Batter Bakery’s Plum Mesquite Upside-Down Cake With Maple Mascarpone

Makes one 9-inch cake

This cake gets a deeply warm and nutty flavor from the addition of just a couple of tablespoons of mesquite flour (also called mesquite meal), which is made from the dried pods from mesquite trees. Batter Bakery owner Jen Musty alternates the fresh fruit toppings with the seasons. For this shoulder-season version, Musty uses plums, but any kind of stone fruit will work — just look for fruit with beautiful color variation between skin and flesh.

Cake

1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup spelt flour (fine-milled whole wheat flour may be substituted) 2 tablespoons mesquite flour (see Note)

¾ teaspoon baking powder ¾ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature, plus more for greasing cake pan 1 cup muscovado or brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 large eggs 2 cups buttermilk 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 3 to 4 ripe plums, pitted and sliced ¼-inch thick

Maple mascarpone

1 cup mascarpone, softened ½ cup heavy whipping cream ¼ cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste

To make the cake: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare a 9-inch cake pan by greasing it with a thin layer of softened butter. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and butter that as well.

Sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment, combine butter, muscovado sugar and vanilla on low speed. Increase to medium speed and cream until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Incorporate the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl between additions.

Reduce speed to low, then add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk and ending with the flour. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl well, and set aside.

Sprinkle granulated sugar evenly over entire bottom of pan. Fan out the plum slices, forming concentric circles to fill the entire pan.

Top plums with cake batter, and immediately transfer to oven. Bake until cake is just set and a skewer inserted in the center comes out with only moist crumbs, about 50 minutes.

Allow to cool 10 to 15 minutes, then invert onto a cake plate or parchmentlined baking sheet. Peel parchment circle carefully from plums and allow to cool completely.

To make the mascarpone: While cake is cooling, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip the mascarpone. Slowly stream in cream, maple syrup and vanilla, whipping until soft peaks form.

Slice the cooled cake and serve with a generous dollop of mascarpone. Note: Mesquite flour/meal is available online and at some specialtyfoods stores, including Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco. If you can’t find mesquite flour, substitute with 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour.