Apricot Blueberry Upside-Down Cake
From All-Creatures.org Vegan - Vegetarian Recipe Book: How Mary and Frank and Friends Eat

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

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups Spelt OR Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup Oat Flour OR Rolled Oats, quick
6 Dates, pitted
5 Bananas, medium size
1 cup or more Blueberries, wild, frozen
6-8 Apricots, fresh OR 2 cups Apricots, frozen
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon, ground
2 tsp. Baking Powder

(To enlarge the photo of the apricot blueberry upside-down cake, click on the photo or link)

Preparation

This apricot blueberry upside-down cake 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 (if you use frozen and thawed apricots it will extend the baking time a few minutes).

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 whole wheat and oats together in the dry container. Another option is to use quick rolled oats.

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

Peel the bananas, break them into pieces and place the pieces in the container of a high speed blender (Vita-Mix type). If you are concerned that the finished volume may be more than 3 cups, hold back some of the bananas. Add the pitted dates, cover, and run the blender at high speed until the contents become a smooth puree of 3 cups in volume. Additional bananas can be added if the volume is less.

Wash the apricots, cut them in half, and remove the pits. Place the apricot halves, cut side up, in the bottom of the glass baking dish. Or, if you are using frozen apricots that you have stored in your freezer, as we have done, thaw them and place them on the bottom of the baking dish.

Add the frozen wild blueberries to the flour mixture, and mix well making sure that each blueberry is covered with the flour mixture.

Add the banana and date puree and mix together thoroughly but quickly, since the baking powder is beginning to react, and transfer the contents of the mixing bowl into the baking dish. Smooth to the edges, cover and place in the oven to bake. We baked this recipe in our microwave oven in 14 minutes.

When there are bubbles boiling up the sides of the apricot blueberry upside-down cake and the surface is springy to the touch and there is no uncooked dough on the bottom, remove the cake from the oven, and let cool on a wire rack with the cover remaining on the baking dish.

When the apricot blueberry 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 apricot blueberry upside-down 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 apricot blueberry upside-down cake and lifting the bottom slightly, you can release the cake from the bottom of the baking dish.

Place a large plate upside down over the top of the glass baking dish, and holding the plate and baking dish tightly together, turn the baking dish over on top of the plate, and the apricot blueberry upside-down cake should fall out onto the plate. If it does not, slide the plate to the edge of the counter, and gently lift the edge of the baking dish and slide the flat table knife up along the inside edge of the dish and nudge the cake until it falls onto the plate.

Another option is to just cut the apricot blueberry upside-down cake into 8 wedges in the baking dish, and lift out each wedge onto a plate, when desired.

Serve and enjoy!

Ingredients Information

Apricots

Baking Powder

Bananas

Blueberries, Wild

Cinnamon, ground

Dates, Deglet

Oats, Rolled

Spelt

Wheat, Hard White

Utensils and Equipment Information

Bowls, Stainless Steel Mixing

Dish, Glass Baking

Knives

Measuring Cups, Dry

Measuring Cup, Liquid

Measuring Spoons

Spoon, Large Mixing

Vita-Mix

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!