wedge out of the muffin tin.I think I need to bake mine a bit longer than 20 minutes next time? I cut way back on the sugar and grated some dark Panamanian chocolate onto the cherries just cuz.
Lauren Toyota
Oh goodness! Well yes you have to heavily grease the pan, I guess anyone who bakes regularly just sort of knows that?! And that coconut oil solidifies when cooled so the milk should be room temp. We'll restate that in the instructions! Heating the buttermilk in the warm oven may have altered it's state... bacteria etc. BUT I don't use dairy products so I don't know. The batter is actually quite moist, dense in that it is definitely NOT crumbly and holds together really well if you follow our recipe. So changing our recipe in any way will result in different results.
noa
these are perfect!
i baked them without cherries, but with a biscuit + coconut oil + almond meal for base, and added half of a poaced pear to each little cupcake to resemble almond and pear tart which is the thing i miss most since going vegan... turned out amazing.
and generally, hot for food is amazing. love it. thank you for the inspiration (in life, not just these cakes (: )
Lauren Toyota
thanks so much!
Gillian
Just made these and they are delicious! Super moist and delicate but they stayed together when coming out of the pan. What a great use of cherries!
Kruti
These came out absolutely perfectly! I used almond milk instead of soy which brought out the almond flavor more. Had to cook for an additional 3 minutes in my oven to get it just right. Can't wait to try again, next time with a blueberry/lemon combo or a caramel/pecan combo.
Diana
Hello Lauren,
This recipe sounds delish! Could I bake this for a longer period of time and make a loaf bread instead of cupcakes?
Thank you in advance for your kind reply.
Diana
Lauren Toyota
so this is a pretty soft cake recipe so I'm not sure. It might sink in the middle is what I suspect. If you're going to do this, I would use my recipe for vanilla cake in Vegan Comfort Classics.
Kim
I love this recipe! Easy to make ahead and reheat (aside from the almond topping) and it tastes delicious!