Grapefruit and Tarragon Upside-Down Cake is a creative and delicious dessert that blends the bold and bright citrusy flavors of grapefruit with the aromatic and slightly savory qualities of tarragon. It’s a unique twist on the traditional upside-down cake that’s perfect when everthing seems upside down!
Grapefruit and Tarragon Upside Down Cake
When you feel like the world is turning upside down, there is no better cake to make than an upside down cake. With citrus fruit season beginning, a most beautiful, interesting (in a good way!) cake is the Grapefruit and Tarragon Upside down cake. It combines the bright and tangy flavors of grapefruit with the subtle, slightly anise-like notes of tarragon. The fresh, ruby red grapefruit slices on top of the cake are vibrant in color and taste. This is an unexpected, creative twist on the classic upside down cake.
Making Grapefruit and Tarragon Upside Down Cake
There’s an upside and a downside to everything. The first upside of the Grapefruit and Tarragon Upside Down Cake is that it’s delicious. I actually found an original recipe on Food 52, which is the original Grapefruit & Tarragon Upside-Down Cake.
/b31ed293-6b73-4fd1-a255-0534dae5648e--2022-1206_grapefruit-cornmeal-upsidedown-cake_final_3x2_james-ransom-069.jpg)
The downside is that the recipe is completely glutenous and also calls for cake flour – which is not your traditional all-purpose flour… a big downside. When I modify recipes that are glutenous, it helps if the flour is all-purpose because I find that the Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 blue bag works amazingly well as a replacement.
Not here.
The first iterations of the cake were slightly dry and the center didn’t rise as well as the sides.
You can see that the center didn’t rise as well as the sides. I probably could have pulled out my “bake easy” strips to help the cake rise more uniformly. I might try it in the future and will let you know how it works.
Here are some modifications I made to the Grapefruit and Tarragon Upside Down Cake recipe.
Adding extra sugar to the grapefruit rings
I found that the grapefruit slices were kind of bitter with the amount of sugar that was in the original recipe. I strongly recommend getting a Ruby Red grapefruit and one that’s as sweet as possible.I ended up sprinkling an additional tablespoon of demerara sugar on top of the grapefruit slices before pouring the batter over them and it helped a lot! What also helped was spraying the parchment with nonstick spray before sprinkling the sugar. It helped.
The original Grapefruit and Tarragon Upside Down Cake recipe calls for the zest of a whole grapefruit
Trust me when I tell you that using the zest from a whole grapefruit in this recipe will cause the cake to be super bitter. At least my cakes were. I ended up reducing the amount of grapefruit zest to two tablespoons – and even that was just this close to being too much. It wasn’t…but more would have been overkill.
This is one of the first iterations of the cake using the zest of a whole grapefruit. It’s a lot of zest.
Melting the butter
The new version of the recipe is dairy-free. To try to keep the flavor profile harmonious, I used the Country Crock Olive Oil blend of plant based butter. The original recipe calls for melting the butter, and I melted the plant based butter the first two times I made the recipe. Third time was the charm when I didn’t melt the margarine but let it soften. I liked the texture of the batter way better.
Grapefruit and Tarragon Upside Down Cake perfect with a hot cup of coffee or tea!
Getting the flour blend right
This is where things got a little tricky. The original recipe calls for a blend of cake flour, corn meal and baking powder: “The base here is a mix of gritty cornmeal and tender cake flour, which has the lowest protein content of baking flour at around 6 percent. This means the gluten won’t really develop the same way it would in a bread or cookie, so the finishing crumb is super fluffy and tender.”That didn’t quite happen using a 1:1 substitution.I ended up reducing the corn meal and increasing the baking powder to help the cake rise more. It created a lighter batter and rose better than the first iterations of the cake.Here’s the finished picture of the cake. It was delicious.Really.
Adding this to make everyone feel better about themselves. Sometimes things just don’t turn out the way you want them to…
How much fresh tarragon do you really need to use?
The recipe calls for 1/2 buch of tarragon, de-stemmed and finely chopped.Read: 3 tablespoons.
Debra: Your mother is an evil genius…TARRAGON! (Nod to Dear Husband who actually reads these posts)
I got to use my cool Alaskan Ulu knife that I got last summer (along with Covid). It’s super sharp, so while it may be fantastic for chopping herbs if you’re not careful it is also fantastic for chopping fingers. It might have happened…
Alaskan Ulu Knife. Great for chopping herbs. Super de duper sharp.
Here’s the recipe for Grapefruit and Tarragon Upside Down Cake
I’m currently having some oven issues. I have a thermometer in my oven to correctly guage the temperature, but my baby Wolf was recently diagnosed with a broken circuit board. It’s like a brain tumor for ovens (lihavdil…I know).So, while it works it may not be as accurate as I would like it to be. Given that full disclosure and a lot of Grapefruit and Tarragon Upside Down Cakes later, I’m going to tell you to bake the cake anywhere from 30 – 45 minutes until the center is cooked through (use the toothpick test).
Grapefruit and Tarragon Upside Down Cakes using red and pink grapefruits. The red is way prettier.
Grapefruit and Tarragon Upside Down Cake
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 65 minutes
- Yield: 1 cake 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Gluten Free
- Diet: Kosher
Description
When you feel like the world is turning upside down, there is no better cake to make than an upside down cake. With citrus fruit season beginning, a most beautiful, interesting (in a good way!) cake is the Grapefruit and Tarragon Upside down cake. It combines the bright and tangy flavors of grapefruit with the subtle, slightly anise-like notes of tarragon.
The fresh, ruby red grapefruit slices on top of the cake are vibrant in color and taste. This is an unexpected, creative twist on the classic upside down cake.
This cake is based upon the recipe Grapefruit & Tarragon Upside-Down Cake from Food 52 by Emily Ziemski.
Ingredients
- nonstick spray
- 1 grapefruit, zested then peeled, de-seeded and sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Reserve 2 tablespoons of grapefruit zest
- 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon demerara sugar, divided use
- 1/2 cup plant based butter, room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup gluten free 1:1 flour (I like Bob’s Red Mill blue bag)
- 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons fresh tarragon leaves, finely chopped
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Spray an 8-inch round cake pan with nonstick spray then line the pan with a parchment circle. Lightly spray the parchment with additional nonstick spray.
- Evenly sprinkle 1/3 cup demerara sugar over the parchment.
- Line the cake pan with the grapefruit circles, trying not to overlap. You can fill in the spaces near the outside of the pan with small grapefruit triangles.
- Sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of demerara sugar over the grapefruit. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the margarine, sugar, eggs and vanilla until lightened and fluffy.
- Add the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt and mix until completely blended. Fold in the grapefruit zest and chopped tarragon.
- Carefully pour the batter over the grapefruit, then level with an offset spatula.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean (see note).
- Run a knife around the edge of the cake then allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before inverting onto a cake plate.
- Serve with your favorite tea or coffee.
Equipment
Buy Now → 
Made in Alaska Ulu Alder Wood Chopping Bowl-board Top Slot
Buy Now →
Alaska Ulu Cultured Antler with Etched Alaska Design Stainless Blade
Buy Now →
Alaska Ulu Knife and Chopping Bowl Set
Buy Now →
Microplane Cut Resistant Glove Keep Hands Safe in The Kitchen, One Size (Pack of 1)
Buy Now →
Microplane Elite Series Lemon Zester Tool with Measuring Cup Catcher
Buy Now →
Country Crock Plant Butter with Avocado Oil Sticks
Buy Now →
Microplane Artisan Series Cheese Grater and Zester (Fine, Red)
Buy Now →Notes
You can try making this cake using other citrus fruits like different orange varieties. If using very sweet oranges reduce the sugar by a tablespoon.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 361
- Sugar: 34.2 g
- Sodium: 408.2 mg
- Fat: 12.4 g
- Saturated Fat: 5.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 59.3 g
- Fiber: 1.5 g
- Protein: 3.6 g
- Cholesterol: 46.5 mg
Here’s how I made Grapefruit and Tarragon Upside Down Cake on Instagram @koshereveryday
View this post on Instagram
More Marevelous Cake Recipes
CHECK OUT THE KOSHER EVERYDAY AMAZON INFLUENCER STOREFRONT!
I’m excited to announce the launch of my brand, spankin’ new, Amazon Influencer storefront. The purpose of this store is to share with you all of my favorite tools, ingredients and accessories that I use on Kosher Everyday. If there’s something you’d like to see please let me know and I’ll make sure to add it. I’m updating the storefront all the time. I’ve put together a complete Gluten Free Challah Storefront with everything you need to make fabulous Gluten Free Challah!
You can also find awesome Decorative Serving and Kitchen Items right here.
I’d love to hear what you think!
FOLLOW ME!
Don’t forget to follow Kosher Everyday on Instagram @koshereveryday! and on Facebook You don’t want to miss all the fun and interesting posts and reels that can be found nowhere else!You can find reels showing how to make most of my recipes on Instagram!Also, make sure to tag @koshereveryday when you make Kosher Everyday recipes! I LOVE to see your creations!!!Please note that this post contains affiliate links. Thanks for your ongoing support!
Leave a Reply