Cranberry Orange Upside-Down Cake
From All-Creatures.org Vegan Recipe Book: How Mary and Frank and Friends Eat

"We are dedicated to cruelty-free living through a vegan lifestyle. Let no animal suffer or die that we may live!"

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups Spelt Flour or Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup Oat Flour OR Rolled Oats
12 Dates, pitted
2 Oranges, Navel
4-5 Bananas
1-1/2 cups Cranberries
1 tsp. Cinnamon, ground
2 tsp. Baking Powder

(To enlarge the photo of the Cranberry Orange Upside-Down Cake, click on the photo or link)

Preparation

Cranberry orange upside-down cake is quick and easy vegan recipe that can be prepared in about 15 minutes, and can be baked in either a conventional oven at 350 degrees F. for about 25 minutes, or in a microwave oven in 12 minutes at 1000 watts. This cake will make 8 servings, and is great for breakfast, dessert, a snack, and as a special treat for any holiday.

If you don't have oat flour, you can grind rolled oats in a blender or food processor.  Or, if you grind your own grain as we do in our Vita-Mix, you can grind the spelt or wheat and oats together in the dry container. Another option is to just add quick oats to the flour without grinding the oats.

Wash and clean the oranges, cranberries and bananas, peel the oranges, and place them in the container of a high speed blender or food processor, add the cranberries and 6 of the pitted dates, cover and run at medium speed or pulse until all of the fruit is blended together in small pieces. Place the fruit mixture in the bottom of a two quart covered glass baking dish.

Peel the bananas and cut them into pieces.  Place the pieces in the container of a high speed blender (Vita-Mix type).  If you are concerned that the finished volume may be less than 3 cups, you can add another banana after the initial mixing.   Add the remaining 6 pitted dates, cover, and run the blender at high speed until the contents become a smooth puree of 3 cups or a little less in volume.  Additional bananas or water can be added if the volume is less.

Place the flour in a mixing bowl.  Add the cinnamon, and baking powder, and mix together thoroughly.

Add the banana, date puree to the flour in the mixing bowl, and mix together thoroughly but quickly since the baking powder is beginning to react, and carefully transfer the contents of the mixing bowl into the covered baking dish on top of the cranberry orange mixture starting at the perimeter and working toward the center.  Smooth to the edges, cover and place in the oven to bake.  We bake this recipe in our microwave oven in about 12 minutes.

When there are bubbles boiling up the sides of the cranberry orange upside-down cake and the surface is springy to the touch, remove the cake from the oven with pot holders, and lift it up and look to make sure the bottom is cooked; if not, bake for another minute or two, and then let it cool on a wire rack with the cover remaining on the baking dish.

If you wish to serve the cake on a plate when the cranberry orange upside-down cake has cooled, it should be slightly separated from the sides of the baking dish.  Uncover the baking dish and gently run a flat table knife around the edge of the cake to make sure that it has completely separated from the sides of the dish. By gently moving the knife around the edge of the cake and lifting the bottom slightly, you can release the cake from the bottom of the baking dish.

Place a large plate up side down over the top of the baking dish, and holding the plate and baking dish tightly together, turn the baking dish over on top of the plate, and the cranberry orange upside-down cake should fall out onto the plate. (To enlarge the photo of the slice of the cranberry orange upside-down cake, click on the photo or link)

Serve and enjoy!

Ingredients Information

Baking Powder

Bananas

Cinnamon, ground

Cranberries

Dates, Deglet

Oats, Rolled

Oranges, Navel

Spelt

Wheat, Hard Red

Utensils and Equipment Information

Baking Pan, Glass

Bowls, Stainless Steel Mixing

Dish, Glass Baking

Knives

Measuring Cups, Dry

Measuring Spoons

Spoon, Large Mixing

Vita-Mix

Return to: Vegan Recipes

The above recipe is in keeping with God's creation intent (Genesis 1:29-31): 'Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-- everything that has the breath of life in it-- I give every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.' (NIV) Let no animal suffer or die that we may live!