Mike and I don’t really “do” Valentine’s Day. Never have. The most “into it” we ever get is going out to dinner. Usually Mike gets me a grocery store bouquet and I make dinner at home.

This year we were going to do nothing, but then it turned out that Thursday night is the best night to see some friends of ours this week. And so we’re having dinner out with them tomorrow night at the local ale house. Hmmm, fresh made potato chips with ranch dressing…

But, in the spirit of the holiday I swapped out the banner (sorry about the pink). And thought I’d share the Triple Berry Upside Down Cake that I mentioned last week. This comes from Essential Baker, which I got from Rebekah Denn back in December.

Overall it was delicious but could use just a bit of tweaking. I’ve posted it below with my notes about what I changed and what I would do differently next time.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Hope you’ve got someone to share it with, or if not, that you treat yourself to something sweet!

*****

Triple Berry Upside Down Cake
The Essential Baker
Makes 8-10 serving

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. Butter an 8″x8″ cake pan and set aside.

Berry Topping:
- 4 tbs unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup fresh blackberries
- 1-1/2 cup fresh raspberries
- 1-1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Once melted, add the sugar and stir together until well combined. Pour into cake pan. Combine berries in bowl and toss, then add them to the pan and arrange evenly.

Cake:
- 6 tbs unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 extra-large egg, room temp
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup milk

Put the butter in a medium bowl and beat with stand or hand mixer until fluffy (2 minutes). Add the sugars and cream together well. Add the vanilla and egg to the mixture, blend well until smooth. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. Add to butter mixture 1/3 at a time, alternating with milk until all are well combined. The batter should be smooth and creamy. Pour over berries and spread evenly. Bake for 45 minutes until a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

My adjustments and notes.
I used local frozen strawberries, raspberries and blueberries from our freezer. As I had about 1.5 times the berries, I increased the recipe by 50% and used a 10″x14″ pan instead. The original recipe calls for increasing the baking time by 5 minutes if you use frozen berries. It took my cake an extra 35 minutes. I’m not sure if that’s because my berries had a lot of juice, or my pan was too deep. Luckily the cake was delicious anyway - but waiting for it was a killer! Next time I would probably thaw and drain the berries first instead of throwing them in frozen the way the recipe said to. I think a lot of my extra moisture came from the strawberries.

This would be an excellent Valentine’s Day treat if you have berries in your freezer that you need to start using up.