Lucy Burdette’s Mango Upside Down Cake

Bestselling author Lucy Burdette writes the popular Key West Food Critic Mystery Series. These mysteries feature a food critic turned amateur sleuth who solves mysteries in sunny Key West, Florida. All of the books in the series include delicious food recipes at the end. Many of these recipes have been compiled into a cookbook called Lucy Burdette's Kitchen: Recipes and Stories from the Key West Food Critic Mysteries.

The following recipe appears in THE MANGO MURDERS, book fifteen in the Key West Food Critic Mystery Series. You can learn more about this series at LucyBurdette.com.

Recipe Note From Author Lucy Burdette

In the fifteenth food critic mystery, it’s May, and that means mango season has arrived in Key West. That means I had to develop lots of mango-themed recipes. This mango upside down cake is a riff on the traditional pineapple and just as delicious.

Mangoes have a weird pit hidden in the middle of the fruit that you must cut around, so your yield may be smaller than expected. I made this cake with one mango, but I could happily have used two.

Mango Upside Down Cake Recipe

You can use a premade crust for this (or make your own, which is crazy easy, but it needs to rest a bit).

Ingredients

• 1-2 mangoes

• 8-9 Maraschino cherries

• 12 Tbsp butter, divided

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 2 Tbsp honey

• 1 and 1/2 cup unbleached flour

• 1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• 2 large eggs

• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch cake pan, bottom and sides. (I used some of the butter above, figuring there's plenty in the recipe already.) Cut a piece of parchment paper to the size of the pan, put it in the bottom, and butter that too.

Peel and cut the mangoes into slices or cubes.

Melt 4 oz of butter in a small pan. Add the honey and brown sugar and heat, stirring until smooth. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and then place the fruit into the pan, in whatever design you choose. Dot with maraschino cherries.

Meanwhile, combine the dry ingredients except for the sugar in one bowl and measure the milk into a glass measuring cup. In another bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla with a mixer until they are light in color. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each. On low speed, add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk until everything is mixed nicely.

Pour the batter over the fruit and bake for about 38-40 minutes until lightly browned or until a test knife comes out clean. Let the cake rest on a rack for an hour. Then run a knife around the edge, place your serving plate over the top, and gently invert the cake onto the platter. Tap the pan to help it along if it doesn’t drop out immediately.

Serve warm or at room temperature.